Capable of developing into all types of cardiac cells, a new cell type in adult rat heart tissue has been found by researchers at the University of Minnesota.

This gives hope for the possibility of treatments such as the growth of new blood vessels for use in bypass surgery or to repair damaged heart muscle after a heart attack. The cells could be expanded in a lab after being harvested and then used in therapy.

Appearing in the February print edition, The journal Nature Clinical Trials Cardiovascular Medicine has published the research.

The researchers expanded tissue taken from adult rat hearts in a dish after adding certain growth factors. These cells were able to give rise to all types of cardiac cells, such as the cells that make up the left and right ventricles and blood vessels. Impressively, just as more mature heart muscle cells will do, the newly grown cells even beat in a laboratory dish.

Professor of physiology and director of the Center for Cardiovascular Repair, Doris, said that they injected the cells into rats with injured hearts and documented that the cells repaired the damaged tissue.

After undergoing experimental stem cell transfusions for their damaged spines, sisters Shannon, 21, and Erica, 18, have returned from China.

The two sisters now use wheelchairs after both being paralyzed in a 2004 car accident. With the hope of experiencing some relief from the pain they feel on a daily basis, they traveled to China for a month long duration of treatments that were not available in their home country of Canada.

They are hopeful that that treatment will have an effect, but they say it is still too early to tell. But there are signs that the stem cells have begun their work.

“I have noticed differences in my circulation and like, my legs and my feet are a lot warmer now, so that’s a positive thing,” Erica said, noting that her sister has noticed the same result.

“Hopefully, with work with our physiotherapist and stuff we’ll start seeing some more improvements.”

Their treatment involved the injection of millions of stem cells at the Shenzhen Nanshan People’s Hospital. Herbal intravenous sessions and acupuncture were also a part of the treatment.

“I was really nervous at first but they were really simple,” Erica said of the treatments.

Julian treasures every step he takes, which is in contrast to the many people who dread working out.

“It’s just really hard for me to do anything,” he says — hard because Julian suffers from scleroderma. Causing inflammation, pain, and hardened skin, his body is attacking itself throughout the skin and organs. His lungs, kidneys, and other organs could eventually fail due to his condition.

Julian is afflicted with a disease that is rare and affects only 100,000 Americans. It’s so excruciating it can disable … and even kill them.

“A bad day is typically just not being able to get out of bed, [with] no energy,” he says.

Hopefully Julian won

Quita was competing at Timber Creek when she fell and sustained injuries which left her unconscious for six weeks. After suffering severe brain injury, she says adult stem cell research has helped her recover from her terrible camp drafting disaster four years ago.

The adult stem cell therapy has made an immense difference bearing in mind the fact that her doctors feared that she would not even survive.

“I feel an improvement, it’s a lot easier to move all my limbs on the horse, and just balance is a lot better,” she said.

She decided to make the trip to Germany for adult stem cell treatment with the help of more than $40,000 her family raised through various means.

Quita doesn

Sidestepping the contentious use of stem cells derived from embryos, researchers at the University of Rochester have unveiled a new device technology that makes it feasible to harvest stem cells from the blood.

Potentially improving the prognosis for many cancer sufferers, the technology is also being developed into an anti-cancer implant that programs cancer cells to die. The technique may even produce implants that direct the body

For the first time, using one type of adult stem cell, scientists have discovered a means by which to produce bone and muscle.

The technique coaxes stem cells to differentiate by using an ink-jet printer to lay down patterns of