Related topics: embryonic stem cells , cells , bone marrow , pluripotent stem cells , skin cells
Stem cell
hideStem cells are cells found in most, if not all, multi-cellular organisms. They are characterized by the ability to renew themselves through mitotic cell division and differentiating into a diverse range of specialized cell types. Research in the stem cell field grew out of findings by Canadian scientists Ernest A. McCulloch and James E. Till in the 1960s. The two broad types of mammalian stem cells are: embryonic stem cells that are isolated from the inner cell mass of blastocysts, and adult stem cells that are found in adult tissues. In a developing embryo, stem cells can differentiate into all of the specialized embryonic tissues. In adult organisms, stem cells and progenitor cells act as a repair system for the body, replenishing specialized cells, but also maintain the normal turnover of regenerative organs, such as blood, skin or intestinal tissues.
Stem cells can now be grown and transformed into specialized cells with characteristics consistent with cells of various tissues such as muscles or nerves through cell culture. Highly plastic adult stem cells from a variety of sources, including umbilical cord blood and bone marrow, are routinely used in medical therapies. Embryonic cell lines and autologous embryonic stem cells generated through therapeutic cloning have also been proposed as promising candidates for future therapies.
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News tagged with stem cells
Salamanders, regenerative wonders, heal like mammals, people
Jul 01, 2009 |
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The salamander is a superhero of regeneration, able to replace lost limbs, damaged lungs, sliced spinal cord -- even bits of lopped-off brain. But it turns out that remarkable ability isn't so mysterious after ...
Scientists discover clues to what makes human muscle age
Sep 30, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, has identified critical biochemical pathways linked to the aging of human muscle. By manipulating these pathways, the ...
Team reports major step forward in cell reprogramming
Oct 08, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers has made a major advance toward producing induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, that are safe enough to use in treating diseases ...
Researchers demonstrate that stem cells can be engineered to kill HIV
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Dec 08, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- UCLA AIDS Institute researchers have for the first time demonstrated that human blood stem cells can be engineered to target and kill HIV-infected cells.
Scientists program blood stem cells to become vision cells
Jul 31, 2009 |
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University of Florida researchers were able to program bone marrow stem cells to repair damaged retinas in mice, suggesting a potential treatment for one of the most common causes of vision loss in older people.
What drives our genes? Researchers map the first complete human epigenome
Oct 14, 2009 |
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Although the human genome sequence faithfully lists (almost) every single DNA base of the roughly 3 billion bases that make up a human genome, it doesn't tell biologists much about how its function is regulated. Now, researchers ...
Watching stem cells repair the human brain
Aug 19, 2009 |
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There is no known cure for neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. But new hope, in the form of stem cells created from the patient's own bone marrow, can be found ― ...
New study pinpoints gene controlling number of brain cells (w/ Video)
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 04, 2009 |
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In populating the growing brain, neural stem cells must strike a delicate balance between two key processes - proliferation, in which the cells multiply to provide plenty of starting materials - and differentiation, in which ...
A major step in making better stem cells from adult tissue
Oct 18, 2009 |
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A team led by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute has developed a method that dramatically improves the efficiency of creating stem cells from human adult tissue, without the use of embryonic cells. The research ...
Stem cells restore mobility in neck-injured rats (w/ Video)
Nov 10, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The first human embryonic stem cell treatment approved by the FDA for human testing has been shown to restore limb function in rats with neck spinal cord injuries - a finding that could expand the clinical ...
Retina cells grown from skin-derived stem cells
Aug 24, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health has successfully grown multiple types of retina cells from two types of stem cells — suggesting ...
Scientists grow mice heart muscle strip that beats
Oct 15, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have grown a piece of heart muscle - and then watched it beat - by using stem cells from a mouse embryo, a big step toward one day repairing damage from heart attacks.
Beyond genomics, biologists and engineers decode the next frontier
Nov 18, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Princeton biologists and engineers has dramatically improved the speed and accuracy of measuring an enigmatic set of proteins that influences almost every aspect of how cells and ...
Discovery pinpoints new connection between cancer cells, stem cells
Jul 01, 2009 |
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A molecule called telomerase, best known for enabling unlimited cell division of stem cells and cancer cells, has a surprising additional role in the expression of genes in an important stem cell regulatory pathway, say researchers ...
Memories of the way they used to be
Sep 18, 2009 |
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A team of researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla have developed a safe strategy for reprogramming cells to a pluripotent ...
