skin cells tagged posts

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have succeeded in restoring mobility and sensation of touch in stroke-afflicted rats by reprogramming human skin cells to become nerve cells, which were then transplanted into the rats’ brains. The study has now been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“Six months after the transplantation, we could see how the new cells had repaired the damage that a stroke had caused in the rats’ brains,” says Professor Zaal Kokaia, who together with senior professor Olle Lindvall and researcher Sara Palma-Tortosa at the Division of Neurology is behind the study.

Several previous studies from the Lund team and others have shown that it is possible to transplant nerve cells derived from human stem cells or from reprog...

Images showing the difference in the prevalence of p53 in the oral tissue of a 28-year-old (left) and a 74-year-old (right). Credit: Dr. Reuben Kim

UCLA researchers have found that a protein that serves as a suppressor of cancer diminishes in skin and mouth epithelial cells as the human body ages. Dr. No-Hee Park, UCLA School of Dentistry dean and his team have been studying p53, tumor suppressor protein, “guardian of the genome” involved in DNA repair, cell cycle regulation and cellular deterioration.

“Looking at ways to maintain levels of p53 as one ages may provide a therapeutic clue to preventing cancer development,” said Park. Previous studies have shown p53 accumulates in large quantities as connective tissue cells, called fibroblasts, age and stop dividing...

Salk researchers have generated disease-free stem cells from patients with mitochondrial disease that can be converted into any cell type including neuronal progenitors (left) or heart cells (right). These could potentially be used for future transplantation into patients.
Credit: Salk Institute

Healthy stem cells differentiate into any cell type for potential cures including brain, muscle, eye and heart cells which would improve the lives of tens of thousands of people around the world with debilitating mitochondrial diseases. “Right now, there are no cures for mitochondrial diseases,” says Prof Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte from Salk’s Gene Expression Lab. “Very recently, we’ve developed ways to prevent these diseases, so it was natural to next ask how we could treat them.”

Mitochondria...