News-Medical.net reports on an interesting advance in our understanding of stem cell repair mechanisms: “To regenerate unhealthy tissue, stem cells must first move toward the effected area. It had never been known how stem cells [are] able to home precisely to the site of injury or disease … Using a simulated stroke model, the collaborators found that the chemokine SDF-1 alpha, secreted by injured or inflamed neural tissue, acts like an SOS signal and summons implanted human neural stem cells to the site of injury … The stem cells appear to migrate to the site of an injury by engaging in a special kind of movement called ‘chain migration’ in which the cells slide and guide on top of each other, laying down a path for each other, much like a colony of ants moving from their nest to a source of food.”
View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.news-medical.net/?id=6914
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http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/view_news_item.cfm?news_id=1389
