6 hours ago

Professor Sami Franssila is participating in a research project that could, if successful, revolutionise the treatment of coronary thrombosis and brain damage.

You cannot walk into the clean rooms of Micronova with your snowy boots.

'We fabricate nano-scale objects so any undesired particles, including dust, must be smaller than the objects being made,' Sami Franssila, Professor of Microtechnology explains and points at the researchers working in their protective clothing on the other side of the window.

'The floor is vibration isolated and the air conditioning keeps the temperature and humidity between precise limits.'

Accelerating stem cell differentiation

Precision is also required in the large strategic research opening by Tekes which Franssila and his research group are participating in with the University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Central Hospital. The project has an ambitious goal: getting damaged organs to heal themselves. Achieving this goal requires drugs that are targeted at an organ, such as the heart or the brain, using nanotechnology. The drugs then locally enhance the differentiation of stem cells so that the necessary new heart or nerve cells are created.

'The idea is to heal cell damages locally,' Sami Franssila explains.

'One of the greatest challenges is determining the essential chemicals which affect the differentiation of cells. The work requires micro and nanotechnology as we, in collaboration with the University of Helsinki Division of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, have to develop an analysis method that is so sensitive that it can be used to examine extremely small amounts of substance consisting of as few as one thousand molecules. In addition to sensitivity, the method also has to be accurate to counterbalance the natural biological fluctuation of the samples taken from the cells,' Franssila continues.

Ten years of cooperation

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Nanotechnology to help in healing hearts

7 hours ago Blood stem cell cultures: Blood stem cells from colonies (cell clusters) in vitro consisting of different blood cells. Nine blood stem cell colonies are illustrated in the image, which have developed into differentiated cell types, particularly into white blood cells (leukocytes).Credit: Department of Clinical Research of the University of Bern, Tumor-Immunology research group

Researchers in Bern, Germany, have discovered that, during a viral infection, immune cells control the blood stem cells in the bone marrow and therefore also the body's own defences. The findings could allow for new forms of therapy, such as for bone marrow diseases like leukaemia.

During a viral infection, the body needs various defence mechanisms amongst other things, a large number of white blood cells (leukocytes) must be produced in the bone marrow within a short period of time. In the bone marrow, stem cells are responsible for this task: the blood stem cells. In addition to white blood cells, blood stem cells also produce red blood cells and platelets.

The blood stem cells are located in specialized niches in the bone marrow and are surrounded by specialized niche cells. During an infection, the blood stem cells must complete two tasks: they must first recognise that more blood cells have to be produced and, secondly, they must recognise what kind of.

Now, for the first time, researchers at the Department of Medical Oncology at the University of Bern and Bern University Hospital headed by Prof. Adrian Ochsenbein have investigated how the blood stem cells in the bone marrow are regulated by the immune system's so-called T killer cells during a viral infection. As this regulation mechanism mediated by the immune system also plays an important role in other diseases such as leukaemia, these findings could lead to novel therapeutic approaches. The study is being published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Stem Cell today.

T Killer cells trigger defences

One function of T killer cells is to "patrol" in the blood and remove pathogen-infected cells. However, they also interact with the blood stem cells in the bone marrow. The oncologists in Bern were able to show that messenger substances secreted by the T killer cells modulate the niche cells. In turn, the niche cells control the production and also the differentiation of the blood stem cells.

This mechanism is important in order to fight pathogens such as viruses or bacteria. However, various forms of the bone marrow disease leukaemia are caused by a malignant transformation of exactly these blood stem cells. This leads to the formation of so-called leukaemia stem cells. In both cases, the mechanisms are similar: the "good" mechanism regulates healthy blood stem cells during an infection, whilst the "bad" one leads to the multiplication of leukaemia stem cells. This in turn leads to a progression of the leukaemia.

This similarity has already been investigated in a previous project by the same group of researchers. "We hope that this will enable us to better understand and fight infectious diseases as well as bone marrow diseases such as leukaemia," says Carsten Riether from the Department of Clinical Research at the University of Bern and the Department of Medical Oncology at Bern University Hospital and the University of Bern.

Explore further: New discovery on early immune system development

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Immune cells regulate blood stem cells

Supporters of Californias multibillion-dollar stem cell program plan to ask for $5 billion more to bring the fruits of research to patients.

Robert Klein, a leader of the 2004 initiative campaign that established the program, said Thursday hes going to be talking with California voters about the proposal. If the public seems receptive, backers will work to get an initiative on the 2016 ballot to extend funding for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Klein outlined the proposal Thursday at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, during a symposium on how to speed research to patient care.

Since cancer cells and stem cells share some underlying characteristics, CIRM has funded research into those similarities, including the work of Moores Cancer Center researchers David Cheresh and Catriona Jamieson.

Klein said supporters, including researchers, patients and patient advocates need to educate the public about the benefits of funding stem cell research, and the results to date. A former chairman of CIRM, Klein is no longer formally affiliated with the agency but continues to support its work.

No stem cell treatments funded by CIRM have been approved, but patients have benefited in other ways. CIRM-funded research into cancer stem cells led to a clinical trial of a drug that caused remission of a bone marrow cancer in Sandra Dillon, a patient of Jamiesons. Moreover, California has vaulted into prominence in regenerative medicine, and the field has also provided a new growth engine for the states large biotech industry.

Though CIRM has been praised for advancing quality research, it has been criticized for being slow to fund commercialization by life science companies.

In addition, CIRM has been criticized for a lack of transparency and conflicts of interest in how it awards grants. The agency revamped its policies last year to forbid members of its governing oversight committee from voting on proposals to fund research at their own institutions.

California voters set aside $3 billion in bond money for CIRM in 2004 under Proposition 71. The money is expected to run out around 2017, so Klein and other supporters have been preparing to go back to the public. The amount paid back will be $6 billion, including interest over the life of the bonds, Klein noted. So the $5 billion for CIRM would require a $10 billion bond measure.

Can it be done again? Klein asked. If we continue to have the extraordinary results the scientists and research institutes are presenting, as well as the biotech sector.

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$5B initiative proposed for stem cell research

AP/February 20, 2014

BOSTON (AP) The family of a teenager who almost lost a leg in the Boston Marathon bombings has started a fund to explore limb regeneration and the use of stem cells to regrow bones and skin.

Gillian Renys parents started the fund with an undisclosed sum and have formed a team for this years marathon to raise more. The goal is $3 million to fund research intended to help others at risk of amputation.

Reny, as well her parents Audrey Epstein Reny and Steven Reny, havent spoken publicly about their ordeal, but are coming forward now in interviews with The Boston Globe and WCVB-TV to talk about the Gillian Reny Stepping Strong Fund.

Both of Renys legs were injured in the April blast, and doctors were not sure they could save her mangled lower right leg.

I knew from seeing the destruction of my legs that something very serious had happened, Reny said.

Reny was standing near the finish line with her parents to watch her sister complete the race when twin bombs detonated, killing three people and injuring more than 260 others.

Reny, now a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, is still rehabilitating but is able to walk on her own after undergoing several surgeries.

Initially, doctors did not know if Renys leg could be saved, said plastic surgeon Dr. Eric Halvorson.

But Halvorson found that a vital nerve was undamaged, and tests showed that major blood vessels were largely intact. Reny spent several weeks at Brigham & Womens Hospital and within two months recovered enough to attend her graduation from Buckingham Brown & Nichols School on crutches.

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Family of wounded teen marathon victim starts fund

GOING BEYOND SKIN DEEP IN IDENTIFYING GOOD FAT FROM BAD FAT

A*STAR scientists discover a faster way to tell fat cells apart to get down to the skinny of fat towards healthier outcomes

20 February 2014, Singapore - Scientists from A*STARs Singapore Bioimaging Consortium (SBIC) led in the discovery that two little-known fat cell markers have huge potential to assist researchers to further their understanding of fats. The discovery was recently published in prestigious science journal, Stem Cell Reports[1].

Adipose or fat cells are essential for proper body function. Yet, being too fat is detrimental to your health and raises risk of developing metabolic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and hypertension. With worldwide obesity nearly doubling since 1980, there is an urgent need for research into the science of diseases caused by obesity[2].

Fat stem cells are young cells that mature into fully functioning fat cells. The research team looked at two different fat stem cells types: subcutaneous fat found beneath the skin and visceral fat surrounding internal organs. The researchers are able for the first time to tell apart subcutaneous from visceral fat stem cells using specific cell markers.

The researchers looked at 240 different markers present on the surface of fat stem cells and discovered two markers called CD10 and CD200. An imaging technique called High-Content Screening (HCS) was used to spot these markers individually by latching them with florescence tags. What the scientists found was subcutaneous fat contained more CD10 signals while visceral fat exhibited more CD200. By using the different composition of CD10 and CD200 on fat stem cell surface, scientists can use these marking signatures to differentiate subcutaneous from visceral fat.

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:: 20, Feb 2014 :: GOING BEYOND SKIN DEEP IN IDENTIFYING GOOD FAT FROM BAD FAT

By Liisa Vexler

A new age in biology and biotechnology may be upon us as scientists in London, England have successfully created embryonic-type stem cells without the use of actual embryos. By re-engineering mature cells, scientists may be close to overcoming one of the largest ethical debates in stem cell research, the use of human embryos. Though the initial research was conducted with cells from mice, scientists believe the technique could be successful in humans.

Researchers at the University College London were able to generate pluripotent cells from fully developed, or mature cells. Chris Mason, Chair of Regenerative Medicine Bioprocessing at the institution described the process as the most simple, lowest-cost and quickest method to-date. These pluripotent cells have unlimited therapeutic potential as they are able to develop into different cell types.

Mason explained to Reuters, If it works in man, this could be the game changer that ultimately makes a wide range of cell therapies available using the patients own cells as starting material.

Researchers from other institutions including Brigham and Womens Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the RIKENCenter for Developmental Biology in Japan took part in this study.

Scientists performed the experiment by allowing mature cells to multiply and then, using a number of methods, stressing them almost to the point of death. According to the researchers, the cells were able to survive and recover by returning to a state similar to that of an embryonic stem cell.

Stem Cells Defined

Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that have the ability to differentiate into specialized types of cells that the body needs. There are two types of stem cells, embryonic stem cells found in embryos, and adult or IPS stem cells, which are harvested from the blood or skin and genetically reprogrammed into stem cells.

According to scientists, the stem cells ability to regenerate tissue makes them valuable in the fight against degenerative diseases including Parkinsons and cardiovascular disease.

Source: http://www.euronews.com/2014/01/29/stem-cells-produced-without-embryo-in-major-scientific-breakthrough/

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Biologists Create Embryonic-Type Stem Cells Without Embryos

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Severe skin reactions during radiation therapy could be prevented by applying a thin transparent silicone dressing to the skin from the first day of treatment, a clinical trial shows.

Although many skincare products have been tested in clinical trials over the years, until now none have been able to completely prevent severe skin reactions, says senior lecturer Dr Patries Herst of University of Otago Wellingtons Department of Radiation Therapy.

Dr Herst and her team of radiation therapists, oncology nurses and medical physicists have completed five randomised controlled clinical trials in public hospitals in Dunedin, Wellington, Palmerston North and Auckland Radiation Oncology over the past five years, all focusing on side effects caused by radiation therapy.

Their most recent trial was a close collaboration with Dunedin Hospital, and demonstrated it is possible to prevent skin reactions from developing in breast cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy.

Skin reactions are common in these patients, ranging from mild redness to ulceration with symptoms of pain, burning and itchiness, Dr Herst says.

"This can impact negatively on day-to-day life for patients who already have to cope with being diagnosed with and treated for cancer."

She is delighted with the results, and identification of a product that really works.

"This is fantastic news for cancer patients and it has put New Zealand firmly on the world map as a leader in clinical research into radiation-induced acute side effects."

The dressings work by adhering closely to the small folds in the skin without the use of adhesives, so do not stick to open wounds. By protecting the radiation-damaged skin from friction against items of clothing or other parts of the body, they allow the stem cells of the skin to heal from the radiation damage in an undisturbed environment. The dressings are also free of chemicals that could react with the skin.

Dr Herst is currently setting up a trial that will test the dressings in head and neck cancer patients.

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Skin reactions during radiation therapy preventable - research

Steve Connor, The Independent Feb 9, 2014, 02.02PM IST

(Pluripotentstem cells)

LONDON: Human skin cells have been turned into stem cells which have the potential to develop into fully-formed embryos, simply by bathing them in weak citric acid for half an hour, a leading scientist has told The Independent on Sunday.

The demonstration that the technique, which was pioneered on mouse cells, also works on human skin cells raises the prospect of new treatments for incurable illnesses, from Parkinson's to heart disease, based on regenerating diseased organs in situ from a patient's own stem cells.

Although there is no intention to create human embryos from skin cells, scientists believe that it could, theoretically, be possible to do so given that entire mouse embryos have already been effectively created from the re-engineered blood cells of laboratory mice.

Creating the mouse embryos was the final proof the scientists needed to demonstrate that the stem cells were "pluripotent", and so capable of developing into any specialised tissue of an adult animal, including the "germ cells" that make sperm and eggs.

Pluripotent stem cells could usher in a new age of medicine based on regenerating diseased organs or tissues with injections of tissue material engineered from a patient's own skin or blood, which would pose few problems in terms of tissue rejection.

However, the technique also has the potential to be misused for cloning babies, although stem cell scientists believe there are formidable technical, legal and ethical obstacles that would make this effectively impossible.

A team of Japanese and American scientists converted human skin cells into stem cells using the same simple approach that had astonished scientists around the world last month when they announced that they had converted blood cells of mice into stem cells by bathing them in a weak solution of citric acid for 30 minutes.

The scientist who instigated the research programme more than a decade ago said that he now has overwhelming evidence that the same technique can be used to create embryonic-like stem cells from human skin cells.

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The miracle cure: Scientists turn human skin into stem ...

US researchers offer diabetes cure hope

Friday, February 07, 2014

A diabetes cure could be in sight after scientists transformed ordinary skin cells into pancreatic cells producing insulin.

By John von Radowitz

At the end of the process they created immature precursors to pancreatic beta cells, the bodys insulin factory.

When these cells were injected into mice genetically engineered to mimic symptoms of diabetes, the animals blood sugar levels returned to normal.

The US research is a major step forward in the hunt for a stem cell solution to Type 1 diabetes, caused by the bodys own immune system attacking and destroying insulin-making beta cells.

Type 1 diabetes is distinct from the much more common Type 2 version of the disease.

Type 1 diabetes usually strikes in childhood and dooms sufferers to a lifetime of self-administered insulin injections, without which their blood sugar would reach lethal levels.

Earlier attempts at using stem cells to replenish lost pancreatic beta cells have been largely disappointing.

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US researchers offer diabetes cure hope

The Stem Cell Experts
The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine is a program of the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC. The Institute specializes in discovering the potential...

By: Fernanda Torres

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Previously, stem cells have been cultivated using animal proteins or by growing them from other human cells. Both methods come with associated problems. But, according to a study published in the journal Applied Materials & Interfaces, researchers have now identified a new method for cultivating stem cells.

Stem cells are a kind of cell that are able to divide or self-renew indefinitely. This allows the stem cell to generate into a range of different cell types for the organ that they originate from, or they may even be able to regenerate the whole organ.

Because of this, scientists are interested in using stem cells in a range of medical treatments, to replenish damaged tissue in the brain or skin, or as a treatment for diseases of the blood.

In adults, these stem cells have been found in tissues such as the brain, bone marrow, blood, blood vessels, skeletal muscles, skin and liver. Adult stem cells only become "activated" and start dividing and generating new cells when their host tissue becomes damaged by disease or injury.

A more potent kind of stem cell is found in human embryos - this type has the unique ability to grow into any kind of cell in the human body. But using these cells in scientific research is controversial - and illegal in some countries - as harvesting them requires the destruction of a fertilized human egg (a "blastocyst") that has not had the chance to develop into a baby.

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Stem cells cultivated without using human or animal cells

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

6-Feb-2014

Contact: Anne Holden anne.holden@gladstone.ucsf.edu 415-734-2534 Gladstone Institutes

SAN FRANCISCO, CAFebruary 6, 2014A cure for type 1 diabetes has long eluded even the top experts. Not because they do not know what must be donebut because the tools did not exist to do it. But now scientists at the Gladstone Institutes, harnessing the power of regenerative medicine, have developed a technique in animal models that could replenish the very cells destroyed by the disease. The team's findings, published online today in the journal Cell Stem Cell, are an important step towards freeing an entire generation of patients from the life-long injections that characterize this devastating disease.

Type 1 diabetes, which usually manifests during childhood, is caused by the destruction of -cells, a type of cell that normally resides in the pancreas and produces a hormone called insulin. Without insulin, the body's organs have difficulty absorbing sugars, such as glucose, from the blood. Once a death sentence, the disease can now be managed with regular glucose monitoring and insulin injections. A more permanent solution, however, would be to replace the missing -cells. But these cells are hard to come by, so researchers have looked towards stem cell technology as a way to make them.

"The power of regenerative medicine is that it can potentially provide an unlimited source of functional, insulin-producing -cells that can then be transplanted into the patient," said Dr. Ding, who is also a professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), with which Gladstone is affiliated. "But previous attempts to produce large quantities of healthy -cellsand to develop a workable delivery systemhave not been entirely successful. So we took a somewhat different approach."

One of the major challenges to generating large quantities of -cells is that these cells have limited regenerative ability; once they mature it's difficult to make more. So the team decided to go one step backwards in the life cycle of the cell.

The team first collected skin cells, called fibroblasts, from laboratory mice. Then, by treating the fibroblasts with a unique 'cocktail' of molecules and reprogramming factors, they transformed the cells into endoderm-like cells. Endoderm cells are a type of cell found in the early embryo, and which eventually mature into the body's major organsincluding the pancreas.

"Using another chemical cocktail, we then transformed these endoderm-like cells into cells that mimicked early pancreas-like cells, which we called PPLC's," said Gladstone Postdoctoral Scholar Ke Li, PhD, the paper's lead author. "Our initial goal was to see whether we could coax these PPLC's to mature into cells that, like -cells, respond to the correct chemical signals andmost importantlysecrete insulin. And our initial experiments, performed in a petri dish, revealed that they did."

The research team then wanted to see whether the same would occur in live animal models. So they transplanted PPLC's into mice modified to have hyperglycemia (high glucose levels), a key indicator of diabetes.

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Scientists reprogram skin cells into insulin-producing pancreas cells

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5-Feb-2014

Contact: Connie Hughes Connie.Hughes@wolterskluwer.com 646-674-6348 Wolters Kluwer Health

Philadelphia, Pa. (February 4, 2014) - Patients with massive burns causing complete loss of the facial skin pose a difficult challenge for reconstructive surgeons. Now a group of surgeons in China have developed an innovative technique for creating a one-piece skin flap large enough to perform full-face resurfacing, reports The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

Dr. QingFeng Li and colleagues of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine describe their approach to creating "monoblock" flaps for use in extensive face skin resurfacing. In their successful experience with five severely disfigured patients, the full-face tissue flap "provides universally matched skin and near-normal facial contour."

New Technique Grows One-Piece Skin Flaps for Full-Face Resurfacing

Complete destruction of the facial skin and underlying (subcutaneous) tissues presents "the most challenging dilemma" in facial reconstructive surgery. Multiple skin flaps and grafts are needed to provide complete coverage, creating a "patchwork" appearance. Standard skin grafts are also too bulky to provide good reconstruction of the delicate features and expressive movement of the normal facial skin.

To meet these challenges, Dr. Li and colleagues have developed a new technique for creating a single, large skin flap appropriate for use in full-face resurfacing. Their approach starts with "prefabrication" of a flap of the patient's own skin, harvested from another part of the body. The skin flap, along with its carefully preserved blood supply, is allowed to grow for some weeks in a "pocket" created under the patient's skin of the patient's upper chest.

Tissue expandersballoon-like devices gradually filled with saline solutionare used to enlarge the skin flap over time. While skin expansion is a standard technique for creation of skin flaps, Dr. Li and his team used an "overexpansion" approach to create very large flaps of relatively thin skinideal for use in the facial area. In some cases, when the skin flap was growing too thin, stem cells derived from the patients' own bone marrow were used as an aid to tissue expansion.

Using this technique, Dr. Li and colleagues were able to create very large skin flapsup to 30 30 cmfor use in full-face resurfacing. In the new article, they describe their use of their prefabrication/overexpansion technique in five patients with complete loss of the facial skin, caused by flame or chemical burns. All patients had previously undergone facial reconstruction, but were left with severe deformity and limited facial movement.

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Innovative technique creates large skin flaps for full-face resurfacing

As one of the follically-challenged, any new breakthroughs in the area of hair regeneration will generally get my attention. When stem cells first started to gain widespread media attention I, no doubt like many others, thought a full head of hair was just around the corner. But despite numerous developments, years later my dome is still of the chrome variety. Providing the latest cause for cautious optimism, researchers have now developed a way to generate a large number number of hair-follicle-generating stem cells from adult cells.

In what they claim is a world first, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and the New Jersey Institute of Technology have developed a technique to convert adult human stem cells into epithelial stem cells (EpSCs).

By adding three genes to human skin cells called dermal fibroblasts that live in the dermis layer of the skin and generate connective tissue, a team led by Xiaowei "George" Xu, MD, PhD, at the Perelman School of Medicine was able to convert them into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The iPSCs, which have the ability to differentiate into any cell type, were then converted into epithelial stem cells (EpSCs) that are normally found at the bulge of hair follicles.

Through careful control of the timing of delivery of growth factors to the cells, the researchers say they were able to turn over 25 percent of the iPSCs into EpSCs in 18 days. When they then mixed these EpSCs with mouse follicular inductive dermal cells and grafted them onto the skin of immunodeficient mice, functional human epidermis and follicles similar to hair follicles were produced.

"This is the first time anyone has made scalable amounts of epithelial stem cells that are capable of generating the epithelial component of hair follicles, said Xu, who added that these cells have many potential applications, including wound healing, cosmetics, and hair regeneration.

But some hurdles still need to be jumped before I make my first trip to the hairdresser in a decade. Xu points out that when a person loses hair, they lose not only epithelial cells, but also a kind of adult stem cell called dermal papillae. "We have solved one major problem, the epithelial component of the hair follicle. We need to figure out a way to also make new dermal papillae cells, and no one has figured that part out yet."

On a positive note, researchers from the Tokyo University of Science have reported promising results in reconstructing hair follicle germs from adult epithelial stem cells and cultured dermal papilla cells, so even though we haven't rounded the corner yet,it definitely seems to be getting closer.

The teams research is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Source: University of Pennsylvania

Original post:
Stem cell-based treatment for baldness a step closer

There are exciting developments in the field of stem cell research which could make the whole thing cheaper, easier, and much quicker. According to a Jan. 29 report on BBC News, scientists have discovered that skin cells can become stem cells when they are dipped in acid, lowering the PH balance of the cell.

Stem cells can adapt to become almost any organ in the body, while other cells in the body have a particular purpose, such as liver or heart. So, by bypassing such controversial methods as the use of embryonic stem cells, the near future could hold a much faster, more personalized use of stem cells in many areas of medicine.

These initial findings have been compiled with research from mice, and the research is now being carried over into the human realm. While the new findings have a way to go before being directly beneficial to patients, once the stem cell research therapies are established, these new findings will make it much more accessible.

You can read more about the basic science of stem cell research on Medical News Today.

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Scientists discover how to change skin cells to stem cells ...

Few medical discoveries have held the great promise of stem cells to regenerate nerves, organs and tissue damaged by disease, heredity or injury. Basically, the stem cells could replicate any other cell in the body, offering immense hope that were still anxiously waiting to be realized of curing Alzheimers, making damaged spinal cords whole, treating kidney, liver and lung disease and making damaged hearts whole.

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EDITORIAL: Stem-cell discovery addresses ethical issues

BOSTON, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Scientists have stumbled upon a simple way to create stem cells without embryos -- by bathing healthy adult cells in an acid bath for 30 minutes.

A team of researchers from Boston and Japan were able to transform mature blood cells from mice into the equivalent of stem cells by introducing them to an acidic environment. This is the first time that stem cells have been created without having to introduce outside DNA into the cells.

"The fate of adult cells can be drastically converted by exposing mature cells to an external stress or injury. This finding has the potential to reduce the need to utilize both embryonic stem cells and DNA-manipulated iPS cells," said senior author Charles Vacanti.

The latest development, published in the journal Nature, could be used to create stems cells easily and quickly. Stem cells are known to become other kinds of cells, and have the potential to regenerate injured parts of the body. Embryos are a controversial source of such cells, though more are under study, including Nobel-winning research in 2006 that showed skin cells could be genetically reprogrammed to become stem cells.

The researchers aren't sure how this happens, but have hypothesized that it could be due to hidden cell functions that are triggered by external stimuli.

Researchers are now attempting to use the same method to convert human blood cells and believe that if successful it could be used in not only regenerative treatment but cancer treatment as well.

"If we can work out the mechanisms by which differentiation states are maintained and lost, it could open up a wide range of possibilities for new research and applications using living cells," said first author Haruko Obokata, of the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology.

[Brigham and Women's Hospital] [RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology] [Nature]

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Scientists find faster, easier way to create stem cells

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they used epithelial stem cells to regenerate different cell types of human skin and hair follicles that may help those going bald.

Dr. Xiaowei "George" Xu, associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and dermatology at the Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, said they started with human skin cells called dermal fibroblasts.

By adding three genes, they converted those cells into induced pluripotent stem cells, which have the capability to differentiate into any cell types in the body. They then converted the induced pluripotent stem cells into epithelial stem cells, normally found at the bulge of hair follicles.

Starting with procedures other research teams had previously worked out to convert induced pluripotent stem cells into keratinocytes, Xu's team demonstrated that by carefully controlling the timing of the growth factors the cells received, they could force the induced pluripotent stem cells to generate large numbers of epithelial stem cells.

The team succeeded in turning more than 25 percent of the induced pluripotent stem cells into epithelial stem cells in 18 days.

Those cells were then purified using the proteins they expressed on their surfaces.

"This is the first time anyone has made scalable amounts of epithelial stem cells that are capable of generating the epithelial component of hair follicles," Xu said in a statement. "And those cells have many potential applications including wound healing, cosmetics and hair regeneration."

The findings were published in Nature Communications.

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Hair-follicle generating stem cells may help with baldness

WASHINGTON: In a breakthrough, scientists claim to have successfully transformed human skin cells into hair-follicle-generating stem cells for the first time.

Xiaowei "George" Xu from the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues have found a method for converting adult cells into epithelial stem cells (EpSCs), the first time anyone has achieved this in either humans or mice.

The epithelial stem cells, when implanted into immunocompromised mice, regenerated the different cell types of human skin and hair follicles, and even produced structurally recognizable hair shaft, raising the possibility that they may eventually enable hair regeneration in people.

Xu and his team started with human skin cells called dermal fibroblasts. By adding three genes, they converted those cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which have the capability to differentiate into any cell types in the body. They then converted the iPS cells into epithelial stem cells, normally found at the bulge of hair follicles.

The team demonstrated that by carefully controlling the timing of the growth factors the cells received, they could force the iPSCs to generate large numbers of epithelial stem cells.

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Human skin cells help regrow hair in mice