Articles similar to: stem cells

stem cells

Engineering Digestive System Tissues: Significant Progress

Researchers at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine have reached important milestones in their quest to engineer replacement tissue in the lab to treat digestive system conditions — from infants born with too-short bowels to adults with inflammatory bowel disease, colon cancer, or fecal incontinence.  Reporting today in Stem Cells Translational Medicine, the research team verified the effectiveness of lab-grown anal sphincters to treat a large animal model for fecal incontinence, an important step before advancing to studies in humans. And last month in Tissue Engineering, the team reported success implanting human-engineered intestines in rodents. Read more.

Source: Science Daily, July 5, 2017

stem cell tissue regeneration

USC Viterbi Researcher’s Work Seeks to Help Those Who Really Have to Go

Tissue regeneration gets the attention of Eun Ji Chung, a USC researcher who also studies a common and distressing problem: bladder control.  Chung, an assistant professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, examines how tissue regeneration could help patients with urinary incontinence caused by the loss or weakened control of the muscle controlling the release of urine from the bladder. The problem affects millions, especially women and females who have given birth. She hopes to provide a solution by restoring urethral tissue form and function. The goal: to develop biocompatible and bioactive hydrogels that can release growth factors and stimulate muscle repair using adipocytes, or fat stem cells, for the urethra, she said. Read more.

Source: USC News, February 13, 2017