“Latest Stem Cells News”

Given the amount of angst over male pattern balding, surprisingly little is known about its cause at the cellular level. In a new study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, a team led by George Cotsarelis, MD, chair of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has found that stem cells play an unexpected role in explaining what happens in bald scalp.

Using cell samples from men undergoing hair transplants, the team compared follicles from bald scalp and non-bald scalp, and found that bald areas had the same number of stem cells as normal scalp in the same person. However, they did find that another, more mature cell type called a progenitor cell was markedly depleted in the follicles of bald scalp.

The researchers surmised that balding may arise from a problem with stem-cell activation rather than the numbers of stem cells in follicles. In male pattern balding, hair follicles actually shrink; they don’t disappear. The hairs are essentially microscopic on the bald part of the scalp compared to other spots.

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A procedure using stem cells may provide a more thorough regeneration of periodontal tissue around dental implants, according to a new report published in the Journal of Oral Implantology.

Dental implants closely resemble natural teeth, but an implant’s ability to react to patient growth, pressure from chewing, and future orthodontic work is diminished if it is not surrounded by sufficient periodontal tissue.

In this study, the authors engineered this periodontal tissue in a fresh socket of a goat animal model. Each of five goats was fitted with two titanium implants immediately after tooth removal. A poly DL-Lactide-co-Glycolide scaffold was fitted around each implant, but the control received only the scaffolding.

The experimental implant received scaffolding seeded with bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMDSCs). All implant sites showed some level of tissue development at 10 days after the operation.

At one month after, the control side showed no signs of tissue development, whereas the experimental side had developed cementum, bone, and periodontal ligament, the three tissues required for regeneration of periodontal tissue.

Past studies have demonstrated positive results with BMDSCs in periodontal defects around natural teeth. Others have shown promising results without BMDSCs, using progenitor cells from the remaining ligament in certain limited situations. But unlike past studies, this report demonstrates that using BMDSCs can ensure a more thorough, adaptable regeneration of periodontal tissue with titanium implants.

To read the entire article: “Experimental Formation of Periodontal Structure Around Titanium Implants Utilizing Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells: A Pilot Study”

original post from RDH Magazine

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For some the stress of every day life can prove to be too much actually causing their hair to fall out. But now there’s an experimental treatment in the Bay area that may help your hair grow back regardless of why it fell out.

Russell Gibson is hoping it will work for him. Under the hot Florida sun each day he wears a black knit stocking cap pulled down low over his ears and his eyebrows. He spends hours working outside because he owns “Momma Gibbs Top Notch Boat Detail.” Seeing see him dressed in a t-shirt and shorts with a cap on his head makes most people look twice.

He says when customers or friends ask him why he’s wearing it he tries to quickly change the subject. In nearly three years hardly anyone has seen Gibson without a cap. “Nobody really knows that I have this problem except for two or three people I’ve actually told.”

In his garage in private when his roommate is gone and no one else is home is the only time he will remove it. He shaves away the short black clumps of hair so you won’t notice the circular areas of hair that have fallen out.

Gibson has alopecia areata which is an auto-immune disease where white blood cells attack the hair follicle which stops hair growth on the scalp and on the body. Gibson’s eyebrows and lashes have fallen out. There is no cure.

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