Health
How stem cell therapy can keep the immune system under control
by Staff Writers
Los Angeles CA (SPX)
 File image. |
A new study, appearing in Cell Stem Cell and led by researchers at the University of Southern California, outlines the specifics of how autoimmune disorders can be controlled by infusions of mesenchymal stem cells.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are highly versatile stem cells that originate from the mesoderm, or middle layer of tissue, in a developing embryo. MSC can be isolated from many different kinds of human tissue, including bone marrow and the umbilical cord.
Principal investigator Songtao Shi, professor at the Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology, said that recent studies have shown the benefits of administering MSC to patients with immune-related disorders such as graft versus host disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, and more.
These studies showed that infusions of MSC appeared to quell the production and function of overactive immune cells, including T- and B-lymphocytes. However, the specific mechanism behind how MSC get the immune cells under control hasn’t been fully understood.
“Mesenchymal-Stem-Cell-Induced Immunoregulation Involves FAS-Ligand-/FAS-Mediated T Cell Apoptosis” shines light on how infused MSCs target and defeat overactive immune cells.
Examining the effects of MSC infusion in mice with systemic sclerosis (SS)-like immune disorders, Shi and his colleagues discovered that a specific cellular mechanism known as the FAS/FAS-ligand pathway was the key to the remarkable immune system benefits.
Specifically, in mice with SS-like disorders, infusions of MSC caused T-lymphocyte death with FASL/FAS signaling and lessened symptoms of the immune disorder. However, MSC deficient in FAS-ligand failed to treat immune disorders in SS-afflicted mice.
With the hopeful results of the animal model study in mind, Shi’s colleagues in China performed a pilot study with patients suffering from systemic sclerosis. Infusions of MSCs provided similar clinical benefits to patients, and experimental analysis revealed that the FASL/FAS pathway was also at work in humans with SS.
The identification of the cellular workings responsible for the stem cell treatments’ success may eventually help doctors find optimal cell-based treatment for some immune diseases, Shi said.
Basic research portions of this study were supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Clinical studies were supported by a grant from the China Major International (Regional) Joint Research Project.
Related Links
University of Southern California
The Clone Age – Cloning, Stem Cells, Space Medicine
Why you get the dizzies when standing up too fast
By Christen Brownlee
Men’s Health
If you’re seeing stars when you get out of bed in the morning, it’s probably not because you slept with Halle Berry last night. There’s actually a name for that dizziness you sometimes get when you go from laying down or sitting to standing up: orthostatic hypotension (OH).
A little momentary brain static might seem like nothing, but according to a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, OH is linked to heart failure. Could it be a danger sign for your health?
What causes dizziness
Franz Messerli, M.D., a physician who directs the hypertension programs at St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals in New York, says that OH happens when your blood pressure takes a dive. Usually, your body compensates when you go from sitting to standing by prompting your heart to beat a little faster (about an extra 10 beats per minute) and constricting your blood vessels, which force more blood back to your head and keep your brain on the up-and-up.
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Holistic Health
Vaccines have been based on medical fraud for over a hundred years
By PF Louis,
(NaturalNews) The concept of vaccinating to immunize began in 1796, when British apothecary (pharmacist) Edward Jenner inserted cowpox pus under the skin of an eight year old boy. Jenner based his experiment on an unsubstantiated rumor that anyone who had experienced cowpox would be immune to smallpox. Over the next couple of years, Jenner vaccinated others with cowpox to immunize them against smallpox. Without any actual proof of efficacy and safety, Jenner impressed King George III enough with…
The anti-aging effects of cucumbers
| 338 |
By Dr. David Jockers
Superfoods are natural foods that have an array of nutrients that synergistically work to together to exponentially expand the individual nutritional components. Many raw, organic vegetables fall into this category. One of the world’s favorite superfoods are cucumbers…
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Pet Health
By Dr. Becker
MRSA is short for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
Staphylococcus aureus is a strain of bacteria naturally found in most animals, including humans.
In your dog or cat, staph can be found as naturally occurring bacteria on the skin, in mucous membranes, as well as in the GI tract.
Occasionally pets can become infected by their own normal flora.
I refer to these infections as “pet acne,” because they are usually harmless and very easily treated, but when a pet’s normal flora develops resistance to broad-spectrum antibiotics, it becomes a very dangerous health threat.
If these bacteria undergo genetic mutation — making them resistant to even the strongest antibiotic available, including methicillin — it can cause serious illness and even death in pets.
If Your Vet Thinks Your Pet Needs Antibiotics, Ask Him to Do This First
Power Walks: A Great Way to Improve Your Dog’s Fitness (and Yours!)
Posted By: Dr. Becker
By Dr. Becker
I often discuss the importance of aerobic exercise for furry family members here at Mercola Healthy Pets.
Regular heart-thumping physical activity will help your cat or dog:
- Achieve and stay at a healthy body weight
- Build muscle mass
- Maintain the integrity of the musculoskeletal system
- Resolve boredom and unwanted behaviors that result from it
If you’re looking for ways to get your canine companion moving, did you know you can exercise him aerobically with regular power walks?
And as a bonus, you’ll get a good workout as well!
Cute cat thinks it’s a dog
Uploaded by TushiRIT
Our cat, Tifa, is a little “species confused” 
She plays “fetch”, pants like a dog, and wags her tail!
This video is from when Tifa was about 6 months old.
For those of you concerned about the panting, she went through several tests and the vets saw nothing wrong with her. She only panted when running and playing for too long.
Today she’s more than a year old, doesn’t pant anymore (she’s gotten too lazy for all that running 
) and is leading the life of a perfectly happy and healthy cat… Or dog, I don’t know anymore.
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Positivity Mind and Body
Deepak Chopra – Quantum Healing 1 – 3
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Articles of Interest
Lighting up to take down bacteria
by Merrin Fabre
Canberra, Australia (SPX) Apr 30, 2012
 The plasma bacteria zapper. |
Whilst some bacteria can provide health benefits there are others that can do annoying things – like kill you. So in order to save ourselves we should probably kill them first. So, stand aside bacterial wipes, hand sanitisers and antiseptic sprays there is a new bug zapper in town.
Bring in the plasma flashlight – a torch that emits a plasma jet that kills bacteria on the skin in an instant. Developed by a group of Chinese and Australian scientists, including CSIRO, the flashlight is completely mobile, light, efficient, and works at room temperature.
Due to its mobility it could be used in ambulance emergency calls, natural disaster sites, military combat operations and many other instances where treatment is required in remote locations.
Kostya Ostrikov from CSIRO was one of the researchers working on the flashlight.
“‘The plasma flashlight is an exciting development in potential health treatments,” Kostya said. “It not only inactivates individual bacterial cells but also bacterial bio-films.”
Bio-films are multilayered bacterial colonies which can give the bacterium addition resistance. The plasma flashlight effectively inactivated a thick bio-film of one of the most antibiotic and heat-resistant bacteria, Enterococcus faecalis – a bacterium which often infects the root canals during dental treatments.
“We used an extreme example to demonstrate that the plasma flashlight can be very effective even at room temperature,” Kostya said. ” For individual bacteria, the inactivation time could be just tens of seconds.”
“There is potential for this device to be used to kill pathogens, such as bacteria, viruses, spores or fungi.
“It can then be used to clean and sterilize medical equipment and wounds. It could also be used for plasma-assisted coagulation to help heal wounds, plus it could be used to treat cancers such as skin cancer.”
But it doesn’t have to be restricted to medical use.
“This device could be miniaturized and used in hygiene treatments such as toothbrushes or chopping boards in the kitchen,” Kostya said.
One day you could be zapping your bacteria away with your very own plasma toothbrush.
Related Links
CSIRO
Hospital and Medical News at InternDaily.com
Top 5 things that cause brain bloopers
By Natalie Wolchover
Life’s Little Mysteries
Our brains balk at the thought of four-dimensional hypercubes, quantum mechanics or an infinite universe, and understandably so. But our gray matter is generally adept at processing sensory data from the mundane objects and experiences of daily life. However, there are a few glaring exceptions.
Here are five common things that unexpectedly throw our brains for a loop, revealing some of the bizarre quirks in their structure and function that usually manage to slip under the radar.
Doors
Do you ever walk into a room with some purpose in mind — to get something, perhaps? — only to completely forget what that purpose was? Turns out, doors themselves are to blame for these strange memory lapses.
Why you forgot what you were just doing
Psychologists at the University of Notre Dame have discovered that passing through a doorway triggers what’s known as an “event boundary” in the mind, separating one set of thoughts and memories from the next, just as exiting through a doorway signals the end of a scene in a movie. Your brain files away the thoughts you had in the previous room, and prepares a blank slate for the new locale. Mental event boundaries usually help us organize our thoughts and memories as we move through the continuous and dynamic world, but when we’re trying to remember that thing we came in here to do… or get… or maybe find… they can be frustrating indeed.
North Carolina board violated US Constitution in threatening nutrition blogger
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By Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
The power-tripping medical establishment in North Carolina has threatened to sue the owner of an online diabetes blog based in the Tar Heel State if he refuses to capitulate to their tyrannous, unconstitutional demands. The North Carolina Board of Dietetics / Nutrition…
Read Full Article Here
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