Key stem cells for repairing knee joints identified by Aberdeen scientists. Stem cells that seem key for maintaining and repairing the body’s knee joints have been identified by scientists. Researchers from the University of Aberdeen’s Centre for Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Health published the findings today (Tuesday May 16) in Nature Communications. Our joints are surrounded...
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Stem cells may significantly improve tendon healing by regulating inflammation
New research published online in The FASEB Journal suggests that tendon stem (TSCs) may be able to significantly improve tendon healing by regulating inflammation, which contributes to scar-like tendon healing and chronic matrix degradation. This has implications for the treatment of acute tendon injuries and chronic tendon disease. “Inflammation plays a critical role in acute and chronic tendon...
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Understanding the architecture of our ‘second brain’
Nerve cells (yellow) from the same parent cell are organized in 3D columns that extend through the layers of the gut wall. Scientists have made an important step in understanding the organisation of nerve cells embedded within the gut that control its function – a discovery that could give insight into the origin of...
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Discovery may offer hope to Parkinson’s disease patients
Immunohistochemistry for alpha-synuclein showing positive staining (brown) of an intraneural Lewy-body in the Substantia nigra in Parkinson’s disease. The finding of a common protein abnormality in these degenerative diseases supports a hypothesis among experts that abnormal deposition of proteins in many neurodegenerative disorders reflects an early change in these proteins. “We have pinpointed a...
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Cannabis for kids: Some parents praise pot to treat autism, other disorders despite lack of research
ARIZONA — To say Brandy Williams was a desperate parent is an understatement. “No mother should feel like a punching bag,” she said while describing what was happening with her little boy Logan. “He was literally cocking his head back and smashing it forward on hard objects around our house. I had 30 dents in...
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Ketamine finds market as costly off-label option to treat mental disorders
Ketamine has been used for decades as an anesthetic, but researchers are exploring its potential as a treatment for severe forms of mental illnesses like OCD and bipolar disorder. As research shows that the hallucinogen is a potentially powerful treatment for intractable mental disorders, and academics continue to debate its safety, private clinics across...
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Tau prevents synaptic transmission at early stage of neurodegeneration
Tau proteins are involved in more than twenty neurodegenerative diseases, including various forms of dementia. These proteins clump together in patients’ brains to form neuronal tangles: protein aggregation that eventually coincides with the death of brain cells. Prof. Patrik Verstreken’s research team (VIB-KU Leuven) has now discovered how tau disrupts the functioning of nerve cells,...
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Strategic brain training positively affects neural connectivity for individuals with TBI
A thresholded Z-statistical maps and anatomical views for between-group differences in resting-state functional connectivity changes over time and at TP3 (|Z|>1.96, pNBS < .05). NBS,network-based statistics. Credit: Han K, Davis RA, …more A recent study from the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas shows that a certain type of instructor-led brain...
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Stem cell transplants may advance ALS treatment by repair of blood-spinal cord barrier
ALS mice improved with stem cell therapy; first step for science in finding better treatment Researchers at the University of South Florida show in a new study that bone marrow stem cell transplants helped improve motor functions and nervous system conditions in mice with the disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) by repairing damage to the...
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Let there be tissue: More precise, controlled method of engineering tissues from stem cells
Near-infrared light is used to precisely engineer stem cells into tissue. Nothing beats nature. The diverse and wonderful varieties of cells and tissues that comprise the human body are evidence of that. Each one of us starts out as a mass of identical, undifferentiated cells, and thanks to a combination of signals and forces, each...