Stem cell treatment leaves boy with recessive epidermolysis bullosa improving daily

Darkfrog submitted, created time 5 months 1 week (www.latimes.com)

Two-year-old Nate Liao is eating solid food, playing with his sibs and generally running around and getting into things. The reason? His body has started producing collagen VII, the material that anchor's a person's skin to the rest of his body. Before he was treated, the least contact could cause bruising and blisters. Eating anything non-liquid could tear the lining of his esophagus.

Some of Nate's doctors are suggesting that epidermolysis bullosa be taken "off the incurable list." Little Nate was given a mixture of bone marrow and cord blood stem cells

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Secretion of pleiotrophin stimulates breast cancer progression through remodeling of the tumor microenvironment

bioman submitted, created time 1 year 5 months (www.pnas.org)

Pleiotrophin (PTN, Ptn) is an 18-kDa secretory cytokine expressed in many breast cancers; however, the significance of Ptn expression in breast cancer has not been established. We have now tested three models to determine the role of inappropriate expression of Ptn in breast cancer

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Thrombin-initiated platelet activation in vivo is vWF independent during thrombus formation in a laser injury model

julie submitted, created time 1 year 7 months (www.jci.org)

"Adhesion of platelets to an injured vessel wall and platelet activation are critical events in the formation of a thrombus. Of the agonists involved in platelet activation, thrombin, collagen, and vWF are known to induce in vitro calcium mobilization in platelets. Using a calcium-sensitive fluorochrome and digital multichannel intravital microscopy to image unstimulated and stimulated platelets, calcium mobilization was monitored as a reporter of platelet activation (as distinct from platelet accumulation) during thrombus formation in live mice"

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Researchers analyze protein from a 68-million-year-old dinosaur bone; techniques used in analysis could be useful in studying cancer

medal submitted, created time 1 year 7 months (www.sciam.com)

"Scientist have extracted the hardy, fibrous protein collagen from a 68-million-year-old thighbone that belonged to a Tyrannosaurus rex, jettisoning the long-held belief that ancient fossils could not provide protein samples for analysis. The protein was discovered in a femur (thighbone) unearthed four years ago under a thousand cubic yards of rock on a cliff in the Hell Creek Formation, which spans the Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas in the northwestern U.S. "

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Cathepsin L Deficiency Reduces Diet-Induced Atherosclerosis in Low-Density Lipoprotein Receptor-Knockout Mice

fiona submitted, created time 1 year 7 months (circ.ahajournals.org)

"Cat L directly participates in atherosclerosis by degrading elastin and collagen and regulates blood-borne leukocyte transmigration and lesion progression."

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