Reversal of Diabetes Using Umbilical Cord Blood

Another use was found to the umbilical-cord stem-cells. A group from Chicago found a type of stem-cell that can reverse type I diabetes. The new stem-cells were tested on mice with a great success.
Read the paper: http://sn.im/vor5t

Antioxidants Might Relieve Autoimmune Diseases (Hypothesis)

If indeed NK cells play a role in autoimmune diseases as was suggested and NK cells are differentiated from progenitor cells with ROS signaling taking antioxidants might relieve autoimmune diseases. There are testimonies that antioxidants might relive atopic dermatitis for instance, the mechanism might be a decrease in NK cells levels. I know it's a lot of "maybes" on top of the other but this is possible.
Actually, it doesn't have to b e mediated through NK cells. If antioxidants indeed reduce the power of the immune system they can cure or at least relieve autoimmune diseases.

ROS are Used to Signal the Immune System

While Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), ion and molecules that can damage DNA and cells are considered bad, researchers from the UCLA found that the fruit fly uses them for signaling in its immune system. The research, published in Nature, puts in question the benefits of antioxidants, consumed by a lot of people.
The researchers found that elevated levels of ROS signal blood stem-cells to differentiate into immune bolstering cells. After the cells differentiate, the ROS level returns to normal.
While the researchers don't know if this is true for humans as well, surprisingly, there are mammalian blood progenitor cells called common myeloid progenitors in which the ROS level is high and these cells differentiate into macrophages, a component of the immune system.
If this observation is true for humans as well, antioxidants can weaken the immune system. A question left to be answered is whether or not antioxidants actually reduce the levels of ROS in the blood and in the blood stem-cells or just make the body generate ROS in high levels.
The full review is in UCLA's news page.

Gene Mastering Differentiation Into NK Cells Discovered

NK cells are a major part of the innate immune system, capable of killing other infected cells and cancer cells. A group of scientists from GB have discovered the master gene controlling the differentiation of blood stem-cells into NK cells. The discovery can help fight cancer and aid in the research of autoimmune diseases.
Natural killer (NK) cells, a type of white blood cells, are the front line of the body's immune system. The scientists discovered that the expression of a gene called E4bp4 leads to the differentiation of a blood stem-cell into a NK cell. They have also engineered a transgenic mouse lacking NK cells by knownking out this gene. Some believe that NK cells play a role in autoimmune diseases such as diabetes and MS, the transgenic mouse will help in studying their effect of such diseases.
Since NK cells fight cancerous cells, induction of self NK cells by uplifting the expression of E4bp4 could help fight cancer. Today, NK cells are taken from donors and transplanted into the patients but self NK cells will have a better effect.
This research is another milestone in understanding the factors affecting the differentiation of stem cells into specific cells. While differentiating cells in vitro is beneficial for generating artificial organs, the insights can help understand the opposite direction and will aid in generating pluripotent cells from differentiated cells.

Milk Consumption and Prostate Cancer Risk

Research links high levels of circulating insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) with increased risk of prostate cancer. Cows' milk contains this hormone and its consumption might elevate the hormone's levels in the blood. A paper just published reviews all relevant experiments done so far and finds out that there is a link between milk consumption and circulating IGF-I levels.
The review includes 15 cross-sectional studies and 8 randomized controlled trials. Taking all researches into consideration the authors found that circulating IGF-I levels was higher in milk consuming subjects. The conclusion of this meta-analysis is that there might be a relation between milk consumption and risk of prostate cancer and maybe some other cancers.

Epigenetics and Heredity

Epigenetics are all the factors that control gene expression. It looks like epigenetic mechnisms such as DNA methylation and histone modification has a lot of power in heredity and functionality. It is recently mentioned in relevance to Lamarckian evolution.
This introduction to epigenetics shows a bit of its relatance to heredity and cancer.

Epigenetics Influence on Prostate Cancer

Epigenetic changes such as DNA methylation and histone modification play a role in carcinogenesis. In a recent research the overall level of histone modifications were compared between malignant and normal prostate epithelial cells.
Methylation of H3K9 and acetylation of H3 and H4 were found do be significantly reduced in the malignant cells. It was found out that two specific modifications can distinguish normal from cancer cells with high sensitivity and specificity.
this paper supports the formerly established concept that epigenetics plays a major role in cancer. Cancer is considered to be a genetic disease but there are cases in which the epigenetic code is changed while the genetic code is not altered.
The research was headed by Jörg Ellinger from the University of Bonn, Germany and was published in the Prostate on Sep-2009.