Government Crackdowns Can Cripple Bogus Stem Cell 'Cures' Industry

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• October 11, 2024
• Full Page

Hucksters offering bogus stem cell treatments can be deterred through government action, a new study says.

About 60% of direct-to-consumer advertising from fly-by-night stem cell clinics ceased after regulators in Canada and Australia intervened, researchers noted in the...

Stem Cell Therapy Might Repair Vision-Robbing Holes in Retinas

• Carole Tanzer Miller HealthDay Reporter
• October 3, 2024
• Full Page

Japanese researchers have successfully used a transplant of human stem cells to close a hole in a key part of a monkey's retina.

They say the achievement could pave the way for better treatment of small gaps that form in the macula, the central part of the eye's retina. ...

Safe Pregnancies Possible After Stem Cell Treatment for Blood Cancer

• Ernie Mundell HealthDay Reporter
• July 16, 2024
• Full Page

Women who've undergone stem cell treatments for blood cancers, or for illnesses such as sickle cell disease, can successfully bring a pregnancy to term, new research shows.

The German findings run counter to the perceived wisdom on this issue: Many such patients...

Stem Cell Therapy Could Be Breakthrough Against Type 1 Diabetes

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• June 25, 2024
• Full Page

An experimental stem cell therapy can essentially cure type 1 diabetes by restoring insulin production in some patients, early clinical trial results show.

Strategy Could Expand Stem Cell Donor Pool for People Battling Blood Cancers

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• May 28, 2024
• Full Page

An older drug used in a new way could open the path for more patients with potentially deadly blood cancers to receive a lifesaving stem cell transplant, a new study finds.

The drug, cyclophosphamide, could help patients receive a stem cell transplant even if the donor i...

Stem Cells From Patients' Fat Can Help Treat Spinal Cord Injuries

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• April 1, 2024
• Full Page

Stem cells derived from a patient's own fat can safely help improve sensation and movement after a spinal cord injury, a new, small study finds.

Patients treated with these stem cells experienced increased sensation from pinpricks and light touches, increased muscle stre...

Stem Cell Therapy Boosts Quality of Life for People With Advanced Heart Failure

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• December 15, 2023
• Full Page

Patients with advanced heart failure can benefit from stem cell therapy, a large, new clinical trial has found.

Injections of stem cells programmed to heal damaged heart tissue wound up improving overall quality of life for heart failure patients, compared to those who r...

Early Promise for Stem Cell Therapy to Curb MS

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• November 28, 2023
• Full Page

Stem cells injected into the brains of multiple sclerosis patients appear to protect them against further damage from the degenerative disease, a new study shows.

MS occurs when the body's own immune system attacks and damages the protective sheath around nerve fibers, c...

Clinics Hawking Bogus Stem Cell Cures for Long COVID Are Everywhere

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• October 26, 2023
• Full Page

Dozens of fly-by-night businesses are marketing unproven and potentially dangerous stem cell treatments to people experiencing long COVID, a new study warns.

Researchers have identified 38 businesses engaged in direct-to-consumer marketing of purported stem cell treatmen...

Stem Cell Therapy Could Be Breakthrough Against Type 1 Diabetes

• Denise Mann HealthDay Reporter
• October 4, 2023
• Full Page

People with type 1 diabetes lack functional islet cells in their pancreas to produce the hormone insulin and must take daily insulin via injections or a continuous pump to compensate.

But if

Stem Cell Treatment Halts MS for Some Patients

• Amy Norton HealthDay Reporter
• September 27, 2023
• Full Page

A new study is strengthening the evidence that stem cell transplants can be highly effective for some people with multiple sclerosis -- sending the disease into remission for years, and sometimes reversing disability.

Researchers found that of 174 MS patients who underwe...

In a First, Scientists Grow Human Kidneys Inside Pigs

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• September 7, 2023
• Full Page

For the first time ever, a solid humanized organ has been grown from scratch in an animal -- a first step in a process that could potentially solve organ shortages and save countless lives.

Chinese researchers grew partially human early-stage kidneys inside embryonic pig...

Blinded by Chemical Burns, Patients Regained Sight With New Stem Cell Therapy

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• August 18, 2023
• Full Page

Phillip Durst was working near an industrial dishwasher when something went awry, and the machinery spewed caustic chemicals into his eyes.

"If I had been standing a foot left or right, it wouldn't have hit me right where it did. I was just standing in the wrong pla...

Stem Cells Might Someday Create New Tooth Enamel or 'Living Fillings'

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• August 18, 2023
• Full Page

Damaged teeth could one day be repaired with "living fillings"created from stem cells, a new study reports.

In the lab, researchers induced stem cells to form small, multicellular mini-organs that secrete the proteins that form tooth enamel, according to a report publish...

Brain 'Organoid' Study Hints at the Origins of Autism

• Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
• August 11, 2023
• Full Page

Research using three-dimensional replicas of the developing brain created in a lab dish is shedding new light on autism spectrum disorder.

Yale researchers found two paths to autism in the developing brain.

"It's amazing that children with the same symptoms end up ...

European Man May Be 6th Person to Be 'Cured' of HIV

• Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
• July 20, 2023
• Full Page

It's rare for someone with HIV to go into remission and be considered "cured," but a European man may be the sixth to do so.

First diagnosed with HIV in 1990, the man had been taking antiretroviral drugs since 2005 and received a stem cell transplant two years ago to tre...

First Synthetic Human Embryo Models Created in Lab

• Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
• June 15, 2023
• Full Page

Scientists say they have created the first synthetic human embryo models, not actual human embryos but models meant to simulate and better understand early human development.

These embryo-like structures were created from single human embryonic stem cells, without eggs a...

More Evidence Gene Therapy Might Cure Sickle Cell Disease

• Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
• June 12, 2023
• Full Page

A clinical trial that's attempting to discover a cure for sickle cell disease has found a new gene therapy to be safe and successful in four patients.

Two of the patients were treated at Cleveland Clinic Children's in Ohio, and doctors there are hopeful that their positi...

Scientists Create Monkey Embryo From Stem Cells

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• April 6, 2023
• Full Page

Scientists have created an embryo-like structure using monkey embryonic stem cells for the first time, part of an effort to better understand early human development and organ formation.

The researchers created the structures in a lab in China and then transferred them i...

10 Years on, Stem Cell Transplant May Have Cured Patient of HIV

• Amy Norton HealthDay Reporter
• February 20, 2023
• Full Page

A man who underwent a stem cell transplant to treat his cancer is showing "strong evidence" that the procedure also cured him of HIV -- the latest in a handful of cases doctors have reported.

The patient, a man in his 50s, was HIV-positive when he underwent a stem cell t...

Stem Cell Therapy May Slow MS Better Than Meds: Study

• Amy Norton HealthDay Reporter
• December 28, 2022
• Full Page

A new study is adding to evidence that people with multiple sclerosis can benefit from a type of stem cell transplant -- including some patients who are in a more advanced phase of the disease.

The research is the latest look at a potential alternative treatment for some...

Scientists Create Synthetic Mouse Embryo With Brain, Beating Heart

• By Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter
• August 26, 2022
• Full Page

Using only mouse stem cells, British researchers report they have created synthetic embryos that form a brain, a beating heart and other organs.

The stem cells ...

Study in Rats Offers Hope for New Parkinson's Therapy

• By Robert Preidt HealthDay Reporter
• May 19, 2022
• Full Page

Experimental stem cell replacement therapy for Parkinson's disease shows promise in rats and will soon be tested in a human clinical trial, researchers say.

"We cannot be more excited by the opportunity to help individuals who suffer from [a] genetic form of Parkinson's ...

'Human Cell Atlas' Maps 1 Million Cell Types in 33 Organs

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• May 12, 2022
• Full Page

An international research effort has unveiled the most extensive reference map yet of individual cells within the human body, knowledge that could revolutionize the study of health and disease.

The massive Human Cell Atlas contains detailed maps of more than one million ...

Researchers May Be Close to a Cure for Type 1 Diabetes

• February 25, 2022
• Full Page

Science could be well on its way to a cure for type 1 diabetes, as researchers hone transplant therapies designed to restore patients' ability to produce t...

Woman Cured of HIV After Umbilical Cord Blood Transplant

• February 16, 2022
• Full Page

A woman with HIV who received an umbilical cord blood transplant has become the third person in the world to be cured of the virus that causes AIDS.

The two others, both men, were cured after receiving bone marrow transplants from donors who carried a mutation that block...

COVID-19 Can Cause Scarring of Kidneys: Study

• Alan Mozes HealthDay Reporter
• December 29, 2021
• Full Page

COVID-19 patients are at risk for serious long-term kidney damage, according to the results of a new investigation.

The damage appears to come from the virus' ability to directly infect the kidneys. And in some cases, the scarring and damage may last well beyond the COVI...

New Clues to How Ovarian Cancer Begins -- and Might Be Prevented

• Cara Murez
• December 29, 2021
• Full Page

Researchers say they may be closer than ever to detecting ovarian cancer earlier and improving the odds for women with this life-threatening disease.

In a new study, scientists used stem cells created from the blood samples of women with BRCA mutations and ovarian cancer...

Could Gene Therapy Help Cure Sickle Cell Disease?

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• December 13, 2021
• Full Page

A gene therapy that could provide a permanent cure for sickle cell disease continues to show success through a third wave of patients, researchers report.

The therapy, LentiGlobin, restored normal blood function in 35 sickle cell patients who had the one-time procedure, ...

Gene Therapy May Reverse Hurler Syndrome, a Rare and Severe Illness in Kids

• Amy Norton HealthDay Reporter
• November 18, 2021
• Full Page

Gene therapy might soon offer a new option for children with a rare genetic disorder that damages tissues throughout the body, researchers are reporting.

In a study of eight children with the condition, called Hurler syndrome, researchers found that the gene therapy was ...

Stem Cell Therapy Boosts Outcomes for Some Heart Failure Patients

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• November 16, 2021
• Full Page

Heart failure patients who fit a specific profile can benefit from injection of stem cells delivered directly into their heart muscle, a new study finds.

Patients with mild or moderate heart failure who have high levels of inflammation responded well to the stem cell inj...

Sales of Unproven, Unapproved Stem Cell Therapies Are Booming

• Robert Preidt
• November 8, 2021
• Full Page

The sale of unproven and unapproved stem cell treatments has skyrocketed in the United States, according to a new five-year study.

The study found a fourfold jump since 2016 in the availability of the treatments, which claim to do everything from relieving pain to slowin...

Bald Truth: Mouse Study May Get at Roots of Hair Loss

• Robert Preidt
• October 28, 2021
• Full Page

New research in mice may provide clues to age-related hair loss in men and women.

Scientists found that as hair stem cells in mice age, they lose the stickiness that keeps them secured inside the hair follicle. This allows the stem cells to drift away from the follicle.<...

Ten Years On, Gene Therapy Still Beating Most Cases of 'Bubble Boy' Immune Disease

• Robert Preidt
• October 21, 2021
• Full Page

Nine of 10 patients with so-called "bubble boy" immune disease who received gene therapy about a decade ago are still disease-free, researchers report.

The gene therapy was developed at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to treat the rare and deadly immune...