News by Subject Medicine & Health

A review of research on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) finds that donor age does not appear to influence their functionality. This validates iPSCs as a viable alternative to embryonic stem cells in regenerative medicine, and highlights the enormous potential of iPSCs derived from elderly patients to treat their age-related diseases.

The research team used model spinal cord injuries in rats for their purposes. As a result, it was found out that therapy by adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells combined with fibrin matrix influences the restoration of motor functions. It also decreases the area of pathological cavities and reduces astroglial activation.

A treatment gap remains for many conditions involving damage to the liver, the body's main organ for removing toxins, among other functions. The Experimental Biology 2018 meeting (EB 2018) will feature important research announcements related to the causes of liver degradation and possible treatments.

When patients undergo a dual kidney-liver transplant, the liver has a protective effect on the kidney, the study found.

Majority of patients with the most severe thalassemia are transfusion-free years after gene therapy that uses the patient's own stem cells.

A transplant biopsy system that uses gene chips to read molecules is far safer and more effective than existing approaches used for heart transplant biopsies and is showing promising results for lung transplant biopsies, new University of Alberta-led research shows.

Experts in pediatric kidney disease have published a new staging system to help doctors better predict the length of time until a child with chronic kidney disease will need to undergo a kidney transplant or start receiving dialysis. Although this type of prognostic guide exists for adults, this is the first such tool specific to children.

MicroRNA-17-92 is required for the T-cell and B-cell pathogenicity that drives chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) after allogeneic bone marrow transplant (BMT), report investigators at The Medical University of South Carolina in an article prepublished online March 12, 2018 by Blood. Data from cGVHD mouse models showed that, by determining T-cell and B-cell differentiation and function, miR-17-92 is responsible for cGVHD development. Inhibiting miR-17 is a potential therapeutic strategy for preventing cGVHD in BMT patients.