One of the biggest scientific debates of the current century has been whether it is ethical to use embryonic stem cells to treat human disease. It has even played a role in presidential politics, right up there with terrorism, immigration, and abortion. Humans, like all multicellular organisms, have certain cells in their bodies called stem [Read More]
Many parents are choosing to bank their baby’s cord blood at the time of birth. This blood contains stem cells which can be very useful in treating many different medical conditions, ranging from cancer to cerebral palsy. The stem cells derived from cord blood are more adaptive than those found in the bone marrow, which [Read More]
Researchers at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA continue to make findings and developments that keep them at the forefront of regenerative medicine research and progress. In particular, Dr. Brigitte Gomperts, an associate professor of pediatric hematology/oncology, recently worked with a team to study lung-derived stem [Read More]
The journal Cell Stem Cell recently reported that the number of clinics offering stem cell treatments in the United States has grown dramatically from 25 to nearly 600 in just five years. Physicians groups such as the Cell Surgical Network are offering a treatment menu that includes everything from arthritis to Alzheimer’s. Regenerative medicine physicians [Read More]
Stem cell tourism has been in the news lately with horrifying stories of treatments gone wrong. But according to a report published in Cell Stem Cell, Americans don’t need to travel thousands of miles for experimental treatments. There are more than 500 clinics offering completely illegal, often ineffective, and potentially fatal stem cell treatments in [Read More]
Stem cells and growth factors are both trending words right now within the medical community, especially as certain treatments become widely available for patients to utilize for a multitude of purposes. It can be complicated to understand the difference between the two when it seems like they achieve the same outcome, but stem cells and [Read More]
The eye is an incredible and complex piece of anatomy, which means it stands the risk of malfunctioning or becoming injured at any time. Glaucoma is one such disease that can cause vision loss and blindness, but stem cell research recently uncovered a potential method to overcome the disease and help prevent or even cure [Read More]
Stem cell therapy could soon be used to treat what is, at present, incurable blindness caused by retinitis pigmentosa (RP), an inherited degenerative disease affecting the retina of the eye, associated with a gradual loss of vision. The retina is composed of a layer of cells responsible for sensing light in the human eye. Retinitis [Read More]
Damage to the spinal cord frequently results in a permanent loss of body functions that are controlled by nerves below the site of injury. Trauma to the spine from fractures, crush injuries, gunshot wounds, and knife stabbings are some of the possible causes of spinal cord injuries (SCIs). Non-traumatic causes include arthritis, inflammation, infection, tumors, [Read More]
Just like all cells, tissues, and organs in the body, stem cells also age as a person grows older. Now scientists have developed a technique to rejuvenate aging stem cells and allow them to function like their younger, more robust versions. This method of transforming old stem cells into new has applications in the treatment [Read More]
Nature Communications reports that researchers at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at ETH Zurich in Switzerland have succeeded in genetically reprogramming adipose stem cells into functional, insulin-producing beta cells. The team of biotechnologists, led by Professor Martin Fussenegger, extracted fat cells from a 50-year-old study subject and applied so-called “genetic software” to convert [Read More]
Osteoporosis is asymptomatic until it presents itself with a fracture. The condition affects an estimated 200 million people worldwide and causes close to 9 million fractures every year. Hip fractures resulting from senile osteoporosis nearly always require hospitalization and are fatal in 20 percent of patients, leaving another 50 percent permanently disabled. Only a third [Read More]
Stem cell therapy has already shown tremendous promise in healing areas of the brain damaged by radiation injury from cancer treatment. Scientists at the University of California Irvine have now made a promising discovery that an isolated part of stem cells called microvesicles can produce comparable benefits, without some of the risks associated with stem [Read More]
Stem cell therapy is becoming a phrase thrown around with abandon. People are increasingly aware of regenerative medicine as a panacea for a spectrum of maladies, ranging from baldness to blindness. Clinics offering adult stem cell treatments are mushrooming in unregulated medical tourism centers in far-flung countries, offering hope to the desperately ill. Stem cells [Read More]
