High doses or prolonged use of glucosamine causes the death of pancreatic cells and could increase the risk of developing diabetes, according to a team of researchers at Université Laval’s Faculty of Pharmacy. Details of this discovery were recently published on the website of the Journal of Endocrinology. In vitro tests conducted by Professor Frédéric… Continue reading
Tag: cells
Some cells are not so helpful as they say
Current research suggests that T helper-type 1 (Th1) cells, previously thought to mediate autoimmunity, may actual inhibit the development of experimental immune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS), by suppressing Th17 cells. The related report by Wildbaum et al, “Antigen-specific CD25-Foxp3-IFN-γ high CD4+ T cells restrain the development of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis… Continue reading
New method to cure deafness: functional inner-ear cells
Deep inside the ear, specialized cells called hair cells detect vibrations in the air and translate them into sound. Ten years ago, Stefan Heller, PhD, professor of otolaryngology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, came up with the idea that if you could create these cells in the laboratory from stem cells, it would… Continue reading
Canadian researchers shows how to attack cancer cells and more specific leukemia cells
Researchers from the University of Montreal, Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital and Laval University have discovered a channel to attack leukemia and other cancer cells, reports a new study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. This discovery of a previously hidden channel may alter the way doctors treat cancer patients. Senior author Dindial Ramotar, a professor at… Continue reading
Regenerative functions of stem cells
A team of North American collaborators from both industrial research centers (Biotime Inc, Mandala Biosciences LLC and Sierra Sciences LLC) and academic institutes (Ontario Cancer Institute, Burnham Institute for Medical Research and The Scripps Research Institute) have demonstrated successful reversal of the developmental aging of normal human cells. Their findings appear as an ahead-of-print research… Continue reading
Life’s smallest motor is a cargo carrier of the cells
Life’s smallest motor, a protein that shuttles cargo within cells and helps cells divide, does so by rocking up and down like a seesaw, according to research conducted by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Brandeis University. The researchers created high-resolution snapshots of a protein motor, called kinesin, as… Continue reading