Stem Cells

After a heart attack this vital organ remains damaged, which can eventually lead to heart failure and death. Now, researchers have managed to use placental stem cells to regenerate heart cells in mice, which could lead to groundbreaking new treatments for heart attack victims.

Unfortunately stem cells lack some of the self-defense mechanisms that other cells have, leaving them open to attack from viruses and other threats. Now, researchers from the University of Edinburgh may have found a way to switch this mechanism back on, making stem cell treatments more effective.

An incredible new study has for the first time found a way to transform skin cells into all three of the stem cell types that make up an early-stage embryo. This extraordinary discovery points a way toward creating an embryo without the need for an egg or sperm.

​For many years now, scientists have been seeking methods of helping to heal chronic wounds such as those suffered by diabetics. One of the latest possible techniques involves re-engineering the membranes of stem cells, so that those cells essentially get welded together.

This installment of our Revolutions series brings you up to date with the ground-breaking new discoveries made around the regenerative possibilities of induced pluripotent stem cells, which can theoretically be coaxed into any kind of cell in the human body.

Scientists report the “functional cure” of an HIV patient for only the second time ever. Known only as “the London patient”, the man received a transplant of bone marrow stem cells from a donor that had a resistance to the virus. The patient has now been in remission for 18 months.

In an incredible milestone, scientists have for the first time created “universal” stem cells by using CRISPR gene-editing technology to produce pluripotent stem cells that can be transplanted into any patient without generating an immune system response.

Stem cell researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) have successfully managed to grow human blood vessels in the lab. The finding could mark a giant leap forward in the fight against vascular diseases.

A possible diabetes cure could be found by replenishing a patient’s own supply of beta cells, which naturally produce insulin. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are a step closer to that kind of treatment, after tweaking the recipe for turning stem cells into beta cells.

A fascinating study has revealed a method that forces malignant breast cancer cells to turn into fat cells. The research, currently demonstrated in mice, suggests the process could stop tumors from metastasizing and potentially make the cancer more susceptible to conventional chemotherapy.

Royal jelly is a substance that separates queen bees from rest. For the first time, scientists have not only zeroed on the protein behind its incredible growth spurts, they’ve used its structure to identify a similar protein in mammals.

Whether or not cardiac stem cells exist has been up for debate, but now European scientists claim to have created a cell-by-cell map of a mouse heart before and after a heart attack – and found no evidence of stem cells at all.