American Heart Association meeting report

Researchers safely transplanted 16 patients’ skeletal muscle cells into their own severely damaged hearts in the first human testing in the United States, according to a study reported today at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2002.

“We have been able to regenerate dead heart muscle, or scar tissue, in the area of heart attack without increasing risk of death,” says lead author Nabil Dib, M.D., director o

American Heart Association meeting report

Preliminary findings of a study in rats suggests that a person’s own cells might one day replace artificial pacemakers, researchers reported today at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2002.

Studies conducted at Children’s Hospital Boston tested the ability of immature skeletal muscle cells to interconnect with heart cells and spread the electrical impulses that keep the heart beating properly.

American Heart Association meeting report

Researchers have built mechanically sound blood vessels out of tissue from human skin cells, according to a study reported today at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2002. The technique involves tissue engineering, an emerging science that takes cells from the body, manipulates them in the laboratory to create functional tissue, and puts the new tissue back into the patient.

The goal is to produce healthy, fun

From ultraviolet radiation to food carcinogens, our bodies are bombarded with stuff that can make a normal cell go haywire, multiplying out of control and turning cancerous. Thanks to a set of tumor suppressor genes, however, we can defend against this daily onslaught.

Goaded into action, these genes push cells into a kind of molecular menopause, called senescence. The cells remain healthy, but they stop reproducing.

Researchers often assume that we need our tumor suppressor genes

Nicotine isn’t all bad, despite its addictive qualities and its presence in tobacco products, increasingly taboo in these health-conscious times. As a chemical compound, nicotine even has beneficial properties. It’s used around the world as a relatively cheap, environmentally friendly insecticide, repelling bugs that attack tobacco and other plants, and – contrary to popular misconceptions – it is not a carcinogen.

Take a nicotine molecule and snip off a methyl group, though, and y

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have successfully transplanted specialized cells that are critical to sperm development in mice, restoring sperm production in once-infertile animals.

The research, reported on the Web site of the journal Biology of Reproduction, may give scientists a better understanding of how Sertoli cells — which surround spermatogenic stem cells — nourish sperm production and the survival of stem cells.

“Spermatogen