Chris Kamel
Posts by: Chris
Stressing cells to improve transplant outcomes and cardiac function
There’s a scene in The Simpsons, after Homer suffers from a heart attack, where he paraphrases Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous words, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” Those words, in this situation, are overly optimistic. After an ischemic event like a heart attack or a stroke, not only is there massive cell death […]
A revised map for blood development
Simple diagram that shows the development of different blood cells from hematopoietic stem cell to mature cells. From Wikipedia. All blood cells arise from the common hematopoietic stem cell and are classified into two lineages: lymphoid cells (B-, T- and Natural Killer [NK] cells) which play an important role in adaptive and innate immune response, […]
Regenerative therapies using scaffolds
When using stem cells for regenerative therapies, there are a few approaches that can be taken. Donor cells have issues with matching and immune rejection. Autologous stem cells transplants skirt rejection issues, but both strategies still face challenges associated with the ex vivo expansion of cells, such as culture consistency and the need for better […]
High-dose antioxidants may cause abnormalities in stem cells
One hurdle facing the use of lab-grown stem cells for therapeutic or experimental purposes is the accumulation of genetic abnormalities over time. The nature of these changes varies, but some may affect therapeutic usefulness and many mirror changes seen in tumour-forming cells. One of the more difficult variables to change when culturing stem cells is […]
British doctors transplant trachea grown from stem cells
In Britain, a young boy is currently recovering from a remarkable surgery to replace his windpipe. Tissue transplantation itself is hardly a routine thing, but there are a couple of things that make this case, reported in the British Medical Journal, particularly interesting. Avoiding immune response First, the trachea being transplanted is being grown by […]
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