Skin Stem Cells tagged posts

Skin stem cells. In blue, a marker of the cell nucleus. In green, a marker for the Dnmt3a protein, which is critical to ensure that cells retain stem cell features. Credit: Lorenzo Rinaldi, IRB Barcelona

The proteins identified, Dnmt3a and Dnmt3b, are crucial for the self-renewal of skin stem cells as they trigger the first step of the genetic programme of these cells. “Without them, this programme is not activated and the stem cells collapse and disappear from the tissue,” explains Salvador Aznar Benitah, head of the Stem Cells and Cancer lab at IRB Barcelona. Our skin renews, heals wounds, and regenerates the hair that covers it thanks to a small group of stem cells. These cells continually produce new ones, which appear on the skin surface after a few days

Lorenzo Rinaldi, a “la Caixa” ...

Researchers have produced insulin-secreting cells from stem cells derived from the skin of patients with type 1 diabetes. The cells (blue), made from stem cells, can secrete insulin (green) in response to glucose. Credit: MILLMAN LABORATORY

Signaling a potential new approach to treating diabetes, researchers have produced insulin-secreting cells from stem cells derived from patients with type1 diabetes. The new discovery suggests a personalized treatment approach to diabetes may be on the horizon – one that relies on the patients’ own stem cells to manufacture new cells that make insulin. The new cells could produce insulin when they encountered sugar. The scientists tested the cells in culture and in mice, and in both cases found the cells secreted insulin in response to glucose.

“In theo...