Gangrene is localized soft-tissue death (necrosis) from prolonged blood-supply blockage. It can occur in atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, or decubitus ulcer, and after severe burns or frostbite.
New research studies are finding different new ways to treat gangrene to save body parts.
Gangrene is a dreadful disease in which the profession has failed to offer much in the way of relief for these patients.
A human stem cell line derived from embryos that were identified by preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to carry the mutation for fragile X syndrome has provided an unprecedented view of early events associated with this disease. In addition to giving scientists fresh insight into fragile X, results from this unique model system have emphasized the value of this new source of embryonic stem cells and may have a significant impact on the way that genetic diseases are studied in the future.
Orthopedic researchers at Jefferson Medical College have for the first time found stem cells in the intervertebral discs of the human spine, suggesting that such cells might someday be used to help repair degenerating discs and remedy lower back and neck pain.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and greatly affects the quality and length of life for individuals with specific forms of muscular dystrophy. Recent discoveries have demonstrated that gene and/or stem cell therapy could help a variety of organs in the body, but until now scientists have been unsure whether the heart could benefit from these treatments.
A study by researchers at the Yale Stem Cell Center for the first time demonstrates that piRNAs, a recently discovered class of tiny RNAs, play an important role in controlling gene function, it was reported this week in Nature.
Researchers have discovered a key protein that controls how stem cells “choose” to become either skeletal muscle cells that move limbs, or smooth muscle cells that support blood vessels, according to a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
In a study of the maternity records of more than 6,000 women, David J.P. Barker, M.D., Ph.D., and Kent Thornburg, Ph.D., of Oregon Health & Science University discovered a strong correlation between the size and shape of a woman’s hips and her daughter’s risk of breast cancer. Wide, round hips, the researchers postulated, represent markers of high sex hormone concentrations in the mother, which increase her daughter’s vulnerability to breast cancer.
Cornell University engineers say they have developed a microvascular system that can nourish growing tissues, a step that may one day allow laboratories to grow synthetically engineered tissues for transplants.
Scientists have identified and described stem cells specific to several tissues and organs of the body — key master cells that give rise to the specialized cell types characteristic of that organ. But to date, it hasn’t been possible to pinpoint functioning stem cells in the stomach, either in laboratory animals or people.
A human embryonic stem cell is reined in – prevented from giving up its unique characteristics of self-renewal and pluripotency – by the presence of a protein modification that stifles any genes that would prematurely instruct the cell to develop into heart or other specialized tissue.