Molecular scientists from the University of Texas Health Center in Houston have developed a new procedure that enables the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells through genetic selection. Rick Wetsel, Eva Zsigmond and colleagues have used the in vitro method to produce a pure population of lung epithelial cells known as alveolar epithelial type II. The scientists believe the technology could be used to create spinal cord cells, heart cells, nerve cells and others in the future. This marks the first transplantable source of lung epithelial cells to have been developed from human embryonic stem cells. Descriptions of the procedure can be found in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Science DailyFebruary 8, 2007
Stem Cell Development For Pancreatic Cancer
A team of scientists from the University of Michigan have found cancer stem cells in pancreatic tumors that may drive cancer cell growth. The discovery may lead to the development of medication and treatment that targets these cells. This would replace the traditional method of shrinking tumors by killing as many cells as possible, an approach which cancer stem cells have resisted in the past. Pancreatic cancer kills 97% of those diagnosed within five years, with minimal potential and treatment available for increased survival. The discovery comes as great news in providing a potential cure. The study has been published in the journal Cancer Research by lead author and director of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Program at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Dr. Diane Simeone.
www.topcancernews.comFebruary 6, 2007
Spain Claims Fat Tissue Transplant
Surgeons in Madrid have used stem cells from fat tissue to treat a 67-year-old man suffering from angina and damaged coronary arteries. Liposuction was performed on the patient’s abdomen in order to extract and purify stem cells. The stem cells were then injected into the patient’s heart during surgery with doctors’ hopes that the cells will convert into additional heart muscle and blood vessels. The extraction procedure was chosen on the basis that fat cells do not require a cultivation period of three weeks, as is the case of bone marrow stem cell procedures.
The GuardianFebruary 3, 2007
T Cells Boosted By Hematopoietic Stem Cell
Researchers from the National Institutes of Health have shown that Hematopoietic Stem Cell (HSC) transplantation could have increased benefits of T cell infusion treatment in patients with melanoma skin cancer. Nicholas Restifo and colleagues have found that HSC transplantations in mice have resulted in a greater increase of infused tumor-reactive CD8+ T cells than nonmyeloablative agents. The increase in the population of CD8+ T cells subsequently correlated with tumor regression. The study appears in the February issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
