Monthly Archives: February 2014

Posted: Monday, February 17, 2014, 7:00 AM

SUNDAY, Feb. 16, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- As millions of aging Baby Boomers know, muscle tone and strength declines with advancing age, regardless of gym workouts. Now scientists say they might have uncovered a clue as to why that happens -- and new cell targets to help reverse it.

In studies in aging mice, researchers at Stanford University found that, over time, the stem cells that help repair damaged muscle cells after injury are less able to do so.

This helps explain why regaining strength and recovering from a muscle injury gets more difficult with age, the researchers said in work published online Feb. 16 in the journal Nature Medicine.

"In the past, it's been thought that muscle stem cells themselves don't change with age, and that any loss of function is primarily due to external factors in the cells' environment," study senior author Helen Blau, director of Stanford's Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology, said in a university news release.

"However, when we isolated stem cells from older mice, we found that they exhibit profound changes with age," said Blau, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the university. "Two-thirds of the cells are dysfunctional when compared to those from younger mice, and the defect persists even when transplanted into young muscles."

The research also revealed, however, that there is a defect specific to old muscle stem cells that can be corrected, allowing scientists to rejuvenate the cells.

"Most exciting is that we also discovered a way to overcome the defect," Blau said. "As a result, we have a new therapeutic target that could one day be used to help elderly human patients repair muscle damage."

The muscle stem cells in 2-year-old mice are the equivalent of those found in 80-years-old humans. In conducting the study, the researchers found that many muscle stem cells from these mice had increased activity in a certain biological pathway that interferes with the production of the stem cells.

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Scientists Get Closer to Rejuvenating Aging Muscles

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17-Feb-2014

Contact: Philip Bernstein, Ph.D. ITNCommunications@immunetolerance.org 240-235-6132 Immune Tolerance Network

WA, Seattle (February 17, 2014) A new study describes the complexity of the new T cell repertoire following immune-depleting therapy to treat multiple sclerosis, improving our understanding of immune tolerance and clinical outcomes.

In the Immune Tolerance Network's (ITN) HALT-MS study, 24 patients with relapsing, remitting multiple sclerosis received high-dose immunosuppression followed by a transplant of their own stem cells, called an autologous stem cell transplant, to potentially reprogram the immune system so that it stops attacking the brain and spinal cord. Data published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation quantified and characterized T cell populations following this aggressive regimen to understand how the reconstituting immune system is related to patient outcomes.

ITN investigators used a high-throughput, deep-sequencing technology (Adaptive Biotechnologies, ImmunoSEQTM Platform) to analyze the T cell receptor (TCR) sequences in CD4+ and CD8+ cells to compare the repertoire at baseline pre-transplant, two months post-transplant and 12 months post-transplant.

Using this approach, alongside conventional flow cytometry, the investigators found that CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes exhibit different reconstitution patterns following transplantation. The scientists observed that the dominant CD8+ T cell clones present at baseline were expanded at 12 months post-transplant, suggesting these clones were not effectively eradicated during treatment. In contrast, the dominant CD4+ T cell clones present at baseline were undetectable at 12 months, and the reconstituted CD4+ T cell repertoire was predominantly comprised of new clones.

The results also suggest the possibility that differences in repertoire diversity early in the reconstitution process might be associated with clinical outcomes. Nineteen patients who responded to treatment had a more diverse repertoire two months following transplant compared to four patients who did not respond. Despite the low number of non-responders, these comparisons approached statistical significance and point to the possibility that complexity in the T cell compartment may be important for establishing immune tolerance.

This is one of the first studies to quantitatively compare the baseline T cell repertoire with the reconstituted repertoire following autologous stem cell transplant, and provides a previously unseen in-depth analysis of how the immune system reconstitutes itself following immune-depleting therapy.

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Extensive renewal of the T cell repertoire following autologous stem cell transplant in MS

Havana, Feb 16 (IANS): More than 5,000 patients have received stem cell treatment in Cuba since its procedure was introduced in 2004, a medical expert said.

Porfirio Hernandez, researcher and vice director at the Hematology and Immunology Institute in Cuba, said the stem cell treatment method has been implemented in 13 of the 15 provinces in Cuba.

As a widely acknowledged pioneer of this practice, Hernandez said that more than 60 percent of patients receiving the treatment had suffered from severe ischemia at lower limbs and other blood vessel related ailments, reported Xinhua.

The therapy has also been used to reduce the sufferings of patients with severe orthopedic and cardiac problems, Hernandez added.

Stem cells are capable of self-renewing, regenerating tissues damaged by diverse disease, traumas, and ageing, and stimulating the creation of new blood vessels.

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Over 5,000 Cubans receive stem cell treatment: Expert

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