The unique characteristics of stem cells—their ability to self-renew and to differentiate into many different cell types—has prompted hopes that they can be exploited to boost regeneration of damaged tissues. A first step in commandeering these cells for therapeutic benefit is to elucidate the key molecules and pathways that govern stem cell self-renewal and differentiation. Using embryonic, ne...

There is increasing evidence that tumors are heterogeneous and that a subset of cells act as cancer stem cells. Several proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressors control key aspects of stem cell function, suggesting that similar mechanisms control normal and cancer stem cell properties. We show here that the prototypical tumor suppressor p53, which plays an important role in brain tumor initiation ...

BACKGROUND Cell tracking is a powerful tool to understand cellular migration, dynamics, homing and function of stem cell transplants. Nanoparticles represent possible stem cell tracers, but they differ in cellular uptake and side effects. Their properties can be modified by coating with different biocompatible polymers. To test if a coating polymer, poly(L-lysine), can improve the biocompatibil...

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), an aggressive brain tumor of astrocytic/neural stem cell origin, represents one of the most incurable cancers. GBM tumors are highly heterogeneous. However, most tumors contain a subpopulation of cells that display neural stem cell characteristics in vitro and that can generate a new brain tumor upon transplantation in mice. Hence, previously identified molecular ...

Tumors exhibit complex organization and contain a variety of cell populations. The realization that the regenerative properties of a tumor may be largely confined to a cell subpopulation (cancer stem cell) is driving a new era of anti-cancer research. Cancer stem cells from Glioblastoma Multiforme tumors express markers that are also expressed in non-cancerous neural stem cells, including nesti...

Neural stem cells are reported to lie in a vascular niche, but there is no direct evidence for a functional relationship between the stem cells and blood vessel component cells. We show that endothelial cells but not vascular smooth muscle cells release soluble factors that stimulate the self-renewal of neural stem cells, inhibit their differentiation, and enhance their neuron production. Both ...

Neural stem cells self-renew and give rise to neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. These cells hold great promise for neural repair after injury or disease. However, a great deal of information needs to be gathered before optimally using neural stem cells for neural repair. This brief review provides an introduction to neural stem cells and briefly describes some advances in neural stem-ce...

in this study, our aim was to produce a generation of gmp-grade adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells for clinical applications. according to our results, we fulfill to establish consistent and also reproducible current good manufacturing practice (cgmp) compliant adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells from five female donors. the isolated cells were cultured in dmem supplemented...

there are two main methods for preparing the puramatrix (pm) as a three-dimensional (3-d) scaffold for supporting the cells including surface plating and encapsulation. in the surface-plating procedure, the scaffold is created by adding an ionic agent such as medium to pm. after adjusting the ph by changing the medium, cells are seeded on top of the scaffold. in the encapsulation method, pm and...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) leading to 5 million deaths annually is 1 of the 5 major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In Iran, accidents are the main cause of death in youth as well as a dominant factor in reducing quality of life. In developing countries TBI incidence as one of the worst consequences of these accidents is growing due to wide use of motor-vehicles. Therapeutic stra...