degenerative

Wisconsin scientists grow critical nerve cells

... injuries, or pave the way for novel treatments of degenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. With healthy cells grown in the lab, scientists could, in theory, replace dying motor neurons to restore function and alleviate the symptoms of disease or injur...

Emory Eye Center Implants Its First Retinal Chips In Patients With Retinitis Pigmentosa

...earch component and an established patient base of degenerative retinal diseases, we were able to be a part of thi...n rehabilitative options for patients with retinal degenerative diseases, so the opportunity to be part of evaluating an experimental rehabilitative intervention fo...

Deficiency of growth hormone and IGF-1 reduces cancer and kidney disease, but creates other problems

...may impair learning and memory and accelerate some degenerative diseases. ...

One gene links newborn neurons with those that die in diseases such as Alzheimer's

...oratories have pointed to deficiencies in UCHL1 in degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Experiments in mice confirmed the finding that low levels of UCHL1 correlate to the ability of neurons to be replaced. The researchers used similar techniques to assess UCHL1 in hippocampus and olfactory...

Two chemicals boost immune cells' ability to fight HIV without gene therapy

...offer therapeutic potential for a wide spectrum of degenerative diseases and chronic conditions in which cellular aging plays a role. "I'm really excited by our findings. This progress moves us one step closer to drugs that work by switching telomerase on permanently and keeping the immune cells young and strong...

Young Blood Revives Aging Muscles, Stanford Researchers Find

... looking for likely targets. He said that for some degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or muscular dystrophy, such blood-borne factors may be able to reactivate the regenerative cell's ability to repair tissue that has been damaged. ### Postdoctoral scholar Michael Conboy, PhD, and former postdoctoral sch...

Mosaic mouse technique offers a powerful new tool to study diseases and genetics

...important for analysis of complex developmental or degenerative diseases resulting from genetic mutations, they added. In light of its potential commercial applications, Luo has begun the process of licensing MADM through Stanford University's Office of Technology Licensing. Meanwhile, he and his colleagues are ...

Arthritis: What Wnt wrong?

...way of a Wnt-related gene that causes severe joint degenerative disease in humans. "More specific analyses such as gain-of-function and loss-of-function study of Wnt-7b will give us a clue which Wnt-7b would be an important pathobiological factor in rheumatoid arthritis," added Nakamura. Future studies will inve...

Six previously blind patients detect light, motion, identify objects with retinal prostheses

...ople with little or no sight perception due to the degenerative eye disease retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Ultimately, however, the device is likely to be used for the millions of people suffering from age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, as well. In fact, notes Humayun, there are 25 million people across the gl...

New research could help us deliver genes for new bone formation

...provide significant healthcare benefits as trauma, degenerative disease and bone loss with old age all lead to patients needing orthopaedic procedures that require new bone. Professor Oreffo added "It is important that we explore the potential of new methods and biotechnologies to help meet the healthcare needs ...

Muscle repair: Making a good system better, faster; implications for aging, disease

...ably, and in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and other degenerative muscle diseases, normal repair functions can't cope with disease progression. Researchers from the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) and University of Michigan report that while "skeletal muscles possess a remarkable capacity for regeneration" an...

Gradient guides nerve growth down spinal cord

...ged connections in adults with traumatic injury or degenerative disorders," Zou added. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Schweppe Foundation, the Robert Packard ALS Center at Johns Hopkins, the University of Chicago Brain Research Foundation and the Jack Miller Peripheral Neuropath...

Old drug shows new promise for Huntington's Disease

...e protein kills the neurons, causing the disease's degenerative effects. In Massa's study, Clioquinol appeared to interrupt the production of mutant huntingtin.In the first part of his study, Massa and his research team tested the effect of Clioquinol on neurons in cell culture that contained a form of the mutan...

Gene therapy reverses genetic mutation responsible for heart failure in muscular dystrophy

...rapy to successfully treat heart failure and other degenerative muscle problems in an animal model that is genetically susceptible to a human muscular dystrophy. Reporting in the Oct. 25 edition of the journal Circulation, the authors say that this is the first successful attempt to deliver a therapeutic gene thr...

Scientists crack code for motor neuron wiring

...cise way," Jessell continued. "And in motor neuron degenerative diseases, it may not be enough make new motor neurons; they have to connect to the right muscle target in order to restore motor function. Understanding how Hox proteins control circuit formation in the spinal cord should provide an important basic f...

Stem cells from muscles can repair cartilage

...y occurs due to injury or illness, and can lead to degenerative disease. Treatments and experimental approaches to repair this articular cartilage have achieved limited results, but currently there is no method to fully restore this type of injured cartilage. Tissue engineering involving the delivery of therapeut...

Study ties 'new' cell-death mechanism to developmental and degenerative brain disorders

...ished online Feb. 26, 2006. Until now, theories on degenerative cell death have centered on defective proteins and/or their accumulation and aggregation in the brain. "The neurodegeneration field has been dominated by the hypothesis of misfolded proteins and their aggregation, but the identification of KCNC3 mut...

UCLA scientists find male gene in brain area targeted by Parkinson's

...ch may explain why more men than women develop the degenerative disorder, which afflicts roughly 1 million Americans. "Men are 1.5 times more likely to develop Parkinson's disease than women," said Dr. Eric Vilain, associate professor of human genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "Our finding...

U of MN researchers identify ataxia gene

...ene responsible for a type of ataxia, an incurable degenerative brain disease affecting movement and coordination. This is the first neurodegenerative disease shown to be caused by mutations in the protein â-III spectrin which plays an important role in the maintaining the health of nerve cells. The scientific d...

Weizmann Institute suggests that immune cells help to maintain cognition and brain cell renewal

...r levels are controlled ?to fight off debilitating degenerative conditions that can afflict the CNS, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, glaucoma, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and the nerve degeneration that results from trauma or stroke. In their earlier research, Schwartz and her team provide...

'Prosthetic' retinal cells let blind mice see light

...tors," wrote Pan and colleagues. "However, retinal degenerative diseases are heterogeneous as to the time course o...ies are required to evaluate what types of retinal degenerative diseases and/or what disease stages are suitable for this potential treatment strategy," they wrote....

Obese people are more sensitive to pain, suggests study

...h the pain that the disease can cause. Also called degenerative joint disease, osteoarthritis affects more than 20 million people in the United States. But they were particularly interested in seeing how the obese group responded to pain; according to Emery, a small number of studies have looked at pain sensitiv...

Stem cells can repair torn tendons or ligaments

...pe of delivery technology may be helpful for other degenerative diseases. In an accompanying commentary in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Dwight A. Towler and Richard Gelberman from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, state, "Given our limited understanding of how MSCs b...

Key stress protein linked to toxicities responsible for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's

...zymatic machinery malfunction found in a number of degenerative diseases and free radical stress in nerve cells," ... relationship between NO and protein misfolding in degenerative disorders, showing that PDI can be a target of NO in cellular models of Parkinson's disease and huma...

NASA technology helping injured US troops

...hnology transfer program, also gives patients with degenerative conditions like severe arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's Disease, cerebral palsy, and Parkinson's Disease an opportunity to safely extend their mobility. Former Army sergeant Herbert Geddis of Springfield, Va., used the SAM walker at Walt...

Autistic brain has fewer neurons for processing emotion

...ns: the amygdala was always that way from birth, a degenerative process later in life may cause the neuron loss, or the heightened level of stress and anxiety commonly observed in patients with autism could, over time, lead to a loss of neurons. More studies are needed to pinpoint exactly why autistic brains hav...

Septum keeps neurons in synch, can reduce epileptic seizures by 90 percent

...heimer's disease. People who suffer Alzheimer's, a degenerative disorder that affects various brain regions including the septum, have a higher risk of epileptic seizures, in the 10-22 percent range, he noted. Previous studies have suggested that the septum plays an antiepileptic role. But in this study, Colom e...

Heal thyself: Systems biology model reveals how cells avoid becoming cancerous

... environmental toxins and possibly treat inherited degenerative diseases such as xeroderma pigmentosum, a disease in which the body's ability to repair DNA damage caused by ultraviolet light is disabled, ataxia telangiectasia, a progressive, neurodegenerative childhood disease, Werner syndrome, a premature aging ...

Protein connections: A network to understand disease

...pt can be used to study many diseases. "We study degenerative diseases," said Dr. Huda Zoghbi, professor of molecular and human genetics, neurology, neuroscience and pediatrics at BCM, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and senior author of the paper. "A gene is mutated, and a defective protein is m...

Gene therapy injected into the brains' of mice with Huntington's disease

...showing up." Huntington's disease is an inherited degenerative disease that progressively robs patients of the ability to think, judge appropriately, control their emotions and perform coordinated tasks. HD typically begins in mid-life, between the ages of 40 and 50. There is no effective treatment or cure for t...

Free radical cell death switch identified

...l cellular deterioration associated with aging and degenerative diseases. How the oxidative-stress signals trigger these profound effects in cells has remained unclear. But Bonni and his research team, including Maria Lehtinen, a graduate student in the HMS program in neuroscience, and Zengqiang Yuan, PhD, an H...

Light-sensitive photoswitches could restore sight to those with macular degeneration

...ls see, restoring light sensitivity in people with degenerative blindness such as macular degeneration. "We're asking the question, 'Can you control biological nanomolecules - in other words, proteins - with light?'" said center director and neurobiologist Ehud Y. Isacoff, professor of molecular and cell biolog...

Ghost protein leaves fresh tracks in the cell

...nne muscular dystrophy, cardiac arrhythmia and the degenerative brain disease spinocerebellar ataxia 5. "As we learn more about mutations involving spectrin and their relationships to human diseases, we're going to have more and more questions about how these mutations affect specific functions of the molecule,...

Tests for 'face-blindness' reveal disorder may not be so rare

...fered after maturity from head trauma, stroke, and degenerative diseases. The other type is called developmental prosopagnosia. These individuals can have similar symptoms but with no evidence of brain damage. It is this group that may be the most common. "Individuals who've been face-blind since childhood ofte...

Why Popeye only has eyes for spinach

...ds increases macular pigment and so helps slow the degenerative process. This latest study on volunteers with early-stage AMD will test that idea." Scientists do not yet understand why some people are susceptible to age-related macular degeneration but warn the incidence is likely to rise as the population ages...

Five new technologies that promise to transform medicine

...e telescopes that restore vision for patients with degenerative eye disease. The telescopes are powered by sunlight passing through the pupils to microscopic solar battery panels attached to the retinas. These scenarios illustrate potential clinical applications of technologies currently under development, say...

Study offers window into human behavior, brain disease

... a cell population that is a primary target of the degenerative brain disease known as frontotemporal dementia, wh...s us a new window into the early and cell-specific degenerative process, and we can use this window to better understand disease pathogenesis." The team, led by ...

Computer-based 'games' enhance mental function in patients with Alzheimer's

...ks. "While Alzheimer's disease is a progressive degenerative condition, studies have shown that in the early stages, the brain is still able to learn and change. This indicates that increasing brain activity, especially in regards to memory and cognition, may help stave off cognitive loss in people with Alzhei...

Mars mission Risk 29: Scientists research ways to reduce radiation-induced brain damage

...brain damage, potentially benefiting patients with degenerative neurological conditions like Alzheimer's disease. "This research may not only help make it safer to go to Mars, it could lead us to a deeper understanding of how the brain functions," said one of the principal investigators, Richard A. Britten, Ph....

Embryonic selection of sex avoids conceiving blind children

...gmentaria is a hereditary illness of the eyes of a degenerative nature. It causes a serious reduction in visual capacity and, in many cases, leads to blindness. The ailment does not affect males and females equally: in the case of men, there is a 50% probability of suffering the disease. With women, however, they...

New engineered drug may offer prolonged arthritis relief

...ate dissertation fellowship. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that affects an estimated 21 million adults in the United States. It is the nation's most prevalent musculoskeletal disorder and the leading cause of disability, the researchers said, adding that as the average age of the population con...

A new target for painkillers

...to nerves in the feet or elsewhere, spinal injury, degenerative disc disease, alcoholism, failed low-back surgery, tumors compressing nerves, spinal tumors, repetitive motion disorders, multiple sclerosis, infection, stroke, traumatic brain injury, shingles, nerve toxins and electrical or other damage to peripher...

Scientists discover toxin that causes gastro disease

...e insights into the development of age-related and degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, and may be used in the treatment of some cancers....

Scientists crack genetic secrets of human egg

...h may lead to solving problems from infertility to degenerative diseases. "What's in the egg to have that power?" asked Jose Cibelli, MSU professor of physiology and animal science. "Some of those genes are responsible for the magic trick that the egg has. This paper takes a peek at what genes are in the egg wa...

Transplanted photoreceptor precursor cells restore visual function in mice with retinal degeneration

...ping therapies for people with retinal and macular degenerative diseases that are untreatable today. The Swar...ges we see. In the majority of macular and retinal degenerative diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, it is the loss of photo...

Osteoarthritis may be sign of faster 'biological ageing'

Osteoarthritis, the degenerative inflammatory bone disease, may be a sign of faster "biological ageing," suggests research published ahead of print in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. The authors base their findings on a study of almost 1100 people, aged between 30 and 79. Mo...

Stem cell therapy shows promise for rescuing deteriorating vision

... of Americans whose vision is slowly ebbing due to degenerative diseases of the eye, the lowly neural progenitor c...e been shown to protect the vision of animals with degenerative eye disease similar to the kinds of diseases that afflict humans. The new study appears today (March...

NIH announces phase III clinical trial of creatine for Parkinson's disease

...es across the United States and Canada. PD is a degenerative disorder of the brain in which patients develop symptoms such as progressive tremor, slowness of movements, and stiffness of muscles. It affects at least one million people in the United States. Although certain drugs, such as levodopa, can reduce ...

Researchers discover gene crucial for nerve cell insulation

...tem is not well understood. Multiple sclerosis, a degenerative muscular disorder that can be fatal, results from the destruction of myelin in the central nervous system. ...

Scientists discover new, readily available source of stem cells

...ural cells created from AFS cells into mice with a degenerative brain disease. The cells grew and "re-populated" the diseased areas. In addition, bone cells produced from the stem cells were successfully used to grow bony tissue in mice, and liver cells were able to secrete urea, which the liver produces from amm...

Stem cells act through multiple mechanisms to benefit mice with neurodegenerative disease

...em cells (hESCs) hold great promise for benefiting degenerative diseases, and do so by invoking multiple mechanism... stem cell biology might play a role in benefiting degenerative diseases, the investigators first chose to approach, as proof-of-concept, a mouse model of a represe...

Vitamins: Science doesn't always match policy

...roducts on nutrient adequacy as well as in chronic degenerative disease prevention. In this quest, the development of more and better surrogate markers of adverse effects will be critical. Dose-response assessments of safety are badly needed for updating recommended safe and tolerable Upper Intake Levels," he say...

Intelligent materials to regenerate bone tissue

...age, such as those due to congenital deficiencies, degenerative illnesses, cancerous disorders and other damage caused by accidents. The implants required for this type of solutions are more complex and sophisticated than the small implants known to date. . The Nanobiocom project aims at developing a support m...

Researchers identify protein pathway involved in Parkinson disease development

... (PLoS Biology) journal. Parkinson disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system resulting from the loss of neurons in the brain that produce dopamine. This lowering of dopamine leads to decreased stimulation of the brain's motor cortex. Although scientists have not known the exact cause o...

Researchers track how spores break out of dormant state

...loid fibrils that have been associated with neural degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and prion diseases. “The extreme physical and chemical resistance of Bacillus spores suggests that evolutionary forces have captured the mechanical rigidity and resistance of these amyloid self-assembling biomaterials to...