Highlights Cryopreserved human iPSC-mDA neurons retain high viability and midbrain lineage iPSC-mDA neurons secrete dopamine and possess typical electrophysiological parameters Grafted iPSC-mDA neurons survive and innervate rodent and monkey PD models Cryopreserved iPSC-mDA neurons reverse functional motor deficits in 6-OHDA rats Summary A major challenge for clinical application of pluripotent stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s...
Category: <span>Stem Cell Therapy</span>
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New method that leads to the formation of specialized tissue cells for disease treatment
A new method that leads to the formation of specialized tissue cells could improve the understanding of neurodegenerative diseases, inflammatory diseases and cancer. Macrophages are specialized cells involved in tissue development, repair and immunity. Macrophage communities in several types of tissues are derived from ‘yolk-sac precursor cells’, named primitive macrophages, planted there during early embryonic development....
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Stem cell educator therapy may help fight diabetes
Yong Zhao, M.D., Ph.D., an associate scientist at the Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, and colleagues looked at four years of data on nine type 1 diabetes patients in China. Two individuals with type 1 diabetes who received a stem cell educator treatment shortly after diagnosis (five and eight months later) still had normal C-peptide production and...
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Assessing the Safety of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells and Their Derivatives for Clinical Applications
Pluripotent stem cells may acquire genetic and epigenetic variants during culture following their derivation. At a conference organized by the International Stem Cell Initiative, and held at The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine, October 2016, participants discussed how the appearance of such variants can be monitored and minimized and, crucially, how their significance for the...
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Advance furthers stem cells for use in drug discovery, cell therapy
Since highly versatile human stem cells were discovered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison nearly 20 years ago, their path to the market and clinic has been slowed by a range of complications. Both embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells are valued for their ability to form any cell in the body. This week, a UW-Madison team reports...
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Stem cell-based therapy for targeting skin-to-brain cancer
Investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute have a potential solution for how to kill tumor cells that have metastasized to the brain. The team has developed cancer-killing viruses that can deliver stem cells via the carotid artery, and applied them to metastatic tumors in the brain of clinically...
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‘Educating’ patients’ immune cells may help combat diabetes
New research reveals that a treatment called Stem Cell Educator therapy is safe and effective for treating type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The therapy cultures the patient’s immune cells with cord blood stem cells and returns only the “educated” immune cells to the patient’s circulation. The strategy may provide benefits because abnormalities in multiple...
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Cultured epidermal stem cells in regenerative medicine
Abstract Transplantation of cultured epidermal cell sheets (CES) has long been used to treat patients with burns, chronic wounds, and stable vitiligo. In patients with large area burns this can be a life-saving procedure. The ultimate goal, however, is to restore all normal functions of the skin and prevent scar formation. Increased focus on the...
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Directed Differentiation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells to Microglia
Highlights Efficient protocol to generate human microglia from PSCs iPSC-derived microglia have ramified morphology and motile processes Expression and cytokine profiles of iPSC-derived microglia resemble primary microglia iPSC-derived microglia can phagocytose beads and respond to ADP Summary Microglia, the immune cells of the brain, are crucial to proper development and maintenance of the CNS, and...
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In Vitro Models of GJB2-Related Hearing Loss Recapitulate Ca2+ Transients via a Gap Junction Characteristic of Developing Cochlea
Highlights Mutation in GJB2 (CX26) is the most frequent cause of hereditary deafness worldwide Functional CX26-gap junction plaque (GJP)-forming cells were generated from iPSCs These cells exhibited spontaneous Ca2+ transients typical of the developing cochlea The drastic disruption of GJP was observed in in vitro disease model of GJB2 mutation Summary Mutation of the Gap...