Space travel will entail exposure of astronauts to a range of radiation insults that can negatively affect
adult stem cell function.
She will study how normal, healthy bone marrow stem cells find a niche and how niche environment
regulates stem cell functions such as self - renewal and differentiation.
«Our results with Drosophila exhibit surprising similarities in some respects to what we know about the regulation of resting phases in mammals, allowing for speculation as to whether the Hippo signaling pathway in neural
stem cells functions in the same manner in both vertebrates and invertebrates,» stated the paper's first author Rouven Ding.
We are exploring several key fundamental processes in aging: how nutrition and exercise affect aging; how to
enhance stem cell function for rejuvenation; how genes and small molecules can prolong lifespan; how aging predisposes to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other chronic diseases of aging.
Together, these observations demonstrate that blood - forming stem cells require a highly regulated rate of protein synthesis, such that increases or decreases in that rate
impair stem cell function.
Aging is characterized by an accumulation of molecular damage, decreased stress responses, and a
reduced stem cell function, regeneration and organ maintenance.
Now, a research team at Lund University in Sweden has uncovered a completely new mechanism that controls how proteins are produced to
direct stem cell function.
The therapeutic use of stem cells is a promising area of medicine for the decades ahead and researchers are examining
why stem cells function in certain types of niches, microenvironments, and pockets of activity.
Cancer patients undergoing stem cell transplantation face two hurdles: the short - term challenge of having enough white blood cells to fight possible infections immediately following the transplant and the long - term challenge of
sustaining stem cell function to maintain immunity.
A molecule critical to
stem cell function plays a major role in determining human hair color, according to a study from the Stanford University School of Medicine.
«
Stem cells function far differently in mice than in monkeys,» says biologist Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a senior scientist in the Division of Reproductive and Developmental Sciences at Oregon National Primate Research Center and lead author of the monkey study.
«This information yields new insights into how
sperm stem cells function and develop under normal circumstances,» says the study's lead author Bradley Cairns, PhD, senior director of basic science at HCI and professor and chair of oncological sciences at the U of U. «We have built a very important framework we can now use to help us understand what happens when things go wrong, resulting in issues like infertility and cancer in men.»
«Amazingly, when the ribosomal mutant mice and the Pten mutant mice were bred together,
stem cell function returned to normal, and we greatly delayed, and in some instances entirely blocked, the development of leukemia,» Dr. Morrison said.
The restoration technology being developed at Advanced Regen has demonstrated that loss of
aged stem cell function can be restored through exposure to soluble molecular signals released by stem cells from young, healthy individuals.
«We've uncovered a fundamental role for Pol III in adult flies and worms: its activity negatively
impacts stem cell function, gut health and the animal's survival,» says first author on the study, Danny Filer.
Moderated by Ingo Roder and his co-chair, Markus Loeffler, the participants discussed old and new questions and challenges with respect to the regulation of
stem cell function by their local environment.
These cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), are created by forcing adult cells to produce proteins specific to
embryonic stem cell functions, causing the adult cells to look and act like ESCs.
«Instead, some cancer cells seem to reactivate and corrupt programs that govern fetal
tissue stem cell function, including programs from their neighboring cells that constitute the surrounding fetal stem cell landscape, or microenvironment.»
Stem cell functions continue to be governed by day and night cycles (circadian rhythms) during ageing, but their rhythms become devoted to tissue repair and not to the maintenance of tissue tone.
How do adult stem cells communicate with their local environment (i.e. niche) and how is the system coordinated to
dictate stem cell function?
Since then he has continued to investigate new strategies to overcome the major hurdles to safe and effective gene transfer, translate then into new therapeutic strategies for genetic disease and cancer, and allowed new insights into
hematopoietic stem cell function, induction of immunological tolerance and tumor angiogenesis.
What intrinsic (cell autonomous) mechanisms regulate
adult stem cell function, and how are they deregulated during ageing and cancer?
«Our findings determine the potential negative effects of inflammation
on stem cell function as they're currently used.
«Through this kind of a combination of things,» Bursac explains, «we managed to get tissue - engineered muscle but with a capacity to have
a stem cell function and be able to regenerate the muscle after injury.»
The study of developmental signals (e.g. Hedgehog and Wnt) has led to major leaps in our understanding of
stem cell function, normal physiology and disease.
In both instances,
stem cell function was noticeably impaired.
They are defining the gene regulatory networks and signaling pathways underlying heart, nerve and limb regeneration, wound healing, immune responses to injury,
stem cell function and the loss of regenerative capacity with age.