International Symposium – Current Issues of Cell-Based Technologies

March 16, 2011

Today I’d like to promote a conference. The organizers of the Symposium are very good friends of mine. So, I pleased to support this small international conference. ************************************ Human Stem Cells Institute (Moscow) R.M.Gorbacheva Institute of Children’s Hematology and Transplantology I.P.Pavlov State Medical University (Saint Petersburg) IV Annual International Symposium: «Current Issues of Cell-Based Technologies» [...]

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Revised: Cell cycle kinetics of hematopoietic stem cells

March 10, 2011

Intro: Cell cycle kinetics of the hematopoitic stem cell (HSC) population is very important in normal physiology of hematopoietic system and in pathological conditions. The current understanding of cell cycle kinetics of adult stem cell populations is based on two models: (1) The vast majority of adult stem cells in the population (up to 90-95% [...]

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The role of cancer stem cells in malignant mesothelioma

February 24, 2011

I’m continue to experiment with guest posts. If you would like to write something in focus of my blog, let me know. ************************ this is a guest post by Eric Stevenson* Mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive cancer that affects the lining of the internal organs, most commonly in the chest (pleural mesothelium) or abdomen [...]

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Studying hematopoietic stem cells in adult spleen

February 13, 2011

I’ve written about the role of spleen in adult hematopoiesis before. Now, I’d like to share my journal club presentation of the paper: Functional characterization of hematopoietic stem cells in the spleen. This is the only study, which addresses the question of functionality hematopoietic stem cells in adult spleen. This is online version of the [...]

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Stem cell self-sufficiency – making normal and malignant niches

February 10, 2011

I’ve written before about how stem cells can make their own niches. I’d like to expand this topic and summarize some recent findings. I’m going to talk about stem cell self-sufficiency as an ability of stem cells to make or modify the niche for themselves. In vitro studies The first studies in vitro described this [...]

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Cells – radioprotectors

January 21, 2011

Intro When I give to my mice a lethal dose of irradiation, sometimes I think what actually kill them without bone marrow transplant? We all know that irradiation kills rapidly dividing (actively cycling) cells – progenitors in the bone marrow and gut. We also know that a significant fraction of organ-specific adult stem cells is [...]

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Current trends in cancer stem cells – phenotypic plasticity

December 29, 2010

One of the last trends in the battle between cancer stem cell and clonal evolution proponents and opponents is that “they are not mutually exclusive”. Peace. Is problem solved now? We are coming to realizing the great cancer complexity in which applying just one universal theory of tumor progression sounds elusive. On top of this [...]

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Human CD34-negative hematopoietic stem cells

December 18, 2010

CD34 is a commonly used and clinically significant marker for human hematopoietic progenitors and stem cells. Flow cytometric separation of distinct subsets within the CD34+ population is used to create a comprehensive map of human hematopoietic progenitor and stem cells. The possibility of separating different progenitor/ stem cell subsets could be used in clinic for [...]

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Can we uncouple stemness and carcinogenesis?

December 4, 2010

I keep asking this question and trying to find an answer again and again. It is important if we’re going to use cells as a medicine in safe settings. The last two decades of research have unveiled remarkable similarities between malignant cells and stem cells. It becomes more evident with development of the cancer stem [...]

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The decade of stem cell plasticity – transdifferentiation buzz

November 23, 2010

I clearly remember the time when at the beginning of the new millennium the era of stem cell plasticity or transdifferentiation was declared. Three “transdifferentiation papers” made a big buzz as “Breakthrough of the Year” according to Science journal: bone marrow turned in muscle and liver cells, neural stem cells turned into hematopoietic tissue. It [...]

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