STANFORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Less than a week after the FDA awarded a fast-tracked approval for a new device to remove blood clots causing acute ischemic strokes, Stanford Hospital & Clinics became the first hospital in Northern California to have it available for use. The Solitaire FR represents a dramatic change from the corkscrew-shaped devices that have been the standard of care for the last decade. A randomized clinical trial of 113 patients at 18 U.S. hospitals comparing the Solitaires effectiveness to the current designs ended early because of the significant improvement in results with the new device. At more than double the rate, the Solitaire cleared the blocked blood vessels. Were obviously excited, said, Michael Marks, MD, chief of interventional neuroradiology at Stanford Hospital. There may still be instances where we use one of the current devices, but were optimistic that well be using this device in the vast majority of cases and that well be successful in clearing clots at a much higher rate. The new device is shaped like a stent, a mesh-like tube. It is inserted into a vessel, opened up and, after a short period of time, pulled out of the vessel. The usual effect is … Continue reading →

Newswise UCLA stem cell researchers have shown that insulin and nutrition keep blood stem cells from differentiating into mature blood cells in Drosophila, the common fruit fly, a finding that has implications for studying inflammatory response and blood development in response to dietary changes in humans. Keeping blood stem cells, or progenitor cells, from differentiating into blood cells is important as they are needed to create the blood supply for the adult fruit fly. The study found that the blood stem cells are receiving systemic signals from insulin and nutritional factors, in this case essential amino acids, that helped them to maintain their stemness, said study senior author Utpal Banerjee, professor and chairman of the molecular, cell and developmental biology department in Life Sciences and a researcher with the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine at UCLA. We expect that this study will promote further investigation of possible direct signal sensing mechanisms by mammalian blood stem cells, Banerjee said. Such studies will probably yield insights into chronic inflammation and the myeloid cell accumulation seen in patients with type II diabetes and other metabolic disorders. The study appears March 11, 2012 in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Cell Biology. In … Continue reading →

LOS ANGELES Researchers at the UCLA stem cell center and the departments of chemistry and biochemistry and pathology and laboratory medicine have identified, for the first time, a generic way to correct mutations in human mitochondrial DNA by targeting corrective RNAs, a finding with implications for treating a host of mitochondrial diseases. Mutations in the human mitochondrial genome are implicated in neuromuscular diseases, metabolic defects and aging. There currently are no methods to successfully repair or compensate for these mutations, said study co-senior author Dr. Michael Teitell, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and a researcher with the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. Between 1,000 and 4,000 children per year in the United States are born with a mitochondrial disease and up to one in 4,000 children in the U.S. will develop a mitochondrial disease by the age of 10, according to Mito Action, a nonprofit organization supporting research into mitochondrial diseases. In adults, many diseases of aging have been associated with defects of mitochondrial function, including diabetes, Parkinson's disease, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer's disease and cancer. "I think this is a finding that could change the field," Teitell said. … Continue reading →

Public release date: 12-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Kim Irwin kirwin@mednet.ucla.edu 310-206-2805 University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences Researchers at the UCLA stem cell center and the departments of chemistry and biochemistry and pathology and laboratory medicine have identified, for the first time, a generic way to correct mutations in human mitochondrial DNA by targeting corrective RNAs, a finding with implications for treating a host of mitochondrial diseases. Mutations in the human mitochondrial genome are implicated in neuromuscular diseases, metabolic defects and aging. There currently are no methods to successfully repair or compensate for these mutations, said study co-senior author Dr. Michael Teitell, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and a researcher with the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. Between 1,000 and 4,000 children per year in the United States are born with a mitochondrial disease and up to one in 4,000 children in the U.S. will develop a mitochondrial disease by the age of 10, according to Mito Action, a nonprofit organization supporting research into mitochondrial diseases. In adults, many diseases of aging have been associated with defects of mitochondrial function, including diabetes, Parkinson's … Continue reading →