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Technology helps preserve fertility of boys with cancer

Researchers have found a promising way to preserve sperm stem cells so boys can undergo cancer treatment without risking their fertility.

Adult men can have their sperm frozen before undergoing radiation or chemotherapy, both of which can render sperm infertile. But boys who haven’t been through puberty can only have sperm stem cells removed and frozen in anticipation of technology that could culture the cells and place them back in the testes, where they produce sperm after puberty.

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3D-printed patch can help mend a ‘broken’ heart

A team of biomedical engineering researchers has created a revolutionary 3D-bioprinted patch that can help heal scarred heart tissue after a heart attack. The discovery is a major step forward in treating patients with tissue damage after a heart attack.

The research study was published recently in Circulation Research, a journal published by the American Heart Association (AHA). Researchers have filed a patent on the discovery.

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Cells grow more naturally in ‘spaghetti’

The usual way of cultivating cells is to use a flat laboratory dish of glass. However, inside a human body, the cells do not grow on a flat surface, but rather in three dimensions. This has lead researchers to develop a porous “spaghetti” of tissue-friendly polymers with cavities in which the cells can develop in a more natural way.

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Old gut stem cells made to grow like young ones in a dish

Intestines experience a lot of wear and tear. Without the stalwart stem cells that live in our gut’s lining, our ability to absorb food would dwindle and bacteria from the digestive tract would be able to breach the bloodstream. Unfortunately, the regenerative abilities of intestinal stem cells decline with age. However, it may be possible to partially reverse aging in gut stem cells, at least in a petri dish.

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Targeting cancer stem cells improves treatment effectiveness, prevents metastasis

Targeting cancer stem cells may be a more effective way to overcome cancer resistance and prevent the spread of squamous cell carcinoma — the most common head and neck cancer and the second-most common skin cancer, according to a new study. Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is a highly invasive form of cancer and frequently spreads to the cervical lymph nodes.

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Researchers engineer new thyroid cells

Researchers have discovered a new efficient way to generate thyroid cells, known as thyrocytes, using genetically modified embryonic stem cells. The findings are the first step to developing a similar protocol using human stem cells that will allow the modeling of thyroid disease to better understand its causes and the development of therapies.

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