http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Cells from heart attack survivors' own bone marrow reduced the risk of death or another heart attack when they were infused into the affected artery after successful stent placement, according to research reported in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Heart Failure. http://www.physorg.com/news179513071.html Medicine & Health Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:45:30 EST news179513071 The research group of Professor Magdalena Gotz of Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munich (Germany) has made a significant advance in understanding regeneration processes in the brain. The researchers discovered progenitor cells which can form new glutamatergic neurons following injury to the cerebral cortex. http://www.physorg.com/news178899595.html Medicine & Health Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:30:41 EST news178899595 The cerebral cortex, the largest and most complex component of the brain, is unique to mammals and alone has evolved human specializations. Although at first all stem cells in charge of building the cerebral cortex -the outermost layer of neurons commonly referred to as gray matter -are created equal, soon they irrevocably commit to forming specific cortical regions. But how the stem cells' destiny is determined has remained an open question. http://www.physorg.com/news174665793.html Medicine & Health Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:17:33 EST news174665793 (PhysOrg.com) -- For years, health conscious people have been taking antioxidants to reduce the levels of reactive oxygen in their blood and prevent the DNA damage done by free radicals, which are the result of oxidative stress. But could excessive use of antioxidants deplete our immune systems? http://www.physorg.com/news173002874.html Biology Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:21:41 EST news173002874 (PhysOrg.com) -- Even as low-carbohydrate/high-protein diets have proven successful at helping individuals rapidly lose weight, little is known about the diets' long-term effects on vascular health. http://www.physorg.com/news170346116.html Medicine & Health Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:22:37 EST news170346116 A tissue-repair-and-regeneration pathway in the human body, including wound healing, is essential for the early lung to develop properly. Genetically engineered mice fail to develop lungs when two molecules in this pathway, Wnt2 and Wnt2b, are knocked out. The findings are described this week in Developmental Cell. http://www.physorg.com/news169741332.html Biology Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:50:02 EST news169741332 (PhysOrg.com) -- Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have substantially improved the odds of successfully reprogramming differentiated cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) by blocking the activity of the gene that instructs the cells to stop dividing. http://www.physorg.com/news169136061.html Biology Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:00:01 EST news169136061 Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientists have found that a population of breast cells called luminal progenitor cells are likely to be responsible for breast cancers that develop in women carrying mutations in the gene BRCA1. http://www.physorg.com/news168439681.html Medicine & Health Sun, 02 Aug 2009 13:48:25 EST news168439681 Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian today announced promising data from a clinical study showing patient-specific cancer vaccines derived from patients' own cancer cells and immune cells were well tolerated and resulted in impressive long-term survival rates in patients with metastatic melanoma whose disease had been minimized by other therapies. http://www.physorg.com/news168017006.html Medicine & Health Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:23:50 EST news168017006 The research team led by Dr. Timm Schroeder, stem cell researcher at Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen, Germany, has developed a new bioimaging method for observing the differentiation of hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) at the single-cell level. With this method the researchers were able to prove for the first time that not only cell-intrinsic mechanisms, but also external environmental factors such as growth factors can control HPC lineage choice directly. http://www.physorg.com/news166874343.html Medicine & Health Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:59:25 EST news166874343 Scientists have identified a gene that is essential for embryonic stem cells to maintain their all-purpose, pluripotent state. Exploiting the finding may lead to a greater understanding of how cells acquire their specialized states and provide a strategy to efficiently reprogram mature cells back into the pluripotent state, an elusive step in stem cell research but one crucial to a range of potential clinical treatments. http://www.physorg.com/news166279790.html Biology Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:50:31 EST news166279790 Using zebrafish, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have identified and described an enzyme inhibitor that allows them to increase the number of cardiac progenitor cells and therefore influence the size of the developing heart. The findings are described in the advance online version of Nature Chemical Biology. http://www.physorg.com/news166020510.html Chemistry Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:49:08 EST news166020510 Scientists in the UK and Denmark have shown that if elderly men were given growth hormone and exercised their legs showed an appreciable muscle mass increase. http://www.physorg.com/news165643127.html Medicine & Health Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:59:56 EST news165643127 (PhysOrg.com) -- Is your heart sound? To answer that question, all assistant professor Shashi Murthy needs is a single drop of your blood. http://www.physorg.com/news164918009.html Medicine & Health Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:35:27 EST news164918009 Testing people for heart disease might be just a finger prick away thanks to a new credit card-sized device created by a team of researchers from Harvard and Northeastern universities in Boston. In a research report published online in The FASEB Journal, they describe how this device can measure and collect a type of cells needed to build vascular tissue, called endothelial progenitor cells, using only 200 microliters of blood. The development is also significant because it allows scientists to collect these cells much more easily than current techniques allow, bringing laboratory-created tissue for vascular bypass surgeries another step closer to reality. http://www.physorg.com/news163070402.html Medicine & Health Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:20:32 EST news163070402 Tiny zebrafish could hold the key to stem cell treatments for motor neurone disease. http://www.physorg.com/news160217899.html Medicine & Health Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:58:56 EST news160217899 Investigators at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have developed a protocol to rapidly differentiate human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into neural progenitor cells that may be ideal for transplantation. The research, conducted by Alexei Terskikh, Ph.D., and colleagues, outlines a method to create these committed neural precursor cells (C-NPCs) that is replicable, does not produce mutations in the cells and could be useful for clinical applications. The research was published on March 13 in the journal Cell Death and Differentiation. http://www.physorg.com/news158850679.html Medicine & Health Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:13:25 EST news158850679 A new study finds previously unidentified fibrocartilage-forming progenitor cells in degenerating, diseased human cartilage, but not in cartilage from healthy joints. The research, published by Cell Press in the April 3rd issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, provides valuable insights into the reparative potential of cartilage and may lead to development of regenerative therapies for arthritis. http://www.physorg.com/news157896636.html Biology Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:14:16 EST news157896636 A study to determine if patients with type 2 diabetes can benefit from a combination of autologous (patient self-donated) stem cell infusions (ASC) and hyperbaric (above the normal air pressure of ) oxygen treatment (HBO) before and after ASC has found "significant benefits" in terms of "improvements in glycemic control" along with "reduced insulin requirements." The combination therapy could decrease type 2 diabetes morbidity and mortality, said the authors, who published their study results in the latest issue of Cell Transplantation (Vol. 17 No.12). http://www.physorg.com/news156091553.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:46:41 EST news156091553 Adult stem cells and their more committed kin, progenitor cells, are prized by medical researchers for their ability to produce different types of specialized cells. The potential of using these cells to repair or replace damaged tissue holds great promise for cancer therapies and regenerative medicine. However, the question that must first be answered is what determines the ultimate fate of a stem or progenitor cell? A team of researchers led by Berkeley Lab's Mark LaBarge and Mina Bissell appear to be well on the road to finding out. http://www.physorg.com/news154954632.html Biology Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:57:50 EST news154954632 (PhysOrg.com) -- Statins, used widely to treat elevated cholesterol, have been shown to prevent progression of coronary narrowing and to have other beneficial effects on the heart, such as reducing inflammation, that are independent of cholesterol. http://www.physorg.com/news154630899.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:02:11 EST news154630899 Healthy blood vessels play a key role in the prevention and treatment of diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Endothelial cells line the blood vessels and are critical to the regulation of blood vessel growth and function. http://www.physorg.com/news153674419.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:22:51 EST news153674419 Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center have shown that insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells can form after birth or after injury from progenitor cells within the pancreas that were not beta cells, a finding that contradicts a widely-cited earlier study that had concluded this is not possible. http://www.physorg.com/news146766762.html Medicine & Health Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:32:42 EST news146766762 A new study confirms that exercise can reverse the age-related decline in the production of neural stem cells in the hippocampus of the mouse brain, and suggests that this happens because exercise restores a brain chemical which promotes the production and maturation of new stem cells. http://www.physorg.com/news146219732.html Medicine & Health Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:35:32 EST news146219732 In the November 15th issue of G&D, Dr. Kenneth Dorshkind and colleagues at the David Geffen School of Medicine (UCLA) have identified two genes - p16(Ink4a) and Arf - that sensitize lymphoid progenitor cells to the effects of aging, and confer resistance to leukemogenesis. http://www.physorg.com/news145938184.html Medicine & Health Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:23:04 EST news145938184 Scientists have identified a gene in mice that plays a central role in the proper development of one of the nerve cells that goes bad in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, and some other diseases that affect our motor neurons. http://www.physorg.com/news143894190.html Medicine & Health Wed, 22 Oct 2008 11:36:30 EST news143894190 Immature, or "baby," fat cells lurk in the walls of the blood vessels that nourish fatty tissue, just waiting for excess calories to help them grow into the adult monsters responsible for packing on the extra pounds, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in mice. http://www.physorg.com/news140964621.html Medicine & Health Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:50:21 EST news140964621 For the first time, researchers have successfully grown functional human blood vessels in mice using cells from adult human donors - an important step in developing clinical strategies to grow tissue, researchers report in Circulation Research: Journal of the American Heart Association. http://www.physorg.com/news135647157.html Medicine & Health Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:45:57 EST news135647157 Cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have a profound effect on an elite group of cells important to brain health as we age, scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have found. The new findings shed light on a long-debated potential role for statins in the area of dementia. http://www.physorg.com/news134280069.html Medicine & Health Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:01:09 EST news134280069