Stem Cells

Scientists at Oxford have uncovered a mechanism behind why people with diabetes have an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. High blood sugar levels seem to “reprogram” stem cells so that the immune cells they produce become more inflammatory.

After someone has suffered a heart attack, non-beating scar tissue grows back in place of the damaged cardiac tissue, leaving the heart permanently weakened. A newly developed spray-on medication, however, may someday help change that.

An extraordinary new study has detailed the development of a nearly complete mouse embryo – with muscles, blood vessels and a tiny beating heart – grown in a lab dish out of stem cells, presenting the most sophisticated “embryo in a dish” created to date.

The heart has a limited capacity to heal itself, so heart attack survivors often have further episodes. Now, scientists have grown heart cells from stem cells, embedded them onto microspheres and injected them into damaged hearts to help repair them.

Researchers have found a way to maintain insulin levels in diabetic mice by growing and implanting new beta cells that produce the hormone. These cells are housed inside a tiny device that protects them from the immune system, like a shark cage.

Researchers at Salk Institute have uncovered a mechanism by which stem cells can help regenerate muscles. The discovery could provide a new drug target for repairing muscles after injury or rebuilding muscle mass lost during the normal aging process.

A team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has engineered a novel type of scaffold that could give efforts to tackle vision loss a boost, by improving the precision with which replacement photoreceptor cells can be delivered into the eye.

Scientists in China have just demonstrated how a newly developed "cryogel" can be used to bolster stem cell therapy to tackle osteoarthritis, demonstrating its effectiveness by reversing the condition in mice.

Scientists have come up with a new tool to study the way cancerous cells can hide away in body tissues and spring back into action once the danger appears to have passed, with a new hydrogel that turns different cancer cells into cancer stem cells.

An analysis of 13 case histories has found intravenous injections of stem cells lead to motor function improvements in patients with spinal cord injury. The research claims the therapy is safe but clinical trials are needed to further affirm efficacy.

A breakthrough study from scientists in Japan has homed in on the specific characteristics of stem cells responsible for hair cell regeneration and identified the optimal ingredients to generate continual hair follicle growth.

Glaucoma can cause vision loss that's currently irreversible. But now scientists have found that removing a membrane in the eye could help transplanted cells migrate into the optic nerve and repair the connections, potentially restoring lost vision.