Stem cell treatment leaves boy with recessive epidermolysis bullosa improving daily

Darkfrog submitted, created time 2 years 2 months (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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Telomere length of cord blood-derived CD34+ progenitors predicts erythroid proliferative potential

medal submitted, created time 3 years 3 months (www.nature.com)

"Excessive telomere shortening has been demonstrated in inherited and acquired blood disorders, including aplastic anemia and myelodysplastic syndromes. It is possible that replicative exhaustion, owing to critical telomere shortening in hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs), contributes to the development of cytopenias in these disorders. "

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