cardiovascular

Cellular Alchemy: Converting Fibroblasts Into Heart Cells

Posted 11 May 2013 by Jalees Rehman

Medieval alchemists devoted their lives to the pursuit of the infamous Philosopher's Stone, an elusive substance that was thought to convert base metals into valuable gold. Needless to say, nobody ever discovered the Philosopher’s Stone. Well, perhaps some alchemist did get lucky but was wise enough to keep the discovery secret. Instead of publishing the discovery and receiving the Nobel Prize for Alchemy, the lucky alchemist probably just walked around in junkyards, surreptitiously collected scraps of metal and brought them... Read more

Posted in cardiovascular, differentiation, gene expression, genome, heart disease, induced Pluripotent stem cells, iPSCs, molecular biology, regeneration, regenerative medicine, reprogramming, Stem Cells, wound healing |

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Is Cannabis Usage “Related” to Strokes?

Posted 23 January 2013 by Jalees Rehman

Any research related to cannabis is bound to be sensationalized or politicized because people have strong emotional and political views about its usage. A few months ago, my fellow Scilogs blogger Suzi Gage wrote an excellent blog post about a study that investigated the link between cannabis usage and intelligence. That study had many critical flaws which were often ignored when the research was reported and discussed in the media. All research should be conducted and reported cautiously. However, when... Read more

Posted in cannabis, cardiovascular, politics, scientific method, scientific methodology, stroke |

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Can The Heart Regenerate Itself After A Heart Attack?

Posted 5 December 2012 by Jalees Rehman

Some cardiovascular researchers believe that the heart contains cardiac stem cells or progenitor cells which can become mature cardiomyocytes (beating heart cells) following an injury and regenerate the damaged heart. The paper "Mammalian heart renewal by pre-existing cardiomyocytes" published in the journal Nature by Senyo and colleagues (online publication on December 5, 2012), on the other hand, suggests that the endogenous regenerative potential of the adult heart is very limited. The researchers studied the regeneration of cardiomyocytes in mice using... Read more

Posted in adult stem cells, cardiovascular, cell biology, gene expression, heart disease, molecular biology, regenerative medicine |

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