If you have previously thought (in your spare time) that the conventional wisdom concerning blood formation is that the yolk sac’s embryonic blood-forming cells serve only the embryo, while the source of adult blood-forming stem cells is the region called aorta-gonad-mesonephros (AGM), it’s time to think it again due the elegant experiments of Samokhalov et… Continue reading 2 models of embryonic and adult blood formation: Figure by Ueno and Weissman
…blood cells, “generated in early-stage embryos, for instance in mice in the yolk sac at embryonic day (E) 7.0.-7.5, just 2 or 3 days after the undifferentiated conceptus implants in the uterus.” Source: Ueno-Weissman: Blood lines from embryo to adult Nature 446, 996-997 (26 April 2007)
A really pushing-the-limits paper published by the Scadden lab as a Brief Communication in Nature Biotechnology Advance Online, just like the De Coppi, Atala et al. paper on human amniotic stem cells in January. This time human embryonic stem (hES) cells were differentiated into endothelial cells using a scalable step-by-step two-dimensional method, avoiding the formation… Continue reading Functional blood vessels from hESCs durable for at least 151 days
Circulating bone marrow derived adult stem cells may serve as a backup rescue system if the pool of endogenous stem cells is exhausted (see cartoon). BM derived adult stem cells are the best characterized adult stem cells in humans (reviewed in Vieyra et al, 2005). The hematopoietic stem cell fraction of the bone marrow are… Continue reading Bone marrow derived adult stem cells: which way to go?
BBC News: “Virgin founder Richard Branson is set to launch a company which will let families bank and store stem cells from their child’s umbilical cord.” Question: Why just umbilical cord blood cells, why not amniotic fluid derived stem cells, or amniotic placental stem cells which have a far more wider regenerative potential than cord… Continue reading Virgin’s Branson and stem cell banking
For the first time Quantum Grant goes for international research initiative to regenerate damaged brain cells and blood vessels for the treatment of stroke which occurs when an artery in the brain is blocked. The three-year, $2.9 million grant, funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), part of the NIH, will… Continue reading $2.9 million NIH Quantum Grant for Neuro-Vascular Regeneration to help stroke patients