Comments on: Aging heart cells rejuvenated by modified stem cells

By: Jayney

Jayney — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 10:11:51 +0000

I agree – so exciting! There is a huge acceleration of biomed right now and aren’t we fortunate to be witnessing this.

By: John Thompson

John Thompson — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 01:33:12 +0000

Hell yes!… I love Amara’s and Ray’s stories they gather. How exciting.

By: GatorALLin

GatorALLin — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 22:36:44 +0000

…reply to Glen… so I thought as the eye gets older it gets stiffer…less flexible… so stem cells could make it flexible again…

Presbyopia is caused by an age-related process. This differs from astigmatism, nearsightedness and farsightedness, which are related to the shape of the eyeball and are caused by genetic and environmental factors. Presbyopia generally is believed to stem from a gradual thickening and loss of flexibility of the natural lens inside your eye.

These age-related changes occur within the proteins in the lens, making the lens harder and less elastic over time. Age-related changes also take place in the muscle fibers surrounding the lens. With less elasticity, the eye has a harder time focusing up close. Other, less popular theories exist as well.

By: Glen Lincoln

Glen Lincoln — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 21:57:47 +0000

modified stem cells to rejuvenate the cornea would allow return of crystal clear near vision focusing in persons who must now wear reading glasses.

By: asiwel

asiwel — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 21:48:24 +0000

This kind of research is very important and promising. But it necessarily has to move out of the laboratory dish. One would hope to see Phase I trials soon. But a problem now being mentioned in the literature is that it is almost always difficult to show benefit or improvement when the patient has reached a terminal diagnosis, if for no other reason than at that point so many other things are going wrong as well. On the other hand, fears (even some well-founded) of cancer or nasty unanticipated side-effects too often and for too long prevent trials on more representative samples of patients likely to benefit at this stage in the perfection of the treatment.

By: Bri

Bri — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 16:40:39 +0000

Very similar modifications of all cells will usher in a time when, we can be as young as we wish!

By: Vin

Vin — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 15:52:09 +0000

The sentence “Modified human stem cells helped the signaling and structure of the heart cells, which were biopsied from elderly patients” seems out of order, suggesting stem cells were modified in-situ then biopsied?