Public release date: 3-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Bonnie Prescott bprescot@bidmc.harvard.edu 617-667-7306 Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center BOSTON -- A mere 25 years ago, noncoding RNAs were considered nothing more than "background noise" in the overall genomic landscape. Now, two new studies reveal that one of these tiny noncoding molecules microRNA-22 plays an outsized role in two types of cancer. Reported on-line today in the journals Cell and Cell Stem Cell, the two papers demonstrate in mouse models that miR-22 drives both the onset and spread of breast cancer, as well as the onset of blood cancer. The findings, led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), further suggest that inhibition of miR-22 through a "decoy" method offers a novel therapeutic option for treating hematological malignancies. "This is the first time that a microRNA has been shown to drive both cancer initiation and metastasis in a mouse model," explains senior author Pier Paolo Pandolfi, MD, PhD, Scientific Director of the Cancer Center at BIDMC and the George Reisman Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "It's amazing that, by itself, this one little microRNA can trigger cancer in two different organs, perhaps in many more, … Continue reading →

Source: ONE News A functioning human liver has been successfully grown in a mouse by scientists in Japan, opening up the prospect of a future where replacement organs are grown on demand. The ground-breaking research, published in the latest edition of Nature, involved the scientists creating a liver "bud" in a laboratory using stem cells and then transplanting it into the rodent. The tiny but functioning human liver matured after being transplanted into the mouse, developing a vascular system and performing liver-specific functions. Takanori Takebe and Hideki Taniguchi, of the Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine, said the breakthrough proved the concept of organ bud transplantation for the first time. "Although efforts must ensue to translate these techniques to treatments for patients, this proof-of-concept demonstration of organ-bud transplantation provides a promising new approach to study regenerative medicine," the researchers said. Tests on the mouse showed the minute liver, which measured just half a centimetre, was able to perform liver-specific functions such as protein production and human-specific drug metabolism. "These results highlight the enormous therapeutic potential using in vitro-grown organ-bud transplantation for treating organ failure," the study concluded. While it may take another 10 years before lab-grown livers could be … Continue reading →

A mixture of three cell types self-assembles into a liver bud that can be seen with the naked eye. In work that will raise hope that organs could be repaired or even grown from scratch using a patients own tissue as the raw material, Japanese researchers have created functioning liver tissue from stem cells and successfully transplanted them into mice. The researchers found that a mixture of human liver precursor cells and two other cell types can spontaneously form three-dimensional structures dubbed liver buds. In the mice, these liver buds formed functional connections with natural blood vessels and perform some liver-specific functions such as breaking down drugs in the bloodstream. Its possible the technique will work with other organ types, including the pancreas, kidney, or lungs, lead author Takanori Takebe, a scientist at Yokohama City University in Japan, said Tuesday at a press conference, aided by a translator. The study, published in Nature on Wednesday, is the first demonstration that a rudimentary human organ can be produced using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, says Takebe. These iPS cells are made by converting mature cells such as skin cells into a state from which they can develop into many other cell … Continue reading →

Bharat Book Presents : Mesenchymal Stem Cells Advances And Applications To know more : http://www.bharatbook.com/stem-cells-market-research-reports/mesenchymal-stem-cells-advances-and-applications.html Executive Summary Mesenchym... By: Deepa Kamath … Continue reading →

TOKYO: In a world first, Japanese scientists have grown human liver tissue from stem cells, paving way for alleviating the critical shortage of donor organs. Takanori Takebe and Hideki Taniguchi at Yokohama City University showed the generation of vascularised and functional human liver from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) by transplantation of in vitro grown liver buds (rudimentary liver). The study demonstrates a proof-of-concept that organ bud transplantation offers an alternative approach for treating organ failure by generating a 3D and vascularised organ. During the early liver organogenesis, liver progenitor cells delaminate from the foregut endodermal sheet and form a three-dimensional liver bud (LB), a condensed tissue mass that is soon vascularised. Such large-scale morphogenetic changes depend on the orchestration of signals between liver, mesenchymal and endothelial progenitors prior to blood perfusion. "These observations led us to hypothesise that three-dimensional (3D) liver bud formation can be mimicked in vitro by culturing hepatic endoderm cells with endothelial and mesenchymal lineages," researchers said "Here, we found that, although cells were plated on 2D conditions, hiPSC-derived liver progenitos organised into macroscopically visible 3D liver bud (hiPSC-LBs, or "rudimentary liver") by cultivating with human endothelial cells and human mesenchymal cells, presumably mimicking the … Continue reading →

Brenda Goodman HealthDay Reporter Posted: Wednesday, July 3, 2013, 2:00 PM WEDNESDAY, July 3 (HealthDay News) -- Japanese scientists report they've turned a cocktail of stem cells into the world's first functioning livers. The tiny livers were created in the lab and transplanted into mice, where they grew and began to perform the same functions as human-sized livers, including metabolizing drugs and making liver-specific proteins. Though very basic -- the experimental livers don't have all the features of full-grown organs -- it's believed to be the first time scientists have grown a three-dimensional organ in the lab using only cells. Previously, scientists have made solid organs using stem cells that are seeded onto some kind of scaffold, either a donor organ that's been washed of all its original cells or some kind of artificial material. But one expert said this latest approach takes the concept one step further. "This is a different strategy to create tissues and organs," said Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine, in Winston-Salem, N.C. "The work is very important because it allows you to study how organs are created and how they give rise to more functional complex systems," Atala … Continue reading →