Dutch researchers at University Medical Center Utrecht and the Hubrecht Institute have succeeded in growing large numbers of stem cells from adult human hearts into new heart muscle cells. A breakthrough in stem cell research. Until now, it was necessary to use embryonic stem cells to make this happen. The findings are published in the latest issue of the journal Stem Cell Research.

Angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels, is a central process in diverse physiological and pathological situations such as healing of wounds and traumas, cardiovascular disorders, inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, and in cancer growth. The current belief about the source of blood vessel wall endothelial cells (ECs) responsible for vascular growth in adults is that a significant and crucial part of neovascular ECs originate from circulating stem and progenitor cells that are first mobilized from the bone marrow (BM), and subsequently differentiate to mature bona fide ECs and incorporate in the vasculature. This concept has become textbook material, and a common theme in modem vascular and cancer biology.

Fully mature, differentiated B cells can be reprogrammed to an embryonic-stem-cell-like state, without the use of an egg according to a study published in the April 18 issue of Cell.

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have identified, characterized and cloned ovarian cancer stem cells and have shown that these stem cells may be the source of ovarian cancer’s recurrence and its resistance to chemotherapy.

Recent discoveries about the role of stem cells in cancer have altered the landscape of cancer research. As scientists learn more their cancer-initiating properties, stem cells are emerging as potential therapeutic targets for many types of cancers. Studies presented at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, April 12-16, report stem cell discoveries related to pancreatic, bladder, ovarian, and breast cancer, and glioma.

Research being presented today (10 April) at the UK National Stem Cell Network Annual Science Meeting in Edinburgh represents a step towards the use of Adult Stem Cells (ASCs) to repair damaged tissue. Speaking at the conference in Edinburgh, Professor Cay Kielty of the University of Manchester describes how she and her team have uncovered a messaging system that instructs ASCs to contribute to tissue repair in response to chemical signals in the body. This work, funded by the Medical Research Council, holds great hope for the development of techniques by which ASCs could be instructed to repair damaged tissues.

Fluorescence microscopy image overlaid with phase image to display incorporation of microspheres (red stain) in embryoid bodies (gray circles). New research shows that delivering molecules via biodegradable microspheres enhances the efficiency and purity of stem cell differentiation. Credit: Image courtesy of Todd McDevitt Embryonic stem cell therapies have been proposed for regenerative medicine and tissue replacement after injury or disease. However, the inability of stem cells to efficiently develop into the desired specific cell type – such as muscle, skin, blood vessels, bone or neurons – now limits the potential clinical utility of this therapy.

‘Mother cells’ which produce the neurons affected by Parkinson’s disease have been identified by scientists, according to new research published in the journal Glia.

For a rich source of stem cells to be engineered into new blood vessels or skin tissue, clinicians may one day look no further than the hair on their patients’ heads, according to new research published earlier this month by University at Buffalo engineers.

Investigators at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy have revealed the hidden properties of an on-off switch that governs cell growth.

Scientists at Schepens Eye Research Institute have discovered what chemical in the eye triggers the dormant capacity of certain non-neuronal cells to transform into progenitor cells, a stem-like cell that can generate new retinal cells. The discovery, published in the March issue of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (IOVS), offers new hope to victims of diseases that harm the retina, such as macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.

UC Irvine researchers have discovered a dramatically improved method for genetically manipulating human embryonic stem cells, making it easier for scientists to study and potentially treat thousands of disorders ranging from Huntington’s disease to muscular dystrophy and diabetes.

Solving a long-standing biological mystery, UCLA stem cell researchers have discovered that blood stem cells, the cells that later differentiate into all the cells in the blood supply, originate and are nurtured in the placenta.

Researchers at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) and the University of California, San Francisco have identified for the first time how tiny genetic factors called microRNAs may influence the differentiation of pluripotent embryonic stem (ES) cells into cardiac muscle. As reported in the journal Cell Stem Cell, scientists in the lab of GICD Director, Deepak Srivastava, MD, demonstrated that two microRNAs, miR-1 and miR-133, which have been associated with muscle development, not only encourage heart muscle formation, but also actively suppress genes that could turn the ES cells into undesired cells like neurons or bone.

One of the four ingredients in the genetic recipe that scientists in Japan and the U.S. followed last year to persuade human skin cells to revert to an embryonic stem cell state, is dispensable in ES cells, thanks to the presence of a molecular alliance between a specific group of key proteins known as transcription factors, a research team led by the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) reports in the current issue of Nature Cell Biology.

A toxic pollutant spread by oil spills, forest fires and car exhaust is also present in cigarette smoke, and may represent a second way in which smoking delays bone healing, according to research presented today at the annual meeting of the Orthopaedic Research Society in San Francisco.

A gene crucial for embryonic development can quickly become a potent cancer promoter in adult mice after a genetic misalignment, according to researchers from Fox Chase Cancer Center, causing white blood cells to become cancerous spontaneously.

Neural cells derived from human embryonic stem cells helped repair stroke-related damage in the brains of rats and led to improvements in their physical abilities, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

The UK Stem Cell Foundation, the Medical Research Council and Scottish Enterprise, in partnership with the Chief Scientist’s Office, are funding a £1.4 million project to further the research at the University of Edinburgh with a view to setting up a clinical trial within two years.

Scientists in Switzerland are uncovering new clues about how cancer cells grow – and how they can be killed – by studying stem cells, ‘blank’ cells that have the potential to develop into fully mature or ‘differentiated’ cells and other scientists in UK have made a breakthrough in understanding the cause of the most common form of childhood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). The research should lead to less aggressive treatment for the disease and could result in the development of new and more effective drugs, an international conference on stem cell biology was told last month.

A new study demonstrates for the first time that embryonic stem cells can be used to create functional immune system blood cells, a finding which is an important step in the utilization of embryonic stem cells as an alternative source of cells for bone marrow transplantation. This hopeful news for patients with severe blood and immune disorders, who need these transplants for treatment, was prepublished online in Blood, the official journal of the American Society of Hematology.

UCLA stem cell scientists have reprogrammed human skin cells into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells without using embryos or eggs.

The use of a drug to activate stem cells that differentiate into bone appears to cause regeneration of bone tissue and be may be a potential treatment strategy for osteoporosis, according to a report in the February 2008 Journal of Clinical Investigation. The study – led by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) – found that treatment with a medication used to treat bone marrow cancer improved bone density in a mouse model of osteoporosis, apparently through its effect on the mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that differentiate into several types of tissues.

Just as many scientists had given up the search, researchers have discovered that the pancreas does indeed harbor stem cells with the capacity to generate new insulin-producing beta cells. If the finding made in adult mice holds for humans, the newfound progenitor cells will represent “an obvious target for therapeutic regeneration of beta cells in diabetes,” the researchers report in the Jan. 25 issue of Cell, a publication of Cell Press.

Using embryonic stem cells from mice, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have prompted the growth of healthy – and more importantly, functioning – muscle cells in mice afflicted with a human model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

University of California, Irvine researchers have identified a gene that is specifically responsible for generating the cerebral cortex, a finding that could lead to stem cell therapies to treat brain injuries and diseases such as stroke and Alzheimer’s.

Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say they have evidence that cancer stem cells for multiple myeloma share many properties with normal stem cells and have multiple ways of resisting chemotherapy and other treatments.