After concluding the findings of a latest research, a team of researchers at the University of Melbourne has claimed to acknowledge almost identical genetic changes in the stem cells when compared with that of human cancers.

A cure for sickle cell anemia and other life-threatening genetic disorders that arise in the blood is the goal of a new $6.7-million, five-year research project headed by UCSF scientist Y. W. Kan, a pioneer of modern genetics and the diagnosis of genetic diseases before birth.

Scientists exploring a potential cure for diabetes have shown that transplanting insulin-producing cells from embryonic pigs into diabetic monkeys can dramatically lower blood sugar levels, though not quite to normal levels.

A therapy involving a natural compound may improve the ability of stem cells from umbilical cord blood to engraft in patients receiving a stem cell transplant for cancer or other diseases, a phase I clinical trial led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists indicates.

Patients who receive a blood stem cell transplant from a donor outside of their family to treat leukemia and other blood diseases are more likely to have graft failure but less likely to experience graft-versus-host disease, a condition caused by the donor cells attacking the recipient's body, if the transplanted blood cells come directly from a donor's bone marrow, rather than from blood stem cells circulating in the donor's bloodstream (PBSCs), according to new research. Although the study showed differences in the type and extent of complications, the results showed no difference in patient survival rates between these two major sources of donated blood cells. The study, presented in the plenary session of the 53rd annual American Society of Hematology conference in San Diego, was conducted by the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMT CTN), a collaborative effort of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) at the Medical College of Wisconsin, the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), and the EMMES Corporation, together with 20 core transplant centers/consortia.

In a paper published in the current issue of the journal Tissue Engineering, a team of scientists has managed to regenerate functional muscle tissue in mice. The discovery could pave the way for new clinical therapies to treat people suffering from major muscle trauma.

When a muscle is damaged, dormant adult stem cells called satellite cells are signaled to “wake up” and contribute to repairing the muscle. University of Missouri researchers recently found how even distant satellite cells could help with the repair, and are now learning how the stem cells travel within the tissue. This knowledge could ultimately help doctors more effectively treat muscle disorders such as muscular dystrophy, in which the muscle is easily damaged and the patient’s satellite cells have lost the ability to repair.

Dr. Bernard Thébaud believes the by-products of mesenchymal stem cells — found in umbilical cord tissue and with known anti-inflammatory characteristics — could possibly heal lungs inflamed by chronic and acute asthma. The findings, published in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, look at the effects of what Thébaud called “healing juices” on refractory asthma, a form of the disease that is particularly difficult to treat with inhalers.

A rare type of stem cell could hold the key to mending a broken heart. Australian scientists have discovered a new type of stem cell in mouse hearts which they believe plays a vital role in maintaining the muscle and its vessels.

Cryobanking allows pet owners to put something away for a rainy day—their pets’ stem cells—in case the animal suffers arthritis or degenerative disease later in life.

Low doses of interleukin-2 eased most severe symptoms of graft-versus-host disease in cancer patients Preliminary research suggests that a drug typically used to kickstart the immune system may help cancer patients who receive stem cell transplants and then develop a potentially deadly side effect.

According to a new study by stem cell researchers, established human embryonic cell lines, including those approved for federal research funding under former President George W. Bush, are different than newly derived human embryonic stem cell lines. The study appeared November 30 in the early online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Human Molecular Genetics. The finding, by scientists with the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, points to the importance of continuing to derive new stem cell lines so researchers can better understand pluripotency, the ability of these cells to make every cell in the human body, said study senior author Amander Clark, an assistant professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology in Life Sciences. She noted, “It is critical to find out the characteristics that result in the highest quality pluripotent stem cell lines that we can make. It is possible that we have not set the bar high enough yet for embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells. We now know that established lines are different from newly derived lines and now we have to find out how important that is.”

Researchers at UC Davis Health System will be part of a nationwide study to examine whether one single injection of adult stem cells directly into diseased lumbar discs can repair and regenerate them, relieve chronic low-back pain and possibly avert spine surgery.

Researchers from UCLA's cancer and stem cell centers have demonstrated for the first time that blood stem cells can be engineered to create cancer-killing T-cells that seek out and attack a human melanoma. The researchers believe this approach could be useful in 40 percent of Caucasians with this malignancy. Done in mouse models, the study serves as first proof-of-principle that blood stem cells, which make every cell type found in blood, can be genetically altered in a living organism to create an army of melanoma-fighting T-cells, said Jerome Zack, study senior author and a scientist with UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA.

Human stem cells aren't immune to the aging process, according to scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The researchers studied hematopoietic stem cells, which create the cells that comprise the blood and immune system. Understanding when and how these stem cells begin to falter as the years pass may explain why some diseases, such as acute myeloid leukemia, increase in prevalence with age, and also why elderly people tend to be more vulnerable to infections such as colds and the flu.

Artificial blood may become a common reality, thanks to the first successful transfusion of lab-grown blood into a human. Luc Douay, of Pierre and Marie Curie University, Paris, extracted hematopoietic stem cells from a volunteer's bone marrow, and encouraged these cells to grow into red blood cells with a cocktail of growth factors. Douay's team labeled these cultured cells for tracing, and injected 10 billion of them (equalling 2 milliliters of blood) back into the marrow donor's body.

As leading researchers gathered in Rome for a Vatican conference on the use of adult stem cells, one participant spoke about the use of stem cells taken from human placentas.

Sarcomas are cancerous tumors of the soft tissue and bone. Although they are rare in children, they present a medical challenge when they occur. Diagnosis and treatment of a group of malignancies known as pediatric undifferentiated soft tissue sarcomas are difficult because their cell of origin is unknown. Finding ways to differentiate tumors will lead to better diagnosis and more specific therapies.

Many options exist for regenerating cartilage to repair osteochondral defects in the talus. The use of microfracture to form fibrocartilage is a widely accepted treatment modality for osteochondral defects, but it is well known that fibrocartilage is not as durable as hyaline cartilage. These lesions tend to do worse with increasing size, especially above 1 cm2. There has been much success in the laboratory with use of a 3-D matrix to hold stem cells. As a result, we developed a new treatment at our institute for osteochondral defects using a stem cell-rich paste composed of bone marrow aspirate mixed with particulate collagen/glycosaminoglycan, which is an extension of the microfracture concept with a goal of better durability.

A pre-clinical animal trial of Mesoblast's stem cell treatment for Type 2 diabetes has shown positive results, with phase II trial planned for 2012.

If the same trick can be repeated for human pituitary glands it could transform the treatment of debilitating hormone disorders Scientists have grown working pituitary glands in the lab that could potentially transform the treatment of people with a range of debilitating hormone disorders.

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine have developed a new genetic approach to specifically block the damaged copy of the gene for a rare bone disease, while leaving the normal copy untouched (Gene Therapy, October 20, 2011).

A unique method for creating stem cells without embryos — first developed in 2007 at the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Hillsboro — has received a patent.

New stem cell research may point to ways to replace the brain cells that die off in Parkinson’s disease, The Guardian has today reported. In the research, scientists were able to use human stem cells to create dopamine neurons, which had similar properties to the types of brain cells lost in Parkinson’s disease. When the scientists introduced the new cells into the brains of mice, rats and monkeys with Parkinson’s-like lesions, the animals were able to survive, and in the mice and rats the movement problems normally seen were reversed. In addition, no cancer or uncontrolled cell growth was seen after the cells had been introduced, two safety concerns associated with stem cell therapy. The results of this study are extremely promising, although more work is required before stem cell-based therapy can be used to treat Parkinson’s disease in humans. That said, the neurons which the researchers have created could have immediate applications in research, such as being used in cell-based models of Parkinson’s disease. This in turn could help find a cure for Parkinson’s disease, such as developing new drugs faster.

Stem cells that are able to regenerate damaged lung tissue have been discovered by scientists. The brochioalveolar stem cells (BASCs), naturally present in the lungs of rodents and humans, are capable of rebuilding alveoli - the small air sacs in lungs.

According to a study published in the November issue of Cell Stem Cell, the world's leading journal in stem cell research, Prof. Christopher Heeschen and his team from the Clinical Research Program at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) have successfully found new treatments for pancreatic cancer stem cells as the cause of a devastating disease. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly diseases and its prevalence continues to increase.

A new method of synthesizing dopamine-producing neurons, the predominant type of brain cell destroyed in Parkinson's, offers hope for creating cell-replacement therapies that reverse the damage. The method provides an efficient way of making functional cells. When transplanted into mice and rats with brain damage and movement problems similar to Parkinson's, the cells integrated into the brain and worked normally, reversing the animals' motor issues.

Patented MRI 'reporter' technology could inform treatment for brain injury and neurological disease Carnegie Mellon University biologists have developed an MRI-based technique that allows researchers to non-invasively follow neural stem cells in vivo.

Research focused on peripheral arterial disease Austin doctors are doing new research using adult stem cells to help people with blocked arteries in their legs. The condition is known as peripheral arterial disease, or PAD. Eleven million people in the world have it, and many of them are diabetics.

A $12 million, five-year grant from the National Cancer Institute will help researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital and The Methodist Hospital improve outcomes of cord blood transplantation in children and adults with cancer.