Tag: cells

New research led by scientists at Newcastle University, UK reveals a potential revolutionary way to treat eye injuries and prevent blindness—by softening the tissue hosting the stem cells which then helps repair wounds, inside the body. The team discovered that the simple application of a tissue-softening enzyme, collagenase, prevents the loss of corneal stem cells

Understanding and mitigating the role of epigenetics (environmental influences that trigger changes in gene expression) in disease development is a major goal of researchers. Now, a newly published paper featured on the March cover of the journal Brain adds significantly to this work by detailing how metabolites can be used to inhibit epigenetic mechanisms and

Immune cells in the bowel of people who suffer with coeliac disease are permanently replaced by a new subset of cells that promote inflammation, suggests a new study involving researchers at Cardiff University. This permanent ‘immunological scarring’ lays the foundation for the disease to progress and could have long-term implications for gut health in affected

Experts from the Universities of Bath and Seville have carried out a series of experiments by which, for the first time, they have characterized the normal electrical activity in PC-3 prostate cancer cells in real time, with a resulting low-frequency electrical pattern between 0.1 and 10 Hertz. “We have observed that this electrical activity evolves

Crippling anxiety suffered by obese people could be halted by a drug cocktail that ‘wipes out dangerous ZOMBIE cells thought to hamper their mental health’ ‘Zombie cells’ have been shown to accumulate in the brains of obese people Also known as senescent cells, they are alive but do not function properly  In dangerously overweight mice,

When we perceive the world around us, certain objects appear to be more noticeable than others, depending on what we do. For example, when we view a forest-covered mountain from a distance, the forest looks like a large green carpet. But as we get closer, we start noticing the individual trees, and the forest fades

The neurological disorder Huntington’s disease causes behavioural and motor changes, which among other things are a result of dysfunctional maturation or formation of glial cells, the brain’s support cells, researchers from the University of Copenhagen demonstrate in a new study based on mouse trials. The researchers’ long-term goal is to be able to use the

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have discovered a subset of helper T cells that may help to redefine understanding and treatment of chronic, debilitating inflammatory disorders. The research appears today as an advance online publication in the journal Nature. The study focused on a family of helper T cells called Th17 cells. Th17 cells

Hope for epileptics as scientists discover implanting stem cells into the brain could stop seizures The treatment, tested on rats, would modify the patient’s own skin cells Stem cell treatment led to 70% fewer seizures in the months following It inhibits excitement in the hippocampus, where epileptic seizures can start  Currently, surgery to remove the hippocampus

USC researchers seeking a way to study genetic activity associated with psychiatric disorders have discovered an abundant source of human cells—the nose. Olfactory epithelial cells, easily collected from the lining of the nasal cavity, can serve as stand-ins for brain cells in studies of the neuronal epigenome, USC researchers say. The epigenome is a system

Obesity puts you more at risk of cancer ‘because fat clogs up and slows down the cells that fight off the disease’ Lead ‘Natural Killer’ cells stutter and fail when excess fat blocks their pathways  New research shows the damage can be reversed to kick the cells into action Obesity is the second leading preventable

Hope of a Parkinson’s breakthrough as experts transplant MILLIONS of stem cells into a patient’s brain ‘to regrow parts ravaged by the disease’ Experts at Kyoto University in Japan performed the first-of-its-kind procedure The man is in his 50s and is one of seven people who will take part in the trial  The procedure has

Breakthrough study to culture human skin cells called keratinocytes to produce skin grafts has been published by a team of researchers from Duke-NUS Medical School and the Singapore General Hospital (SGH). This method is the first to use a specific type of tissue-proteins known as laminins, found in the human body, to create a safer

Researchers have discovered that mouse skin and skin cells from humans produce pigmentation in response to sunlight on a 48-hour cycle. They observed that exposing skin to ultraviolet light every 2 days yielded darker pigmentation with less radiation damage than daily exposure. The findings appear October 25 in the journal Molecular Cell. “The damaging effects

An enzyme activated in diabetics has been found to cause previously aligned cells in a blood vessel to reverse their orientation, creating misalignments that allow veins and arteries to leak three times more blood proteins than normally constructed blood vessels. Controlling the enzyme could ease symptoms of swelling, nerve pain, localized low blood pressure, and

Think of the protein BH3 like a finger that turns off a cancer cell survival switch. The problem is that most cancer cells have found ways to remove this “finger—commonly, by breaking the action of a gene called p53 that puts the BH3 finger in motion. Now think of Bcl-2 as the switch itself. When

For the first time ever, Mount Sinai researchers have identified a protein as a marker that can indicate whether a cancer patient will develop a reoccurrence of lethal, metastatic cancer, according to a clinical study published in Breast Cancer Research in October. The researchers found that when cells from a breast cancer patient’s original tumor

A special type of cell essential to the ability of olfactory neurons to regenerate may be genetically engineered to deliver anticancer therapy to the dangerous brain tumors called glioblastomas. In their report published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers describe using olfactory ensheathing cells to deliver an anticancer

Promoting repair of dystrophic muscles is a major goal in the treatment of muscular dystrophies but is complicated by the incomplete knowledge of the cellular and molecular events that drive muscle regeneration. Answers could lie in better understanding muscle repair—which resembles a delicate cellular dance choreographed by special cells called fibro-adipogenic progenitors (FAPs). Researchers already

The number of osteoporosis medications that promote bone formation are few compared to those that suppress bone resorption. A research group led by Kumamoto University scientists has discovered that the gene SIRT7 is important for bone formation, and has discovered a new mechanism to activate gene functions essential for bone formation. The researchers believe that