Modeling retinitis pigmentosa with iPS cells

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a cluster of genetically determined eye disorders that cause visual defects such as night blindness and narrowing of the field of vision, due to progressive loss of rod photoreceptors. As many ...

How sperm stem cells maintain their numbers

The steady production of sperm relies on the number of sperm stem cells in the testis remaining constant. Researchers including Assistant Professor Yu Kitadate and Professor Shosei Yoshida (developmental biologists at the ...

Researchers discover mechanism that limits scar formation

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago have discovered that an unexpected cellular response plays an important role in breaking down and inhibiting the formation of excess scar tissue in wound healing.

Fibroblasts invade at a snail's pace

A transcription factor known to drive the formation of fibroblasts during development also promotes their ability to invade and remodel surrounding tissues, report Rowe et al. in the February 9, 2009 issue of the Journal ...

Determining the shape of cells

Cells are constantly performing small tasks such as repairing wounds. They exert force by changing shape. But how do cells translate their shape into exerting a force in a specific direction? Experimental and theoretical ...

Researchers transform common cell to master heart cell

By genetically reprogramming the most common type of cell in mammalian connective tissue, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have generated master heart cells—primitive progenitors that form the developing ...

How the zebrafish repairs a broken heart

An MDC research team led by Jan Philipp Junker and Daniela Panáková has found that zebrafish can regenerate heart tissue after injury. Connective tissue cells play an important role in the process by temporarily entering ...

Tissue engineers recruit cells to make their own strong matrix

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but the best way to make something is often to co-opt the original process and make it work for you. In a sense, that's how scientists at Brown University accomplished a new ...

page 3 from 5