A Special Issue on Stem Cell Research

Stem cells possess the remarkable ability of extensive self-renewal and differentiation into specific cell lineages, and they play essential roles in development and adult tissue homeostasis. Due to their critical importance in normal physiology and the promise for use in regenerative medicine to treat a variety of diseases, stem cells have attracted extensive research interest in recent years. As China's premium international journal with a broad scope in cell and molecular biology, Cell Research has witnessed more and more submissions on stem cell research. Indeed, along with the traditional strengths of the journal in molecular immunology, cancer biology, and plant molecular physiology, stem cell research has gradually and naturally evolved into a new growth point of Cell Research. Reflecting the growing interest of both our readers and authors in this exciting and expanding field, we are pleased to present this Special Issue on Stem Cell Research. The life of a stem cell in vivo is governed by both its own intrinsic properties and the communications with its microenvironment (the stem cell niche). Dániel Kirilly and Ting Xie review the stem cell community in Drosophila ovary, which has served as an excellent model system to study fundamental aspects of stem cell biology, including regulation of stem cells by niche signals; while Scheffer Tseng and colleagues update us on studies of niche regulation of a unique group of stem cells in the eye, the corneal epithelial stem cells. In a Research Article, Jinhua Wen, Lingsong Li, and coworkers used neural stem cells differentiated from mouse embryonic stem cells as a model system to study the effect of putative niche signals, and they report mechanistic insights on the collaborative actions of two such signals, bFGF and VEGF..... Whole article: "www.nature.com":[ http://www.nature.com/cr/journal/v17/n1/full/7310142a.html]

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Scientists find new stemcell source - Scientists in Scotland say they've discovered a way to harvest stem cells from non-viable embryos The discovery by Roslin Cells, a spin-off of the Roslin Institute, will increase the supply of vital stem cells available for medical research and could overcome ethical objections to stem cell research, the Glasgow Herald said Wednesday The discovery was announced this week in Australia at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research sciencedaily (22.6.2007)

Reversing cancer cells to normal cells - A Northwestern University scientist describes new research that used an innovative experimental approach to provide unique insights into how scientists can change human metastatic melanoma cells back to normal-like skin cells -- by exposing the tumor cells to the embryonic microenvironment of human embryonic stem cells, the zebra fish and the chick embryo Now, in the American Association of Anatomists’ plenary lecture and symposium, at Experimental Biology 2007 in Washington, DC, Dr Whole article PhysOrg (30.4.2007)

British researchers grow heart tissue from stem cells - British medical researchers have grown human heart tissue from stem cells in a breakthrough reported Monday that offers a possible solution to a shortage of donors for heart transplants The Guardian newspaper said that if animal trials scheduled for later this year prove successful, replacement tissue could be used in transplants for heart disease patients within three years Researchers led by Magdi Yacoub, a professor of cardiac surgery at Imperial College London, have grown tissue from stem cells in bone marrow that works in the same way as the valves in human hearts, it said Stem cells are immature cells that grow into various tissues Yacoub, who has worked for a decade on how to deal with a shortage of donated hearts for transplant, said the work had brought the goal of growing a whole human heart closer "It's an ambitious project but not impossible "But experience has shown that the progress that is happening nowadays makes it possible to achieve milestones in a shorter time There is a shortage of replacement organs, and though some of the functions can be reproduced by artificial systems, not all can Whole article: www (4.4.2007)

Stem Cell Therapy Shows Promise For Rescuing Deteriorating Vision - For the millions of Americans whose vision is slowly ebbing due to degenerative diseases of the eye, the lowly neural progenitor cell may be riding to the rescue In a study in rats, neural progenitor cells derived from human fetal stem cells have been shown to protect the vision of animals with degenerative eye disease similar to the kinds of diseases that afflict humans The lead author of the study, University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher David Gamm, says the cells - formative brain cells that arise in early development - show "some of the best rescue, functionally and anatomically" of any such work to date The new findings are important because they suggest there may be novel ways to preserve vision in the context of degenerative diseases for which there are now no effective treatments Whole article: sciencedaily (30.3.2007)

Mouse tests show stem cells treat brain disease - Human stem cells taken from both embryos and fetuses delayed a fatal brain and nerve disease in mice, moving throughout the brain to take on the jobs of damaged neurons, scientists reported on Sunday They said their study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, represents the first time a human embryonic stem cell has successfully treated a disease in an animal Dr whole article www (15.3.2007)