Longevity science

A single injection of human neural stem cells produced neuronal regeneration and improvement of function and mobility in rats impaired by an acute spinal cord injury (SCI), an international team led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reports.

Grafting neural stem cells derived from a human fetal spinal cord to the rats’ spinal injury site produced an array of therapeutic benefits — from less muscle spasticity to new connections between the injected stem cells and surviving host neurons.

University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists have transplanted neural cells derived from stem cells from a monkey’s skin into its brain and watched the cells develop into several types of mature brain cells.

After six months, the cells looked entirely normal, and were only detectable because they initially were tagged with a fluorescent protein.

For some time geneticists have known that stem cells in zebrafish can replace damaged vision cells.

This study showed that cone damage, rather than just rod damage, is possible with these stem cells.

A new 3D printing process using human stem cells could pave the way to custom replacement organs for patients, eliminating the need for organ donation and immune suppression, and solving the problem of transplant rejection.

The process, developed at Edinburgh-based Heriot-Watt University, in partnership with Roslin Cellab, could also speed up and improve the process of reliable, animal-free drug testing by growing three-dimensional human tissues and structures for pharmaceuticals to be tested on.