Stem Cell Therapy For Hair – Stem Cell Therapy For Hair Loss – Video
By Sykes24Tracey
Stem Cell Therapy For Hair - Stem Cell Therapy For Hair Loss
Stem Cell Therapy For Hair - Stem Cell Therapy For Hair Loss http://goo.gl/4AKoXG Drained of staring at your balding pate every single morning? Seeking helpful and trusted means of eliminating...
By: Amit Kumar
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Stem Cell Therapy For Hair - Stem Cell Therapy For Hair Loss - Video
Barcoding tool for stem cells: New technology that tracks the origin of blood cells challenges scientific dogma
By LizaAVILA
3 hours ago New genetic barcoding technology allows scientists to identify differences in origin between individual blood cells. Credit: Camargo Lab
A 7-year-project to develop a barcoding and tracking system for tissue stem cells has revealed previously unrecognized features of normal blood production: New data from Harvard Stem Cell Institute scientists at Boston Children's Hospital suggests, surprisingly, that the billions of blood cells that we produce each day are made not by blood stem cells, but rather their less pluripotent descendants, called progenitor cells. The researchers hypothesize that blood comes from stable populations of different long-lived progenitor cells that are responsible for giving rise to specific blood cell types, while blood stem cells likely act as essential reserves.
The work, supported by a National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award and published in Nature, suggests that progenitor cells could potentially be just as valuable as blood stem cells for blood regeneration therapies.
This new research challenges what textbooks have long read: That blood stem cells maintain the day-to-day renewal of blood, a conclusion drawn from their importance in re-establishing blood cell populations after bone marrow transplantsa fact that still remains true. But because of a lack of tools to study how blood forms in a normal context, nobody had been able to track the origin of blood cells without doing a transplant.
Boston Children's Hospital scientist Fernando Camargo, PhD, and his postdoctoral fellow Jianlong Sun, PhD, addressed this problem with a tool that generates a unique barcode in the DNA of all blood stem cells and their progenitor cells in a mouse. When a tagged cell divides, all of its descendant cells possess the same barcode. This biological inventory system makes it possible to determine the number of stem cells/progenitors being used to make blood and how long they live, as well as answer fundamental questions about where individual blood cells come from.
"There's never been such a robust experimental method that could allow people to look at lineage relationships between mature cell types in the body without doing transplantation," Sun said. "One of the major directions we can now go is to revisit the entire blood cell hierarchy and see how the current knowledge holds true when we use this internal labeling system."
"People have tried using viruses to tag blood cells in the past, but the cells needed to be taken out of the body, infected, and re-transplanted, which raised a number of issues," said Camargo, who is a member of Children's Stem Cell Program and an associate professor in Harvard University's Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. "I wanted to figure out a way to label blood cells inside of the body, and the best idea I had was to use mobile genetic elements called transposons."
A transposon is a piece of genetic code that can jump to a random point in DNA when exposed to an enzyme called transposase. Camargo's approach works using transgenic mice that possess a single fish-derived transposon in all of their blood cells. When one of these mice is exposed to transposase, each of its blood cells' transposons changes location. The location in the DNA where a transposon moves acts as an individual cell's barcode, so that if the mouse's blood is taken a few months later, any cells with the same transposon location can be linked back to its parent cell.
The transposon barcode system took Camargo and Sun seven years to develop, and was one of Camargo's first projects when he opened his own lab at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research directly out of grad school. Sun joined the project after three years of setbacks, and accomplished an experimental tour de force to reach the conclusions in the Nature paper, which includes data on how many stem cells or progenitor cells contribute to the formation of immune cells in mouse blood.
With the original question of how blood arises in a non-transplant context answered, the researchers are now planning to explore many more applications for their barcode tool.
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Barcoding tool for stem cells: New technology that tracks the origin of blood cells challenges scientific dogma
Cookie – 9 Year Old Lab – Before Stem Cell Therapy – Video
By JoanneRUSSELL25
Cookie - 9 Year Old Lab - Before Stem Cell Therapy
Watch the amazing after video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRPO4OHKKlA.
By: Newman Veterinary Centers
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Cookie - 9 Year Old Lab - Before Stem Cell Therapy - Video
Cookie – 14 Days After Stem Cell Therapy – Video
By raymumme
Cookie - 14 Days After Stem Cell Therapy
We have a 96% success rate with stem cell therapy. Every case is different, this is one of the more dramatic improvements we #39;ve seen, but it #39;s not uncommon for pets to completely regain the...
By: Newman Veterinary Centers
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Cookie - 14 Days After Stem Cell Therapy - Video
Stem cell therapy of a dog in the Netherlands. – Video
By LizaAVILA
Stem cell therapy of a dog in the Netherlands.
One a half years later he is juming and playing after first almost not being able not walk anymore. info@fat-stem.com.
By: Fat Stem NV
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Stem cell therapy of a dog in the Netherlands. - Video
Dr. Raj Live – Stem Cell Therapy – Video
By daniellenierenberg
Dr. Raj Live - Stem Cell Therapy
Dr. Raj discusses benefits of stem cell therapy.
By: SPORTSDOC RAJ
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Dr. Raj Live - Stem Cell Therapy - Video
Gold Nanoparticles Used to Improve Cardiac Patches
By daniellenierenberg
Category: Science & Technology Posted: October 3, 2014 01:55PM Author: Guest_Jim_*
Heart attacks are pretty serious and something very hard to recover from, in part because heart cells do not multiply and there are few cardiac muscle stem cells to repair the damage. Cardiac patches have been created to replace damaged cells, but because of how they are made, these patches can cause their own health problems. Researchers at Tel Aviv University have recently developed a new hybrid patch that could address those problems.
Traditionally the patches are made by growing cardiac tissue on a collagen scaffold from pig hearts. One of the problems with this approach is the potential for antigens that will trigger an immune response, causing the patient's body to attack the patch. To get around this the researchers instead harvest fatty tissue from the patient's stomach, as the body will not attack its own cells. This left an issue with connectivity, as the cells in the patch must respond to the electrical signals of the heart, and engineered patches do not immediately form the necessary connections. The solution the researchers tried was to deposit gold nanoparticles onto the cardiac tissue, providing the needed conductivity.
So far the nonimmunogenic hybrid patch has shown itself to transfer electrical signals faster and more efficiently than scaffolds without the gold nanoparticles, when tested in animals. The next step for the technology is to test it in larger animals, and eventually perform clinical trials.
Source: American Friends of Tel Aviv University
Unknown donor helps Struthers woman through cancer battle
By LizaAVILA
Published: Sat, October 4, 2014 @ 12:09 a.m.
By EMMALEE C. TORISK
STRUTHERS
Missy Ginnetti began to tear up as she re-read a typed letter from her bone-marrow donor.
Sitting at her kitchen table, with her husband, Mahoning County Engineer Pat Ginnetti, across from her, Missy explained that she doesnt know anything specific a name, an occupation, a city of residence about her donor. In fact, any bits of potentially revealing information, no matter how seemingly minute or insignificant, were blacked out of the letter.
What wasnt, however, was her donors closing: Sincerely, The other part of your marrow.
I wrote back, Dear All of my marrow, Missy said, laughing.
Its true. Within 30 days of her allogeneic stem-cell transplant in late March, Missys body had accepted 100 percent of the donor cells something that often doesnt happen for up to a year afterward.
Now, more than four years after Missys initial diagnosis of stage 3 Hodgkin lymphoma, life for the Ginnettis is beginning to move closer to normal once again. The next big thing, she said, is undergoing tests and scans within the next couple of weeks that will reveal whether cancer cells [are] showing up anywhere.
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Unknown donor helps Struthers woman through cancer battle
Stem Cell Therapy Walkthrough – Watch This Before Calling Or Scheduling – Video
By LizaAVILA
Stem Cell Therapy Walkthrough - Watch This Before Calling Or Scheduling
http://www.innovationsstemcellcenter.com Call: 214.420.7970 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/innovationsmedical Twitter: https://twitter.com/dallasdrj Instagram: http://instagram.com/drbilljo...
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Stem Cell Therapy Walkthrough - Watch This Before Calling Or Scheduling - Video
Stem-Cell Therapy and Repair after Heart Attack and Heart …
By raymumme
Stem Cell Therapy: Helping the Body Heal Itself
Stem cells are natures own transformers. When the body is injured, stem cells travel the scene of the accident. Some come from the bone marrow, a modest number of others, from the heart itself. Additionally, theyre not all the same. There, they may help heal damaged tissue. They do this by secreting local hormones to rescue damaged heart cells and occasionally turning into heart muscle cells themselves. Stem cells do a fairly good job. But they could do better for some reason, the heart stops signaling for heart cells after only a week or so after the damage has occurred, leaving the repair job mostly undone. The partially repaired tissue becomes a burden to the heart, forcing it to work harder and less efficiently, leading to heart failure.
Initial research used a patients own stem cells, derived from the bone marrow, mainly because they were readily available and had worked in animal studies. Careful study revealed only a very modest benefit, so researchers have moved on to evaluate more promising approaches, including:
No matter what you may read, stem cell therapy for damaged hearts has yet to be proven fully safe and beneficial. It is important to know that many patients are not receiving the most current and optimal therapies available for their heart failure. If you have heart failure, and wondering about treatment options, an evaluation or a second opinion at a Center of Excellence can be worthwhile.
Randomized clinical trials evaluating these different approaches typically allow enrollment of only a few patients from each hospital, and hence what may be available at the Cleveland Clinic varies from time to time. To inquire about current trials, please call 866-289-6911 and speak to our Resource Nurses.
Cleveland Clinic is a large referral center for advanced heart disease and heart failure we offer a wide range of therapies including medications, devices and surgery. Patients will be evaluated for the treatments that best address their condition. Whether patients meet the criteria for stem cell therapy or not, they will be offered the most advanced array of treatment options.
Allogenic: from one person to another (for example: organ transplant)
Autogenic: use of one's own tissue
Myoblasts: immature muscle cells, may be able to change into functioning heart muscle cells
Stem Cells: cells that have the ability to reproduce, generate new cells, and send signals to promote healing
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Stem-Cell Therapy and Repair after Heart Attack and Heart ...
Okyanos Presents the Science, Safety, and Efficacy of Adult Stem Cell Therapy
By raymumme
Freeport, Grand Bahama (PRWEB) October 02, 2014
Dr. Todd K. Malan, M.D., presented to the Grand Bahama Medical & Dental Association 14th Annual Scientific Educational Conference on the science, safety and efficacy of adipose- (fat) derived stem and regenerative cells (ADRCs) for ischemic heart disease and other unmet healthcare needs.
"It was an honor to participate in this conference with medical leadership that values this technology and works so tirelessly to serve the people of Grand Bahama," said Dr. Todd Malan." It is an opportunity for us to work closely with local doctors to improve the quality and standards of care for all patients."
Dr. Malan explained the interrelationship between tissue ischemia, inflammation, autoimmune response and cell death and how ADRCs have combined mechanisms known to assist in repairing multi-factorial illnesses associated with those issues.
According to Malan,The procedure begins with the extraction of a persons body fat, a process done using advanced water-assisted liposuction technology. The persons own adult stem cells are then separated from the fat tissue using a European Union-approved cell processing device."
Immediately following this, the cardiologist injects these cells into and around the low blood flow regions of the heart via a cathetera protocol which allows for better targeting of the cells to repair damaged heart tissue.
Adult stem cell therapy for heart disease is emerging as a new alternative for patients with severe heart conditions who want to live a normal life but are restricted in activities they can no longer do.
"As a leader in providing cell therapy, Okyanos is very excited to bring this innovative treatment to patients in a near-shore, regulated jurisdiction with a new standard of care, said Matt Feshbach, CEO of Okyanos. We welcome the opportunity to help those patients with limited options a chance to live a normal life.
Offering this minimally invasive adult stem cell treatment in their new cardiac catherization lab, Okyanos is scheduled to open in October in Freeport, Grand Bahama.
About Okyanos Heart Institute: (Oh key AH nos)
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Okyanos Presents the Science, Safety, and Efficacy of Adult Stem Cell Therapy
Embryonic stem cells to tackle major killer diseases
By JoanneRUSSELL25
Stem cells are getting serious. Two decades after they were discovered, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are being tested as a treatment for two major diseases: heart failure and type 1 diabetes.
Treatments based on hESCs have been slow coming because of controversy over their source and fears that they could turn into tumours once implanted. They have enormous potential because hESCs can be grown into any of the body's 200 tissue types, unlike the stems cells isolated from adult tissues that have mostly been used in treatments until now.
In the most rigorous test of embryonic stems cells' potential yet, six people with heart failure will be treated in France with a patch of immature heart cells made from hESCs, and 40 people with diabetes in the US will receive pouches containing immature pancreatic cells made from hESCs.
The hope is that the heart patch will help to regenerate heart muscle destroyed by heart attacks. Trials in monkeys showed that the patch could regenerate up to 20 per cent of the lost muscle within two months.
The pancreatic cells are supposed to mature into beta cells, which produce the hormone insulin. These would act as a substitute for the cells that are destroyed by the immune systems of people with type 1 diabetes.
Although treatments based on hESCs have already been given to people with a type of age-related blindness and with spinal paralysis, the latest trials are the therapy's first foray into major fatal diseases. Heart disease is the biggest killer in the world, and cases of type 1 diabetes are growing.
"Both are landmark studies, and are different from what we've had up to now," says Chris Mason, head of regenerative medicine at University College London. "The blindness already being treated is serious, but diabetes and heart failure are killers, and things we don't have solutions for, so this brings hESCs into the mainstream."
Some people with heart disease and diabetes have received experimental treatments based on stem cells isolated from adult tissue, often from bone marrow, with varying degrees of success. These mesenchymal stem cells, or MSCs, can mature into several tissues including muscle, bone, cartilage and fat but there is no guarantee that they will grow into cardiac muscle.
A recent review of 23 trials involving 1255 people with heart disease found that there is some evidence that recipients of stem cell therapy are less likely to die or be readmitted to hospital a year or more after treatment than people who received standard treatment.
The hope is that using hESCs in place of MSCs will improve these outcomes further because they can be grown from scratch into cells exactly suited to their medical purpose. "We think our cells are more committed to the heart lineage," says Philippe Menasch, head of the French trial at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris.
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Embryonic stem cells to tackle major killer diseases
Plant stem cells may help skin look younger, healthier
By LizaAVILA
HOUSTON -
Stem cells, the body's so called "master cells," are used to treat heart disease and cancer and to grow tissue. But plants also have stem cells and they're some of the hottest ingredients in anti-aging products.
Andrea Vizcaino, 49, is trying out a new phyto-facial that comes in the form of a freeze dried serum in a vial. One of the main ingredients is stem cells from the argon tree in Morocco. She described the procedure.
"It feels warm, especially around my chin and it feels good," said Vizcaino. "Very hydrating; the skin feels moist."
Apple, echinacea and grape stem cells are already used in many skin care products, but some scientists think the argon tree cells will penetrate even deeper.
"The plant stem cells stimulate our stem cells to regenerate the skin," said skin care specialist Candy Bonura.
Allenby agrees the new products can be hydrating, but said the jury is still out about the real effectiveness of plant stem cells.
"Stem cells are kind of the buzz word right now, but we have to remember that stem cells are different in plants and different in people," Allenby said.
Bonura acknowledged these new products won't take years off your face, but many clients do see a difference.
"I see a brightening, I see a hydration, I also see the skin is more supple looking and more youthful with a glow to it," Bonura said.
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Plant stem cells may help skin look younger, healthier
Grafted Stem Cells Display Vigorous Growth in Spinal Cord Injury Model
By NEVAGiles23
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Newswise NIBIB-funded researchers report in a recent study that they were able to use human stem cells to grow brand new nerves in a rat model of spinal cord injury. The neurons grew tens of thousands of axons that extended the entire length of the spinal cord, out from the area of injury. The procedure employs induced pluripotent stem cells or iPSCs, which are stem cells that can be driven to become a specific cell type -- in this case nerve cells-- to repair an experimentally damaged spinal cord. The iPSCs were made using the skin cells of an 86 year old male, demonstrating that even in an individual of advanced age, the ability of the cells to be turned into a different cell type (pluripotency) remained.
Lead author Paul Lu, Ph.D., and senior author Mark Tuszynski, MD, PhD, and their team at the University of California - San Diego Center for Neural Repair, performed the experiment building on earlier work using human embryonic stem cells in a similar rat spinal cord injury model.1 The current work, described in the August 20 edition of Neuron, was performed to determine whether iPSCs could be used for spinal cord repair.2
The group is interested in using iPSCs to develop a potential repair for spinal cord injury (SCI) because with iPSCs, they can use cells taken from the person with the injury, rather than use donated cells such as human embryonic stem cells, which are foreign to the patient. This is an important advantage because it avoids any immune rejection that could occur with foreign repair cells.
In the current work, the iPSC-derived human neurons were embedded in a matrix that included a cocktail of growth factors, which was grafted onto the experimentally injured spinal cord in the rat model. After three months the researchers observed extensive axonal growth projecting from the grafted neurons, reaching long distances in both directions along the spinal cord, from the brain to the tail end of the spinal cord. The axons appeared to make connections with the existing rat neurons. Importantly, the axons extended out from the site of injury, an area with a complex combination of post-injury factors and processes going on, some of which are known to hinder neuronal growth and axon extension.
In the earlier study, Tuszynski and colleagues used human embryonic stem cells in a similar grafting experiment. In that study, axons grew out from the site of spinal cord injury and the treated animals had some restoration of ability to move affected limbs. The current study was undertaken to see if the same result could be achieved using the iPSC method to create the neurons used in the graft. While the use of iPSCs in the current study resulted in dramatic growth of the grafted neurons across the central nervous system of the rats, the treated animals did not show restoration of function in their forelimbs (hands). The researchers note that the human cells were still at a fairly early stage of development when function was tested, and that more time will likely be needed to be able to detect functional improvement.
Tuszynski went on to state, There are several important considerations that future studies will address. These include whether the extensive number of human axons make correct or incorrect connections; whether the new connections contain the appropriate chemical neurotransmitters to form functional connections; whether connections, once formed, are permanent or transient; and exactly how long it takes human cells to become mature. These considerations will determine how viable a candidate these cells might be for use in humans.
Lu, Tuszynski and their colleagues hope to identify the most promising neural stem cell type for repairing spinal cord injuries. Tuszynski emphasizes their commitment to a careful, methodical approach: Ultimately, we can only translate our animal studies into reliable human treatments by testing different neural stem cell types, carefully analyzing the results, and improving the procedure. We are encouraged, but we continue to work hard to rationally to identify the optimal cell type and procedural methods that can be safely and effectively used for human clinical trials.
1. Long-distance growth and connectivity of neural stem cells after severe spinal cord injury. Lu P, Wang Y, Graham L, McHale K, Gao M, Wu D, Brock J, Blesch A, Rosenzweig ES, Havton LA, Zheng B, Conner JM, Marsala M, Tuszynski MH. Cell. 2012 Sep 14;150(6):1264-73
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Grafted Stem Cells Display Vigorous Growth in Spinal Cord Injury Model
Stem Cell Therapy for Hair Growth – Video
By daniellenierenberg
Stem Cell Therapy for Hair Growth
Award winning dr devesh clinic is pioneer in stem cell hair restoration in india. visit @ http://www.drdevesh.in http://www.hairtransplantsdelhi.in facebook page- prp hair india http://www.fb.com/biofuehairtransplant.
By: dr.devesh aggarwal
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Stem Cell Therapy for Hair Growth - Video
The Goal of Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy at Okyanos – Video
By daniellenierenberg
The Goal of Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy at Okyanos
Leslie Miller, M.D., F.A.C.C. and Okyanos Chief Science Officer, describes the goal of treating congestive heart failure and coronary artery disease patients with their own fat-derived stem...
By: Okyanos Heart Institute
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The Goal of Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy at Okyanos - Video
Adult Stem Cell Therapy Today: The Future is Here – Video
By Sykes24Tracey
Adult Stem Cell Therapy Today: The Future is Here
Leslie Miller, M.D., F.A.C.C. and Okyanos Chief Science Officer, gives an overview of the benefits of adult stem cell therapy for severe heart disease patients. Okyanos provides Cardiac Cell...
By: Okyanos Heart Institute
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Adult Stem Cell Therapy Today: The Future is Here - Video
Natural Stem Cell Therapy Revealed – with David Wolfe – Video
By Dr. Matthew Watson
Natural Stem Cell Therapy Revealed - with David Wolfe
For more information please visit: http://www.womenswellnessconference.com/2014/womens-wellness-conference-2014-webcast/
By: Longevity Now
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Natural Stem Cell Therapy Revealed - with David Wolfe - Video
A heartbeat away? Hybrid 'patch' could replace transplants
By daniellenierenberg
Because heart cells cannot multiply and cardiac muscles contain few stem cells, heart tissue is unable to repair itself after a heart attack. Now Tel Aviv University researchers are literally setting a new gold standard in cardiac tissue engineering.
Dr. Tal Dvir and his graduate student Michal Shevach of TAU's Department of Biotechnology, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, have been developing sophisticated micro- and nanotechnological tools -- ranging in size from one millionth to one billionth of a meter -- to develop functional substitutes for damaged heart tissues. Searching for innovative methods to restore heart function, especially cardiac "patches" that could be transplanted into the body to replace damaged heart tissue, Dr. Dvir literally struck gold. He and his team discovered that gold particles are able to increase the conductivity of biomaterials.
In a study published by Nano Letters, Dr. Dvir's team presented their model for a superior hybrid cardiac patch, which incorporates biomaterial harvested from patients and gold nanoparticles. "Our goal was twofold," said Dr. Dvir. "To engineer tissue that would not trigger an immune response in the patient, and to fabricate a functional patch not beset by signalling or conductivity problems."
A scaffold for heart cells
Cardiac tissue is engineered by allowing cells, taken from the patient or other sources, to grow on a three-dimensional scaffold, similar to the collagen grid that naturally supports the cells in the heart. Over time, the cells come together to form a tissue that generates its own electrical impulses and expands and contracts spontaneously. The tissue can then be surgically implanted as a patch to replace damaged tissue and improve heart function in patients.
According to Dr. Dvir, recent efforts in the scientific world focus on the use of scaffolds from pig hearts to supply the collagen grid, called the extracellular matrix, with the goal of implanting them in human patients. However, due to residual remnants of antigens such as sugar or other molecules, the human patients' immune cells are likely to attack the animal matrix.
In order to address this immunogenic response, Dr. Dvir's group suggested a new approach. Fatty tissue from a patient's own stomach could be easily and quickly harvested, its cells efficiently removed, and the remaining matrix preserved. This scaffold does not provoke an immune response.
Using gold to create a cardiac network
The second dilemma, to establish functional network signals, was complicated by the use of the human extracellular matrix. "Engineered patches do not establish connections immediately," said Dr. Dvir. "Biomaterial harvested for a matrix tends to be insulating and thus disruptive to network signals."
At his Laboratory for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Dr. Dvir explored the integration of gold nanoparticles into cardiac tissue to optimize electrical signaling between cells. "To address our electrical signalling problem, we deposited gold nanoparticles on the surface of our patient-harvested matrix, 'decorating' the biomaterial with conductors," said Dr. Dvir. "The result was that the nonimmunogenic hybrid patch contracted nicely due to the nanoparticles, transferring electrical signals much faster and more efficiently than non-modified scaffolds."
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A heartbeat away? Hybrid 'patch' could replace transplants
Disease decoded: Gene mutation may lead to development of new cancer drugs
By NEVAGiles23
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
30-Sep-2014
Contact: Laura Bailey baileylm@umich.edu 734-647-1848 University of Michigan @umich
ANN ARBORThe discovery of a gene mutation that causes a rare premature aging disease could lead to the development of drugs that block the rapid, unstoppable cell division that makes cancer so deadly.
Scientists at the University of Michigan and the U-M Health System recently discovered a protein mutation that causes the devastating disease dyskeratosis congenita, in which precious hematopoietic stem cells can't regenerate and make new blood. People with DC age prematurely and are prone to cancer and bone marrow failure.
But the study findings reach far beyond the roughly one in 1 million known DC patients, and could ultimately lead to developing new drugs that prevent cancer from spreading, said Jayakrishnan Nandakumar, assistant professor in the U-M Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology.
The DC-causing mutation occurs in a protein called TPP1. The mutation inhibits TPP1's ability to bind the enzyme telomerase to the ends of chromosomes, which ultimately results in reduced hematopoietic stem cell division. While telomerase is underproduced in DC patients, the opposite is true for cells in cancer patients.
"Telomerase overproduction in cancer cells helps them divide uncontrollably, which is a hallmark of all cancers," Nandakumar said. "Inhibiting telomerase will be an effective way to kill cancer cells."
The findings could lead to the development of gene therapies to repair the mutation and start cell division in DC patients, or drugs to inhibit telomerase and cell division in cancer patients. Both would amount to huge treatment breakthroughs for DC and cancer patients, Nandakumar said.
Nandakumar said that a major step moving forward is to culture DC patient-derived cells and try to repair the TPP1 mutation to see if telomerase function can be restored. Ultimately, the U-M scientist hopes that fixing the TPP1 mutation repairs telomerase function and fuels cell division in the stem cells of DC patients.
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Disease decoded: Gene mutation may lead to development of new cancer drugs