In a discovery that could one day lead to an understanding of how to regenerate damaged heart tissue, researchers at the University of California, San Diego have found that parent cells involved in embryonic development of the epicardium – the cell layer surrounding the outside of the heart – give rise to three important types of cells with potential for cardiac repair.
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Scientists replicate diseases in the lab with new stem cell lines
A set of new stem cell lines will make it possible for researchers to explore ten different genetic disorders—including muscular dystrophy, juvenile diabetes, and Parkinson's disease—in a variety of cell and tissue types as they develop in laboratory cultures.
Being a control freak aids dividing cells
Micromanagers may generate resentment in an office setting, but they get results in your body. New data indicate that a dividing cell takes micromanagement to the extreme, tagging more than 14,000 different sites on its proteins with phosphate, a molecule that typically serves as a signal for a variety of biological processes.
Want a reason to love your lower belly fat? It's rich in stem cells
Fat removed from the lower abdomen and inner thigh through liposuction was found to be an excellent source of stem cells, with higher stem cell concentrations than other areas of the body, reports a Brazilian-based study in August's
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). This is the first study of its kind to examine whether fat tissues from different areas of the body vary in stem cell concentration.
Gene directs stem cells to build the heart
Researchers have shown that they can put mouse embryonic stem cells to work building the heart, potentially moving medical science a significant step closer to a new generation of heart disease treatments that use human stem cells.
Study in Circulation provides detail on how low blood flow promotes vascular disease
Better understanding of signaling pathway to lead to new therapies
Researchers have found the first direct proof that a key protein drives the clogging of arteries in two ways, and that lowering levels of it opens them up, according to study results published in the June edition of the journal
Circulation. The work establishes cyclophilin A as an exciting target in the design of drugs against atherosclerosis, the number one cause of heart attacks and strokes, which occur when vessels become completely blocked. While the study was in mice, higher levels of the study protein have also been found in the blood of human patients with diseased blood vessels.
Caution on stem cell therapy
A single organ may contain more than one type of adult stem cell – a discovery that complicates prospects for using the versatile cells to replace damaged tissue as a treatment for disease, according to a new study from the laboratory of geneticist Mario Capecchi, the University of Utah's Nobel Laureate.
Double duty: Loss of protective heart failure protein causes high blood pressure
Scientists at the Center for Translational Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia have found that a protein that appears to have protective and perhaps healing effects for failing hearts also plays a similar role in high blood pressure. They found lower-than-normal levels of the protein S100A1 in cells that line blood vessel walls in animals with high blood pressure.
Zebrafish may help solve ringing in vets' ears
Ernest Moore, an audiologist and cell biologist at Northwestern University, developed tinnitus -- a chronic ringing and whooshing sound in his ears -- twenty years ago after serving in the U.S. Army reserves medical corps. His hearing was damaged by the crack of too many M16 rifles and artillery explosions. He suspects his hearing also suffered from hunting opossum with rifles as a kid on his grandmother's farm in Tennessee.