Life Extension in Old Mice via Transplant of Bone Marrow Cells From Young Mice
The research noted here, in which scientists transplant young stem cells into old mice, is a logical exploration of the bounds of the possible along the lines of parabiosis studies, in which the circulatory systems of old and young individuals are linked. The results demonstrate that regular cell transplants incorporating young bone marrow stem cells can extend life when provided to older individuals, provided there is a close genetic match between donor and recipient. Without that match there was no effect on life span:
The method of lifespan extension that is a practical application of the informational theory of aging ...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 27, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Supplying Young Cells to an Involuted Thymus Produces Growth and Increased T Cell Production
Several distinct lines of ongoing (but unfortunately poorly funded) research aim to restore at least some degree of youthful activity to the thymus in old individuals, and researchers here demonstrate one of them: a process of introducing young thymus cells into an old thymus. The thymus plays a vital role in the generation of immune cells, and during childhood the rate of production is high. In early adulthood the thymus atrophies in a process known as involution, however, and the supply of new immune cells diminishes to a trickle. This is one of the important limiting constraints that determine the way in which the immun...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 26, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
It’s time for health care to stand up to medical errors. Will we?
It’s been over a year since my older sister Anna died, so I choke up less readily while speaking about it. The raw anger is less, but the frustration of losing someone to a preventable medical mistake will always remain with me. Anna was five years older than me, my only sister, and the one I often turned to for advice. We were close despite living 600+ miles apart. She was smart and insightful; she was at ease in most social situations. I, on the other hand, was the nerdy kid sister who loved science, who became a physician in my early 40s.
In 2012, Anna’s world turned upside down when she was diagnosed with b...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 6, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Carol E. Gunn, MD Tags: Physician Heart Malpractice Source Type: blogs
Is it ethical for parents to create a savior sibling?
<p>Savior siblings are children who are born to provide HLA compatible
body parts, typically umbilical cord blood to be used for bone marrow
transplantation, in order to save the life of their older sibling. They
are created using IVF so that the embryos can be screened in order to
find and implant one that is a match to the existing child. The first
savior sibling, Adam Nash, was born in the US was born in 2000. Lisa and
Jack Nash decided to create a savior sibling after their doctor
suggested it might be the best option for a cure for their daughter
Molly, who was born with a severe type of Fanconi anemia...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - October 1, 2015 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Hayley Dittus-Doria Tags: Health Care Reproductive Medicine assisted reproduction genetic testing syndicated Source Type: blogs
How Many More Annas Must Die?
It’s been over a year since my older sister Anna died, so I choke up less readily while speaking about it. The raw anger is less, but the frustration of losing someone to a preventable medical mistake will always remain with me. Anna was five years older than me, my only sister, and the one I often turned to for advice. We were close despite living 600+ miles apart. She was smart and insightful; she was at ease in most social situations. I, on the other hand, was the nerdy kid sister who loved science, who became a physician in my early 40’s.
In 2012, Anna’s world turned upside down when she was diagnosed wit...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 29, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Advocacy Policy Publc Health Quality Source Type: blogs
Considering Klotho Delivery as a Means to Reduce Age-Related Stem Cell Decline
Today I'll point out an open access paper on the longevity-related gene klotho. Some researchers see therapies to adjust levels of the klotho protein produced from this genetic blueprint as a possible way to slow some of the effects of aging, particularly those connected to regeneration and stem cell activity. Work on this is slow-moving and painstaking, as for any similar approaches.
Yet a fairly large section of the medical research community is now devoted to at least partial and temporary restoration of tissue maintenance by stem cells in the old. A good fraction of the frailty and failure of aging results not just fr...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 14, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
5 things OB/GYNs should know about treating survivors of childhood cancer
Recent research shows improvement in long-term survival rates for childhood cancer patients, but also highlights the challenges that remain for many of the almost 400,000 survivors in the United States. Among these survivors are women facing gynecological health issues from the late effects of their treatment. What follows are several areas of concern that gynecologists and obstetricians should consider when treating women who had cancer as girls.
1. Treatment summary. An adult woman who had cancer during childhood should have a written summary of treatments she received. Certain commonly utilized treatments for childhoo...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 3, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Lisa Diller, MD Tags: Conditions Cancer Source Type: blogs
You Can Check Out Any Time You Like, But You Can Never Leave - Duke and UNC Allegedly Agreed Not to Hire Each Other's Faculty
We have intermittently discussed the worsening plight of physicians trying to provide clinical care as employees of large organizations. Such corporate physicians are likely to be squeezed between professional values that put the patient first, and management that puts revenue first. Physicians employed by large corporations may find their values increasingly at risk as these organizations adapt the tactics of the robber barons.Now it appears that even ostensibly genteel academic medical institutions may be adapting these tactics.Allegations of Anti-Competitive Faculty Employment Practices at Duke and Uni...
Source: Health Care Renewal - August 27, 2015 Category: Health Management Tags: antitrust corporate physician Duke University economism market fundamentalism medical schools University of North Carolina Source Type: blogs
Should you bank your baby ’ s umbilical cord blood?
The promising field of stem cell research is prompting more and more parents to store their newborn’s umbilical cord blood for possible use in treating future disease. Cord blood is rich in blood-forming stem cells and is currently used in transplants for some patients with leukemia, lymphoma, immune deficiencies and inherited metabolic disorders. Most infusions come from unrelated donors, partly because of concerns that receiving one’s own defective cells may cause the same diseases to return.
Now, early research shows that cord blood may be able to safely regenerate other types of cells in the body, fueling optimism ...
Source: Cord Blood News - August 20, 2015 Category: Perinatology & Neonatology Authors: Joyce Tags: babies brain development Cord Blood medical research parents pregnancy stem cells Uncategorized affordable cord blood banking bone marrow transplant cerebral palsy cord blood banking fees cord blood cost cord blood transplant l Source Type: blogs
Editorial Board Q&A: Edward C. Halperin
Edward C. Halperin, MD, MA, chancellor and chief executive officer, New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York
1. Describe your current activities.
I recently completed a detailed study of the impact of off-shore for-profit medical education on the access of U.S. schools to clinical clerkships. The results of this study will be published in an upcoming issue of Academic Medicine. My colleagues and I also recently completed an analysis of material that was alleged to have been ashes from the Dachau concentration camp crematoria. The ashes were brought back to the U.S. by a returning soldier after the war and stored for ...
Source: Academic Medicine Blog - August 13, 2015 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Guest Author Tags: Editorial Board Q & A ed halperin edward c. halperin new york medical college Q&A Source Type: blogs
Da First Day
Being the not so energetic guy, a bit nauseous, really sleepy and just plain old lazy here you have a recap by my charming, loving and most generous wife, Lu.DMSO - this is the chemical which Scott's stems cells were preserved in for the last 2 years....He, of course, cannot smell it and they put peppermint oil all around the room in little bowls to override the odor. Some say the smell resembles garlic...well, I love the smell of garlic, but not THIS garlic!! I've brought in a plug in diffuser and have Thieves essential oil in it see if that helps..."In cryobiology DMSO has been used as a ...
Source: Laughing Plasma Cells - July 4, 2015 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: blogs
Biggest, Baddest, Raddest Wedding: My Bro Got Married
I didn’t dance with that pretty girl nearly enough. I missed seeing the bouquet toss, cake cutting, mother-son and father-daughter dances, and my dad hopping on the drums to “Sweet Caroline.” I accept all these failings because NoCommonSense and I crushed our best men speech that included Hulk Hogan’s theme song.I have spoken many times to audiences as large as a few hundred about cancer stealing my physical abilities and chunks of my adolescence. Unlike those speeches, the attempted humor-to-sentiment ratio for our best men speech was a whopping 95 to 5 percent. And unlike all those others, this best men speech we...
Source: cancerslayerblog - June 16, 2015 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: family Source Type: blogs
A Drug Candidate to Trigger Faster Regeneration
Based on what we know of the mechanisms by which stem cell therapies produce benefits, it shouldn't be surprising to find that there are signals that can be provided to tissues that enhance the pace of regeneration. We are still in the comparatively early days of the identification and understanding of those signals, but some efforts are further ahead than others:
"We have developed a drug that acts like a vitamin for tissue stem cells, stimulating their ability to repair tissues more quickly. The drug heals damage in multiple tissues, which suggests to us that it may have applications in treating many diseases." The inst...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 12, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Tips on choosing a Cord Blood Bank
Reprinted from Babycenter.com
By: Rallie McAllister, MD, MPH, family physician and coauthor of The Mommy MD Guide to Pregnancy and Birth
Expecting parents might not be aware that stem cells derived from their babies’ umbilical cord blood are a vital resource for their families. Advances in medical science have made it possible to harness the body’s own cells for treatment. Families only have one opportunity to collect and store their babies’ cord blood stem cells, and that’s in the moments following birth. In order to make an informed decision about their options, expectant parents should learn all they can a...
Source: Cord Blood News - April 30, 2015 Category: Perinatology & Neonatology Authors: joyce at mazelabs.com Tags: babies blood disorder brain development Cord Blood medical research parents pregnancy affordable cord blood banking bone marrow transplant cerebral palsy cord blood stem cell bank CP healthy pregnancy why save cord blood Source Type: blogs
How to Prepare Dads for Labor
Take these steps to involve, support and prepare your partner for labour.When a woman is pregnant most of the outside world’s attention is on the mother to be. On the one hand, this makes sense because it is the mother who bears the physical appearance of pregnancy and birth and the special connection to a child who was once part of her body.
But what about the Dad? Fathers do go through an experience during pregnancy and birth. First time dads in particular must come to terms with a transition in family roles and responsibility. They also need to deal with their own feelings of fear, excitement and anxiety. When a coup...
Source: Cord Blood News - April 27, 2015 Category: Perinatology & Neonatology Authors: joyce at mazelabs.com Tags: babies brain development Cord Blood parents pregnancy affordable cord blood banking bone marrow transplant cerebral palsy cord blood banking fees cord blood cost cord blood transplant leukemia private cord blood banking stem cell Source Type: blogs
