Grant Medical Center recently completed the nation's first published study of a new procedure that may give hope to millions of patients facing lower limb amputations from peripheral arterial disease (PAD). PAD is a painful circulatory problem in the legs that affects 10 million Americans. If left untreated, it can lead to serious complications such as stroke, amputation and death...

Scientists at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have shown how transplanted stem cells can connect with and rescue threatened neurons and brain tissue. The results point the way to new possible treatments for brain damage and neurodegenerative diseases...

The largest randomised study comparing the effect of type of transplant on survival is published Online First in The Lancet Oncology. It reports that patients transplanted with peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) have no difference in survival compared with patients given bone marrow after ten years. Bone marrow transplants involve the collection of stem cells from the bone marrow...

Embryonic stem (ES) cells, known for their capacity to proliferate indefinitely and differentiate into almost all types of cells including hepatocytes, have raised the hope of cellular replacement therapy for liver failure. There have been several protocols available for hepatic fate specification from ES cells, however, most of the protocols currently used result in low yield or purity of functional hepatocytes.

Research scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, have developed a novel bioengineered treatment that has shown promise in targeting pancreatic cancer without causing damage to healthy noncancer cells, a typical problem of chemotherapy. They presented their findings at the 95th annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons.

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.

A human growth factor that stimulates blood stem cells to proliferate in the bone marrow reverses memory impairment in mice genetically altered to develop Alzheimer's disease, researchers at the University of South Florida and James A. Haley Hospital found.

Achieving a world first, scientists in China have induced cells from pigs to become pluripotent stem cells, which like embryonic stem cells are able to develop into any cell of the body. The study, which is to published early June in the newly launched Journal of Molecular Cell Biology, was the work of principal investigator Dr Lei Xiao, who leads the stem cell lab at the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, and colleagues.

A team of UCSF researchers has for the first time used tiny molecules called microRNAs to help turn adult mouse cells back to their embryonic state.