Recent Discoveries in Stem Cell Research
Recent Discoveries in Stem Cell Research
Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures
P.O. Box 16580 | St. Louis, MO 63105
1-800-829-4133
info@missouricures.com
Doctors, researchers and scientists are working every day on treatments and cures for heart disease, diabetes, spinal cord injuries and many other afflictions. Below are several advances announced since late 2007 at institutions across the United States.
For our friends, families and fellow citizens, we must allow this noble and important work to continue.
Blood supply
Human embryonic stem cells are used to create red blood cells, a component of blood that helps distribute oxygen throughout the body. The research, conducted by researchers from Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technologies, the University of Illinois-Chicago and Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic, could potentially create an endless blood supply and negate the need for blood donations (Advanced Cell Technology, Aug. 19, 2008).
Brain damage
A Stanford University study shows that neural cells created from embryonic stem cells helped repair the brains of rats damaged by stroke. The rats, which each lost partial use of a forelimb, showed improvement after they were injected with the early-stage neural cells. The cells traveled to the damaged brain section and incorporated into the surrounding tissue, working to repair damage caused by the stroke (Stanford University, Feb. 20, 2008).
Cancer
Using mouse embryonic stem cells, researchers at the National Cancer Institute develop a method to evaluate which changes in a particular gene known to increase susceptibility to breast cancer might lead to cancer. The discovery could better inform people predisposed to developing cancer, as well as carriers of other disease-related genes (National Cancer Institute, July 6, 2008).
Diabetes
Biologists at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute report they have directly reprogrammed common cells in the pancreases of living mice into special cells capable of producing insulin and fighting diabetes. The discovery, which was made possible by prior advances from embryonic stem cell research, also could lead to therapies and cures for heart disease and other afflictions in people (Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Aug. 27, 2008).
A new technique is discovered for turning embryonic stem cells into insulin-producing pancreatic tissue, which could lead to new treatments for diabetes. Scientists at the University of Manchester and the University of Sheffield in England genetically manipulated the stem cells to produce an important protein that helps increase specific types of desired cells pancreatic cells, in the case of diabetes (University of Manchester, April 3, 2008).
Researchers at Novocell, a San Diego-based biotech company, announce that for the first time embryonic stem cells can be turned into pancreatic cells capable of producing insulin in mice. The discovery someday could help people with Type 1 diabetes who require regular insulin treatment. The research builds on discoveries Novocell scientists announced in 2005 and 2006 (Novocell, Feb. 20, 2008).
Heart disease and heart damage
Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis move closer to a new generation of heart disease treatments that use human stem cells. They report that a gene they’ve been researching in mice starts the development of the cardiovascular system by locking mouse embryonic stem cells into becoming heart parts and getting them moving to the area where the heart forms. The next step is studying whether the gene can help fix damaged hearts in mice (Washington University in St. Louis, July 2, 2008).
The hearts of rats injured by heart attack are repaired using heart muscle cells derived from human embryonic stem cells. The embryonic stem cells stopped the progression of heart failure in the animals, according to scientists that oversaw the study at the University of Washington in Seattle and at Geron Corp. in Menlo Park, Calif. (University of Washington, Aug. 27, 2007).
Macular degeneration
Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle use human embryonic stem cells to repair a macular degeneration-like disease in rats. The cells were used to create progenitor cells that, when combined with cells from a degenerated mouse retina, formed new retinal cells (University of Washington, Aug. 25, 2006).
Parkinson’s disease
Researchers at Edinburgh University in Scotland announce they are turning embryonic stem cells into a type of cell lost in Parkinson’s patients. The scientists hope to slow or reverse the debilitating disease by injecting into the patients neural cells derived from embryonic stem cells. (The Scotsman, Nov. 3, 2008).
Mice afflicted with a Parkinson’s-like disease are treated with the help of somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT. It marks the first time that SCNT has been used to successfully treat a disease in the same subjects that yielded the initial cells, according to investigators at New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where the study was conducted (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, March 23, 2008).
Spinal cord injuries
Special nerve cells created from embryonic stem cells could help heal spinal cord injuries, researchers at the University of Colorado Denver report. The special cells, called astrocytes, regenerated nerve fibers in the injured spinal cords of mice, helping them move again. The team is working on human forms of the cell for human clinical trials someday (University of Colorado Denver, Sept. 19, 2008).
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