IPS cells show therapeutic benefits for rare muscle dystrophy miragenews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from miragenews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Kyoto University The Hidetoshi Sakurai laboratory reports two new markers that should advance iPS cell therapies for muscle degeneration. Muscular dystrophy describes a group of muscle degenerative congenital diseases. The severity and rates differ between disease and patient, but in all cases the degeneration progresses, sometimes leaving patients in wheelchairs and unable to breathe without artificial respiration. With no present cure, scientists are experimenting with the transplantation of muscle progenitor cells, but the amounts needed can only be made from stem cells such as iPS cells. A new study by CiRA Associate Professor Hidetoshi Sakurai and colleagues report two cell surface receptors, CDH13 and FGFR4, that are expected to advance iPS cell therapies for these diseases.