Mammal's Super Healing to Open Wounds

     In a study published on Wednesday April 30, 2025 the proceedings of the Royal Society B, Dr. Masumoto-Oda and her team compared the healing rates of humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and mice. They found that humans took more than twice as long to heal a wound than any of the other mammals tested. The slow healing trait might have been a result of an evolutionary trade-off that humans. The study recruited 24 patients who were having skin tumors removed at the University of the Ryukyus Hospital, 5 chimpanzees were observed at the Kumamoto Sanctuary of the Kyoto University Wildlife Research Center. The Skye's monkeys were observed as primates by having them anesthetized and then researchers would surgically wound them and then monitor their healing. But do not be alarmed. Dr. Matsumoto-Oda said that "as a field researcher, I personally believe that invasive studies should be minimized as much as possible" and later discussed that the surgical wounds were no bigger than the average bite size wounds that would occur in the habitats between the species. The results consisted of humans healing wounds more slowly than other animals, and said that they regrew skin at about a quarter of a millimeter per day, on average. There was more consistency between the healing rates of the animal subjects including the chimpanzees, and that they showed no significant difference in the speed to regrowing skin per day among different primates. They grew it at about 0.62 millimeters per day. Elaine Fuchs who was a stem cell biologist at the Rockefeller University who studied the skin growth and repair was not involved in the research itself, however, said that the results were what she would have expected. This was being the skin healing depends on hair, each hair grows from a hair follicle, which is a house for stem cells. Regularly stem cells would just produce more hair, however since skin is regrowing instead she said that when the epidermis is wounded it is really the hair follicle stem cell that performs the repairing. Since animals are normally furry they are covered in follicles, which can help heal wounds more quickly than in humans. Since humans have very puny hair follicles, they have lost their efficiency to repair wounds as quickly.  This article was very interesting to learn about because I had never fully known that animals were able to heal quicker than humans due their higher amount of hair follicles for their fur. It is fascinating to know that over time loosing the access hair on the human body has prevented us from healing quicker. 

Links:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/science/wounds-healing-speed-humans.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470443/

A mouse made with a gene older than animal life

    The current theory of evolution tells us that all life had to evolve from an ancestor and that different species may share a common ancestor. Even the split between unicellular organisms and multicellular organisms had to have had a common ancestor at some point in time. 

    Dr. Alex de Mendoza of Queen Mary University of London and a team of researchers from the University of Hong Kong ventured out to see if a gene found in choanoflagellates could be used to make stem cells to produce a living mouse. Choanoflagellates were chosen since they are the closest single-celled organism related to animals as well as having a version of the Sox and POU genes, genes responsible for the development of different cell types found within animals. The team put the choanoflagellate Sox and POU genes into mouse cells to replace the native Sox and POU genes, producing stem cells. The stem cells made were essentially codes that which were overwritten by the new Sox and POU genes. These stem cells were then injected into a mouse embryo resulting in a living, breathing mouse that had physical traits belonging to the donor embryo and the new stem cells. What this confirmed was that the Sox and POU genes, genes older than animal life, were essential parts of the puzzle for animal life to even exist.

    The implications of this discovery are incredible. The fact that a single-celled organism has genes vital for multicellular life to exists is interesting as it implies these genes might have not originally served the role we as humans use them for. It's possible they were meant to serve a different purpose entirely and some change or mutation resulted in the evolution of the multicellular organism since the Sox and POU genes in choanoflagellates are not exactly the same as the animal version. I find it really interesting how one discovery can make us question what we know about genetics and how much we actually understand.

Progress is Being Made on Finding a Cure to Type 1 Diabetes

 

    An article from U.S. News says that a 64-year-old man named Brian Shelton is one of the first type 1 diabetes patients to receive a transplant of experimental pancreatic stem cells which enables him to make insulin on his own. This treatment is not exactly perfect, as Shelton has to take immune suppressing drugs to prevent his body from rejecting the transplanted cells.

    This treatment was created by Vertex Pharmaceuticals can help people with type 1 diabetes whose condition has become life-threatening or who have developed a resistance to insulin or other diabetes medications. The next step researchers are looking to take with this treatment is trying it on other patients, they are looking to test the cure on 17 other patients and to observe the effectiveness and safety of the treatment for both long and short-term.

    The end goal for researchers is to create a treatment with pancreatic stem cells that requires less or no immune suppression at all. In type 1 diabetes patients, the immune system is attacking and destroying beta cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, and this response would continue on the transplanted pancreatic stem cells without immune suppression. The body will also identify the stem cells as foreign and attack and destroy them as well if the immune system was not suppressed. 

    Researchers are looking at different methods to combat this challenge that involves covering the stem cells in a capsule that would protect them from the immune system. The capsule was designed to allow oxygen and nutrients into the cells but prevent immune cells from entering and attacking the cells. The capsule has been shown to be relatively ineffective due to the fact that the insulin produced was too little to make a change for the patient. Companies are not abandoning this method quiet yet and are still working and testing this method.

    Another method has also been looked into, and it involves gene editing that would allow the transplanted cells to be undetectable by the immune system. This method could be a great solution for the negative immune response because it will protect the cells while also still allowing the cells to produce insulin.

    Researchers do admit that it will be a long time before this treatment will be widely available to the public, and that lots of testing and research is defiantly needed a on the matter.

    As some who has a family member with type 2 diabetes, and know many other people with type 1 diabetes, I do understand some of the struggles of having diabetes and the toll it takes on one's body. I also understand how it can be a struggle and very scary not being able to control your blood sugar and constantly needing to monitor it. This treatment shows a lot of prospects and helps to give hope of a better life to those who are suffering from type 1 diabetes. 

Other articles

What Is Type 1 Diabetes? | CDC

Scientists discover Protective Alzheimer's Gene and Develop Rapid Drug Testing Platform

     There has been a gene discovered that can naturally suppress the signs of Alzheimer's in human brain cells. This research has been led by Queen Mary University of London. Once an individual shows symptoms of Alzheimer's, it's usually too late for treatments since the brain cells are already starting to die. Treating those who are at a higher risk for Alzheimer's disease is the ideal way to see if it prevents the onset of the disease.
     In the study in the Nature journal group Molecular Psychiatry, researchers collected hair samples in those who had Down Syndrome and reprogrammed them to become stem cells and turned them into brain cells. The researchers saw Alzheimer's like pathology develop rapidly. This is the first cell-based system that has full trio of Alzheimer's pathologies without artificial gene expression. This could be used as an early preventative drug testing platform. Two different drugs which inhibit amyloid production were tested on brain cells and in six weeks it prevented the onset of Alzheimer's pathology.
     BACE2 gene was found which is a naturally functioning Alzheimer's suppressor gene. This could open up more possibilities for researchers to help prevent the onset of Alzheimer's disease in individuals by determining ways to boost this gene, or determining why it slows or decreases function.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200709210456.htm

https://theconversation.com/alzheimers-disease-protective-gene-uncovered-in-human-cell-model-bringing-promise-for-new-drug-discoveries-142398

Scientists grow 'mini-brain on the move' that can contract muscle

In a recent article on The Guardian, Cambridge researchers developed an experiment with hopes to advance the study of motor neuron disease. The experiment involved the use of a spinal cord with attached muscle tissue from a mouse, which was then connected and linked to a small blob of human brain cells. The muscles were observed to visibly contract by control of the brain organoid. This occurred when the brain cells automatically sent out neuronal connections with the attached spinal cord and then sent out electrical impulses; the resulting observation was twitching muscles. As of now, the structure is too small to completely analyze, but it replicates the human fetal brain at approximately 12-16 weeks of pregnancy. At this stage, the brain is also too small for the development of thoughts, feelings, and consciousness. Overall, the researchers continue to grow the miniature brain in the laboratory with the goal of studying the human brain and nervous system development. They hope to gain information to help understand why motor neuron diseases take place in humans, including epilepsy and schizophrenia.  

 

I found this article to be extremely interesting not only because of the experiment itself but also what the researchers plan to use the results for.  I find it truly amazing that we have the technology and methods to physically grow a brain in a laboratory. I also hope that the experimental results can provide information behind motor neuron diseases or at least draw attention to create more studies.

 

Baby Teeth Stem Cells Can Save Adult Teeth?

According to an article in Science Daily, extensive research has showed that a specific human deciduous pulp stem cells (hDPSC) in baby teeth can be used to regrow dental tissue. Scientist Songtao Shi and his colleagues conducted studies in China, where they enrolled 40 children who had injured one of their "adult teeth" while still having their baby teeth present. The procedure began with Phase 1 of trial where hDPSC was extracted from baby teeth and was used to treat the damaged "adult tooth." After a couple of weeks results showed; healthy root development, thicker dentin (the hard part of a tooth beneath the enamel) and an increase of blood flow.

The treatment presents a promise to preventing tooth decay at an early age. Most children damage their teeth at an early age, thus needing root canal procedures in the near future, which can also lead to other more serious and expensive procedures. Since this research is still brand new, scientists see a potential benefit in the dental field, however if this were to become a valuable procedure it will be costly.

Stem Cells Implanted into Patient with Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson's is a neurodegenerative condition caused by the death of cells called dopaminergic neurons, which make a neurotransmitter called dopamine in certain areas of the brain. Scientist at Kyoto University have been developing iPS cells that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. It is first important to understand what iPS cells are and how they function. iPS cells, short for induced pluripotent stem cells, are adult skin or blood cells that have been reverted back to their embryonic form. This is done by introducing genes that are important for maintaining the essential properties of embryonic stem cells into the skin cells. This then reverts them back into a pluripotent state. As many know, stem cells can give rise to any type of cell in the body through differentiation. Thus, after these iPS cells are made, they are introduced with DNA to give rise to these dopamine producing neurotransmitters. Previous trial had been run on monkeys with their own from of Parkinson's disease to test the viability of the iPS neurotransmitters. After two years of review, the monkeys did not show any adverse effects and their cells did not degenerate. The first human trial was conducted this past October; Dr. Takayuki Kikuchi implanted over 2.4 million dopamine precursor cells into a patient in his 50's. These cells were implanted in 12 different sites known to be centers of dopamine activity. As of November, the patient is doing well and there have been no adverse effects. If all goes well in the preliminary trials, this could be used as a treatment as early as 2023.

    

This was an interesting article to read. I found it interesting that they used so many of these iPS cells, presumably they must have identified how many they need to actually create a difference in the body. It is also important to understand that they can not administer too many of these cells because very high level of dopamine can make these patients psychotic, however to low of levels won't show a change. This just shows how quickly medicine is advancing and how important the understanding of the genome is because without it, creating these artificial cells wouldn't be possible.

Skin Replacement with Genetically-Modified Grafts

In 2015, a seven year old boy was admitted to a German hospital with severe lesions and blisters across his entire body. This boy suffered from a genetic condition called junctional epidermolysis bullosa (JEB) that prevents the epidermis, the outer most layer of the skin from properly attaching to the underlying base. Because of this condition the boy is prone to easily damage his skin, this condition is caused by a mutation in one of three genes which causes a dificiency of protien laminin-33. It is said that people who suffer from this genetic conditon do not live pass adolescene. Once the the boy was admited and the doctors had taken a look at him, the odds of him surviving his injuries was very slim. The German doctors spoke to the boy's parents and notified them that there was a way to help him but that the method to aid his recovery had only been performed in a small scale. Even with gene therapy there woud not be a high success rate that the patient would make a full recovery.
Gene therapy was performed on the patient by taking undamaged section of his skin and using retrovirus to implant the correct DNA sequence in the skin cells. Once the implant was placed the cells were cultured to grow and the new skin was stiched to to sheets of protein fibrin grafts. Once the genetically modified grafts were ready for use, the doctors grafted them on the patients body. Because this procedure was the first one being conducted in such a large scale many were considered whether there would be any difficulties or future side effects to the patients body. Three years have past and the boy is living a normal life. Because of such positive results of the work done it can help researchers understand how the skin functions.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2017/11/08/skin-genetically-modified-grafts/#.Ws0O4S-ZOt8

http://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/surgery/skin-graft

Stem Cell Therapy

 The Potential of stem cells in the treatment of traumatic brain injuries



Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a global public health concern, with limited treatment options available. In the U.S alone, between 3.2 -5.3 million people suffer long-term cognitive impairment as a result of TBI. When an individual has sustained a heavy blow to the head it could lead to long-term deficits involving sensory-motor and memory functions. However, the brain harbors neural stem cells that it uses to self-repair itself after damages have been sustained. Unfortunately, these neural stem cells are limited and if the impact to the head was strong it would result in a chronic injury. Therefore the brain would not be able to have a full recovery which would result in future health problems for an individual. As of today, many scientists have begun working with stem cells in hopes of finding a treatment for TBI.
Embryonic and Induced Pluripotent stem cells have acquired a lot of population due to there plasticity and ability to differentiate into any lineage in the nervous central system. Embryonic stem cells (ES) are obtained from fetal or embryonic brains and are strongly considered for neural transplantation because when implanted into a recipients brain these cells can differentiate, migrate, and make innervation to aid the damaged brain to recover. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are obtained from patients themselves and have the potential for autologous transplantation and avoiding ethical and graft rejection concerns. Induced pluripotent stem cells have allowed scientists to explore manipulating this highly plastic population. These somatic cell-derived iPSCs can provide large quantities of pluripotent cells that have high plasticity generating cells for all three germ layers including neurons and glial cells.
These unique properties of Embryonic and Induced pluripotent stem cells have raised hope that many neurological diseases including TBI might be cured or treated.

  

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29372464

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/795390