New avenue for combating deterioration in blood stem cells
Thursday, October 15, 2015 - 12:00
in Health & Medicine
Using mouse embryos, researchers have replicated the deterioration with aging of blood stem cells, particularly red blood cells, and were able to alleviate the fetal anemia suffered by the mouse embryos and prevent death in 40 percent of the cases. This is a first step towards the development of potential treatments for anemia caused by a deficient activity of these stem cells, such as the aplastic anemia in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and radiation therapy.