Category Archives: Regenerative Medicine News and General Information

Immune Cells to Help Treat AFib

Current treatments for atrial fibrillation (AFib), a common heart condition characterized by fast and irregular beats that can lead to stroke and heart failure, have multiple side effects and are ineffective for preventing AFib recurrence. New research led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and published in Science reveals that certain immune cells play […]

Lipid Test Can Reveal Risk of Preeclampsia

University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers have discovered a way to identify pregnant women at risk of preeclampsia, a serious disorder characterized by high blood pressure and kidney dysfunction which can result in premature delivery, seizures and even death. Complications from the condition are the second-leading cause of maternal death around the world. The […]

Ketamine for Treatment-Resistant Depression

A low-cost version of ketamine to treat severe depression has performed strongly in a double-blind trial that compared it with placebo. In research published today in the British Journal of Psychiatry, researchers led by UNSW Sydney and the affiliated Black Dog Institute found that more than one in five participants achieved total remission from their […]

Home Blood Pressure Monitoring Saves Lives

Expanding home blood pressure monitoring among US adults with hypertension could substantially reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease and save healthcare costs in the long term, according to a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier.  The results of the study show that expanding home monitoring has the potential to […]

Fomepizole Could Hold the Answer to Overcome Antibiotic-Resistant Pneumonia

Streptococcus pneumoniae is the leading cause of community-acquired pneumonia. Pneumococcal disease leads to over three million hospitalizations and hundreds of thousands of deaths annually. While vaccines to protect against the bacteria are available, these vaccines are not effective against all strains. Currently, there are very limited treatment options for combating multidrug-resistant S. pneumoniae infections. In […]

Bacterium Associated with Disease Found in NC Chiggers

A bacterium that causes a disease called scrub typhus — a disease not previously reported in the United States — has been detected in North Carolina, according to a new study by researchers at North Carolina State University and UNC-Greensboro. The researchers stress that scrub typhus, which can cause fever, headache and body aches — […]

Normal-Weight but Obese: Body Fat Percentage

Researchers from the School of Public Health at TAU’s Faculty of Medicine examined the anthropometric data of about 3,000 Israeli women and men and concluded that body fat percentage is a much more reliable indicator of an individual’s overall health and cardiometabolic risk than the BMI index, widely used in clinics today.  The researchers suggest […]

Researchers Pinpoint Brain Cells That Drive Appetite in Obesity

Obesity is a major public health issue and a disease that affects more than one in 10 adults and increases a person’s risk of developing other chronic conditions, such as diabetes or heart disease. While many factors can influence the development of obesity, eating patterns and physical activity levels are key contributors. A team at […]

Vibrating Capsule for Constipation Sufferers Could Hold the Key for Using Less Medication

A vibrating capsule designed to stir the colon to action appears to double the ability for adults struggling with debilitating chronic constipation to defecate more normally and without drugs, researchers report. For the study, the nearly inch-long, traditional-shaped capsules with a latex-free plastic shell, which you swallow like any pill, were preprogrammed to induce two-hour […]

Key Improvements to Parkinson’s Disease Cell Therapies

Researchers have demonstrated that a transplant surgical procedure (called ‘needle trauma’) triggers a profound immune response and causes the death of most grafted dopamine neurons. They also found that co-transplantation of neuronal cell therapy with host regulatory T cells resulted in effective suppression of needle trauma and significant improvement in the survival and recovery of […]