Body

Young animals recover from tissue damage better than adults, and from Charles Darwin's time until now, scientists have puzzled over why this is the case. A study published by Cell Press November 7th in the journal Cell has revealed that an evolutionarily conserved gene called Lin28a, which is very active in embryos but not in adults, enhances tissue repair after injury when reactivated in adult mice. The findings open up new avenues for the treatment of injuries and degenerative diseases in adult humans.

A new study from the Ostrow School of Dentistry published in Cell Stem Cell illustrates how changes in cell signaling can cause ordinary stem cells in the jaw to start forming benign but potentially harmful tumors.

Principal investigator Songtao Shi, professor at the Ostrow School of Dentistry Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology, says ossifying fibromas, the tumors focused on in the study, are benign but can grow aggressively and cause progressive enlargement of the jaw.

Tricking algae's biological clock to remain in its daytime setting can dramatically boost the amount of valuable compounds that these simple marine plants can produce when they are grown in constant light.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic researchers have shown that a molecule called Cul4 helps to deposit DNA-packaging histone proteins onto DNA, an integral step in cramming yards of genetic code into compact coils that can fit into each cell. When DNA isn't packaged correctly, it can lead to the genomic instability characteristic of many forms of cancer.

DALLAS – Nov. 7, 2013 – Two groups of scientists at the Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) have made complementary discoveries that break new ground on efforts to turn back the body's clock on cellular activity, paving the way for a better understanding of stem cells, tissue growth, and regeneration.

Harvard Stem Cell Scientists have discovered that the same chemicals that stimulate muscle development in zebrafish can also be used to differentiate human stem cells into muscle cells in the laboratory, an historically challenging task that, now overcome, makes muscle cell therapy a more realistic clinical possibility.

DALLAS – Nov. 7, 2013 – A team of researchers at UT Southwestern has found that as cholesterol is metabolized, a potent stimulant of breast cancer is created – one that fuels estrogen-receptor positive breast cancers, and that may also defeat a common treatment strategy for those cancers.

It might seem obvious that humans are elegant and sophisticated beings in comparison to lowly bacteria, but when it comes to genes, a UC San Francisco scientist wants to turn conventional wisdom about human and bacterial evolution on its head.

Scientists at University of Copenhagen and University of Edinburgh have identified a core set of functionally relevant factors which regulates embryonic stem cells' ability for self-renewal. A key aspect is the protein Oct4 and how it makes stem cells stick together. The identification of these factors will be an important tool in devising better and safer ways of making specialised cells for future regenerative cell therapies for treatment of diseases like diabetes and Parkinson's disease. The results have just been published in the scientific journal Current Biology.

Young animals are known to repair their tissues effortlessly, but can this capacity be recaptured in adults? A new study from researchers at the Stem Cell Program at Boston Children's Hospital suggests that it can. By reactivating a dormant gene called Lin28a, which is active in embryonic stem cells, researchers were able to regrow hair and repair cartilage, bone, skin and other soft tissues in a mouse model.

Depending on the environment in which the worm grows, the larva of the roundworm Pristionchus pacificus develops into either a wide-mouthed predator or a narrow-mouthed bacteria eater. A team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Tübingen, Germany, headed by Ralf J. Sommer have now discovered a developmental biological switch that determines the worm's mouth form. According to this, the scientists are now able to explain how organisms adapt to different surrounding conditions.

The genetic make-up of a patient's tumour could be used to personalise their treatment, and help to decide whether they would benefit from receiving additional drugs as part of their radiotherapy programme, according to a recent study involving scientists from the Manchester Cancer Research Centre.

One-third of all acts of violence are perpetrated under the influence of alcohol. They give rise not only to personal suffering, but also to socio-economic costs. What are the causes of alcohol-related aggression? The authors Anne Beck and Andreas Heinz have investigated this question and present their findings in this edition of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2013; 110 (42): 711).

This news release is available in German.

DETROIT – Primary care physicians who took an online training course about skin cancer detection significantly improved their skill to properly diagnose and manage benign and malignant lesions, according to a national study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

The physicians' enhanced skill level also led to a reduction in unnecessary referrals to dermatology specialists.