|
| Andhra Pradesh ~ India ~ International ~ City ~ Entertainment ~ Business ~ Bullion ~ Forex ~ Sports ~ Technology ~ Health ~ Features |
| Lung Cancer ~ Lung Cancer ~ Breast Cancer ~ Heart attack ~ All Health Topics |
|
Home
/ Health News / 2008 / October 2008 / October 9, 2008 Stem cells derived from human testicles set to revolutionise treatments |
Sack lunches may not provide adequate nutrients to preschooler
Packing lunch for your child might not be a good idea, for a new study has found that sack lunches may not regularly provide adequate nutrients for the growth and development of young children. ANI
Health-monitoring system helps maintain older adults well-being
Many older adults want to remain active and independent for as long as possible. Now, researchers from University of Missouri suggest that installing health monitoring system can help keep check on the health of the elderly and ensure their privacy. ANI
New drug shows potential to treat angina, other cardiac problems
A compound, designed to prevent chest pains in heart patients, could act as a drug to treat angina and possibly other cardiac pathologies, according to a study on animals. ANI
Potentially therapeutic stem cells have successfully been derived from adult human testicles by German researchers.
Washington, October 9 : Potentially therapeutic stem cells have successfully been derived from adult human testicles by German researchers.
Thomas Skutella, an expert at the University of Tubingen in Baden-Wurttemberg, said that the breakthrough might eventually make new medical treatments possible while avoiding moral dilemmas.
He said that stem cell generation for individual therapies could address a wide range of ailments, including Parkinson's disease, leukaemia, and spinal cord injuries.
He revealed that his team had also been successful in cultivating the isolated cells to become pluripotent cells, which can develop into many other types of cells.
"In the sense that they become pluripotent, they are like embryonic stem cells," National Geographic quoted him as writing in an email.
Skutella said that the cells harvested from living men might also remove some immunological obstacles.
"The exciting thing about this source of stem cells is that they are the patient's own and can be used to develop individual cell-based therapies that will not provoke any kind of immune reaction," he said.
"That is one of the big drawbacks of embryonic stem cells: Quite aside from the grave ethical considerations, they remain a foreign body and will always create immunological problems," he added.
He expressed hope that a similar cell source could be found in women too.
Skutella, however, cautioned that the research was just a valuable step forward, and that scientists must learn how to harness the cells to benefit patients.
He pointed out that though pluripotent stem cells could be differentiated into any other kind of cell, they cannot be implanted in their pluripotent state.
Such cells have to be differentiated so that they self-renew as only one specific type of cell, he said.
"Stem cell therapy is extremely promising, but it is still in its infancy," Skutella said.
"You could think of it like this: What we have successfully done right now is identify a mother lode. That ore now needs to be forged into tools, i.e. the various differentiated cell lines.
"Then someone needs to figure out how to use those tools to fix what's broken, (that is) to develop concrete therapies," he wrote.
ANI
