A new study, carried out on mice, shows great promise for developing treatments that restore vision in blind people. According to researchers, gene therapy is helping the retina to restructure itself, regain normal light responses and, ultimately regain vision in mice. A paper, published in JNeurosci, outlines the findings and supports the continued development of treatments for
Injured axons instruct Schwann cells to build specialized actin spheres to break down and remove axon fragments, thereby starting the regeneration process Damaged peripheral nerves can regenerate after an injury, for example, following a forearm fracture. Axons, the long projections of neurons that transmit stimuli or signals to other cells, are affected in the case
Sangamo Therapeutics and Pfizer have reported additional findings from the Phase I/II Alta clinical trial of investigational gene therapy SB-525 to treat patients with severe haemophilia A. SB-525 is made up of a recombinant adeno-associated virus serotype 6 vector (AAV6) that encodes the complementary deoxyribonucleic acid for B domain deleted human Factor VIII (FVIII). During
Source NIH The blood-brain barrier, or BBB, is a dense sheet of cells that surrounds most of the brain’s blood vessels. The BBB’s tiny gaps let vital small molecules, such as oxygen and water, diffuse from the bloodstream into the brain while helping to keep out larger, impermeable foreign substances that don’t belong there. But
Orgenesis, a developer, manufacturer and service provider of advanced cell therapies, announced that the United States Food & Drug Administration (“FDA”) has granted Orphan Drug designation for its Autologous Insulin Producing (“AIP”) cells as a cell replacement therapy for the treatment of severe hypoglycemia-prone diabetes resulting from total pancreatectomy (“TP”) due to chronic pancreatitis (“CP”).
Two recent studies highlight novel ways to combat pattern hair loss in men and women using small molecules such as JAK inhibitors that reawaken dormant hair follicles, as well as stem cell therapies aimed at growing new follicles. In the first study, researchers led by Angela Christiano, PhD, the Richard & Mildred Rhodebeck Professor of Dermatology at
Tendon tissues have limited healing capacity. The incidence of tendon injuries and the unsatisfactory functional outcomes of tendon repair are driving the search for alternative therapeutic approaches envisioning tendon regeneration. Cellular therapies aim at delivering adequate, regeneration-competent cell types to the injured tendon and toward ultimately promoting its reconstruction and recovery of functionality. Mesenchymal stem
At U.S. clinics advertising unproven stem cell treatments, roughly two-thirds of the clinicians may be physicians, but a new study suggests these doctors are often trained in specialties unrelated to the services they provide. “About half of the companies we examined offer unproven stem cell treatments for conditions (for) which they do not have a
This paper on Trends in Cell Biology has been yesterday by Research Group on Stem Cell Aging, Leibniz Institute on Aging – Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI), Beutenbergstr. 11, 07745 Jena, Germany with the following highlights: The quiescence stage of stem cells has beneficial and adverse effects on stem cell aging. Stem cell quiescence delays stem
Crystallized drug prevents immune system rejection of transplanted pancreatic islet cells. When medical devices are implanted in the body, the immune system often attacks them, producing scar tissue around the device. This buildup of tissue, known as fibrosis, can interfere with the device’s function. MIT researchers have now come up with a novel way to
