Chill OUT! ; EXCLUSIVE Suffering From Back Pain, Multiple Sclerosis or Osteoporosis, Depression and Asthma, a Sleep RedNova Wed, 15 Nov 2006 1:15 AM PST By SARA WALLIS IAM freezing cold. So bitterly cold, in fact, that I can't think straight. It's -120C - that's one hundred and twenty degrees below freezing - and I am wearing almost nothing. It's as if I have been dropped into the Antarctic in my nightie.

Protein aids in brain repair Pasadena Star-News Tue, 14 Nov 2006 11:36 PM PST PASADENA - A pair of Caltech scientists have discovered how to increase the number of new brain stem cells in mice, paving the way for progress against diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis.

Multiple Regulatory Cell Types Can't Keep Self-destructive Immune Cells Under Control Medical News Today Tue, 14 Nov 2006 1:08 PM PST Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease that occurs when cells of the immune system attack nerves in the brain. Although it is not clear exactly why this self destruction is able to occur, it has been shown that other immune cells that normally keep the destructive ones in check (known as regulatory T cells) are impaired in individuals with MS. [click link for full article]

Researchers spur growth of adult brain stem cells
Reuters Wed, 15 Nov 2006 8:05 AM PST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers have found a way to spur the growth of neural stem cells in the brains of adult mice with an eye toward harnessing the brain's innate capacity for repair to help people with diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Stem Cells: New Hope on the Horizon

By Julie Marks, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent

CHICAGO (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- They're always a hot topic of discussion in medicine and politics. Stem cells hold the promise of helping the body repair itself. Now, researchers at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2006 in Chicago are reporting on three breakthrough ways to use a patient's own stem cells to help repair heart damage.

Amniotic Stem Cells

Swiss researchers say they've grown the first-ever "living" heart valves using stem cells that were harvested from amniotic fluid in an unborn child.

Simon Hoerstrup, M.D., Ph.D., from the University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, says amniotic fluid appears to be a rich source of stem cells that can be used in prenatal prefabrication of heart valves with the ability to grow and function as healthy valves once a child is born. He and colleagues "seeded" tiny heart valve scaffolds and watched them grow into functioning valves that may one day be used to replace defective ones in newborns.

This technique offers a possible way of "growing" replacement valves in infants with congenital valve defects. In his presentation, Dr. Hoerstrup said about 1 percent of infants are born with these defects. He concluded, "This potential therapy may open a whole new treatment option in congenital heart valve disease."

Fat Stem Cells

It may sound odd, but researchers are experimenting with isolating and growing stem cells from fat.

Paul J. DiMuzio, M.D., from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, says one problem with using stem cells from bone marrow or blood is that the amount of cells decreases as the patient ages. That's why he and his colleagues wanted to know if the same would happen if cells were taken from fat.

The researchers studied 49 heart disease patients. They extracted about 15 grams of fat by performing liposuction on the patients' abdominal walls.

They found as patients got older, there was no significant difference in the number of stem cells found in the fat. Patients with diabetes, however, had decreased amounts of stem cells in their fat.

Dr. DiMuzio says the stem cell isolation was equally fruitful in patients older than 70 as it was for younger patients. He concluded, "This study suggests that fat may be a viable source of stem cells for use in patients with cardiovascular disease."

Human and Animal Stem Cells

Discovering a source of "universal donor" stem cells that would not trigger immune rejection is, perhaps, the Holy Grail of stem cell research. Now, Canadian scientists may have found such a source.

Ray C .J. Chiu, M.D., Ph.D., from McGill University Health Center and colleagues infused human bone marrow stromal stem cells into rats with induced heart attacks. They found the stem cells appeared to be uniquely immune tolerant in both laboratory cell cultures and cross-species transplant experiments. The stem cells survived in the rats without triggering an immune response, which would indicate rejection.

Within eight weeks, the animals experienced significant improvements in heart function. Researchers say this study suggests stromal stem cells might serve as "universal donor" cells for heart repairs in humans.

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

SOURCE: Julie Marks at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2006 in Chicago, Nov. 12-15, 2006

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Snail Toxins Reveal Novel Way To Fight Severe Nerve Pain
Medical News Today Tue, 14 Nov 2006 2:07 AM PST
A brand new approach to treating severe nerve pain - by aiming drugs at a previously unrecognized molecular target - has been discovered by University of Utah scientists who study the venoms of deadly, sea-dwelling cone snails. "We found a new way to treat a chronic and debilitating form of pain suffered by hundreds of millions of people on Earth," says J. [click link for full article]

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Researchers Find A Reaction To Spinal Cord Injury That Speeds Recovery In Young Rats
Medical News Today Mon, 13 Nov 2006 11:08 PM PST
Neuroscientists have long believed that the only way to repair a spinal cord injury was to grow new neural connections, but researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center recently found that, especially in young rats, powerful cells near the injury site also work overtime to restrict nerve damage and restore movement and sensation. [click link for full article]

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A New Target for Painkillers: Snail Toxins Show the Way
Newswise Mon, 13 Nov 2006 3:29 PM PST
A brand new approach to treating severe nerve pain - by aiming drugs at a previously unrecognized molecular target - has been discovered by University of Utah scientists who study the venoms of deadly, sea-dwelling cone snails.

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Rituximab Multiple Sclerosis

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