Monthly Archives: February 2014

Gladstone Institutes

Joint Gladstone-UCSF study highlights novel reprogramming method; offers new hope for treating liver failure

SAN FRANCISCO, CAFebruary 23, 2014 The power of regenerative medicine now allows scientists to transform skin cells into cells that closely resemble heart cells, pancreas cells and even neurons. However, a method to generate cells that are fully maturea crucial prerequisite for life-saving therapieshas proven far more difficult. But now, scientists at the Gladstone Institutes and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), have made an important breakthrough: they have discovered a way to transform skin cells into mature, fully functioning liver cells that flourish on their own, even after being transplanted into laboratory animals modified to mimic liver failure.

In previous studies on liver-cell reprogramming, scientists had difficulty getting stem cell-derived liver cells to survive once being transplanted into existing liver tissue. But the Gladstone-UCSF team figured out a way to solve this problem. Writing in the latest issue of the journal Nature, researchers in the laboratories of Gladstone Senior Investigator Sheng Ding, PhD, and UCSF Associate Professor Holger Willenbring, MD, PhD, reveal a new cellular reprogramming method that transforms human skin cells into liver cells that are virtually indistinguishable from the cells that make up native liver tissue.

These results offer new hope for the millions of people suffering from, or at risk of developing, liver failurean increasingly common condition that results in progressive and irreversible loss of liver function. At present, the only option is a costly liver transplant. So, scientists have long looked to stem cell technology as a potential alternative. But thus far they have come up largely empty-handed.

Earlier studies tried to reprogram skin cells back into a pluripotent, stem cell-like state in order to then grow liver cells, explained Dr. Ding, one of the papers senior authors, who is also a professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at UCSF, with which Gladstone is affiliated. However, generating these so-called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, and then transforming them into liver cells wasnt always resulting in complete transformation. So we thought that, rather than taking these skin cells all the way back to a pluripotent, stem cell-like state, perhaps we could take them to an intermediate phase.

This research, which was performed jointly at the Roddenberry Center for Stem Cell Research at Gladstone and the Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF, involved using a cocktail of reprogramming genes and chemical compounds to transform human skin cells into cells that resembled the endoderm. Endoderm cells are cells that eventually mature into many of the bodys major organsincluding the liver.

Instead of taking the skin cells back to the beginning, we took them only part way, creating endoderm-like cells, added Gladstone and CIRM Postdoctoral Scholar Saiyong Zhu, PhD, one of the papers lead authors. This step allowed us to generate a large reservoir of cells that could more readily be coaxed into becoming liver cells.

Next, the researchers discovered a set of genes and compounds that can transform these cells into functioning liver cells. And after just a few weeks, the team began to notice a transformation.

The cells began to take on the shape of liver cells, and even started to perform regular liver-cell functions, said UCSF Postdoctoral Scholar Milad Rezvani, MD, the papers other lead author. They werent fully mature cells yetbut they were on their way.

Read more from the original source:
Scientists Transform Skin Cells Into Functioning Liver Cells

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) February 22, 2014

At MetroMD Institute, a study reveals Growth Hormone Therapy, alternatively known as HGH Therapy, improves short stature in children. In 2003, growth hormone therapy was approved in United States for children with idiopathic short stature with a height at or higher than 2.25 standard deviations. Over the period of a decade, many breakthroughs have occurred; HGH Therapy is one of them. HGH is an essential hormone that declines with advancing age and disrupts the functioning of the human body. Some of the visible symptoms of lower HGH levels include body fatigue, lower energy levels, low libido, weathered skin, prominent aging, and so forth. MetroMD treats a myriad of patients who request HGH injections to regain the low energy levels and building vitality; the therapy is FDA approved and helps people to feel healthy and energetic.

Children who have deficient HGH levels are best served by Sermorelin; this hormone serves as a best regenerative medicine that produces excellent HGH Therapy results, says Alex Martin, Medical Director at MetroMD. Doctors enunciated that the therapy is administered with an once-a-day injection that can be used for a multitude of benefits as to improve the texture of hair, nail, libido enhancement, raise energy levels, boost immunity, and improve lean body mass. To determine who can be the right candidate for the aforesaid therapy, patients have to undergo proper body examinations and lab testing. X-rays of bone growth plates of children determines the requirement for Sermorelin therapy. To know more about HGH therapy browse through http://www.metromd.net

About Metro MetroMD is a Los Angeles based Research Institute of Regenerative Medicine. The institute deals in latest treatment technologies and a leading provider of HGH Therapy. Thousands of patients are benefited with Stem Cell, PRP therapy to combat aging, sports and non-healing injuries without having the need to go for surgical invasive procedure. Dr.Alex Martin is a Medical Doctor at the Institute and recommends the use of Human Growth Hormone and Stem Cell Therapy for men and women of all ages.

Contact: MetroMD Institute of Regenerative Medicine 7080 Hollywood Blvd, Suite 804 Los Angeles, CA 90028 (323) 285-5300 http://www.metromd.net

Here is the original post:
MetroMD Recommends the Use of HGH Therapy to Treat Short Stature of Children