Medical Spa MD: Information on cosmetic medicine and business for plastic surgeons, dermatologists, aesthetic physicians, and medspa professionals in cosmetic medicine.
Entries in Medical Advances (4)
Skin & Stem Cells: Don't ablate my new liver.
Via the Times: Biologists Make Skin Cells Work Like Stem Cells
The advance is an easy-to-use technique for reprogramming a skin cell of a mouse back to the embryonic state. Embryonic cells can be induced in the laboratory to develop into many of the body’s major tissues.
If the technique can be adapted to human cells, researchers could use a patient’s skin cells to generate new heart, liver or kidney cells that might be transplantable and would not be rejected by the patient’s immune system. But scientists say they cannot predict when they can overcome the considerable problems in adapting the method to human cells.
Post a CommentStem Cells & Cosmetic Medicine
Via ABC News: Could stem cells make you more beautiful?
The prospect is a tantalizing one. To erase wrinkles and fine lines, or to get bigger breasts, without cosmetic surgery. Forget silicone, forget collagen. All you would need is stem-cell therapy.
"Stem-cell research appears promising for medicine and particularly for plastic surgery," said Dr. Ronald Friedman, director of the West Plano Plastic Surgery Center and a board-certified plastic surgeon practicing in Plano, Tex.
New law could help Australia become leader in stem cell research
Lawmakers begin debating legislation this week that would lift a ban on cloning human embryos for stem cell research -- a bill that, if passed, could make Australia a world leader in research into diseases such as diabetes and Alzheimer's.
Collagens New Structure: Math for dermatologists.
MIT's new model shows collagen's structure from the atomic to the tissue scale.
An MIT researcher's mathematical model explains for the first time the distinctive structure of collagen, a material key to healthy human bone, muscles and other tissues. The new model shows collagen's structure from the atomic to the tissue scale.
An improved understanding of nature's most abundant protein could aid the search for cures to such ailments as osteoporosis, joint hyperextensibility and scurvy, all recognized as arising from diseased collagen. It could also guide engineers' development of synthetic versions of the protein, which in its healthy state is several times stronger than steel per molecule.
..."The response of materials to tensile loading has been studied in materials science for computer chips, cars and buildings, but is still poorly understood for biological materials. What we are doing is looking at biological systems on a molecular level, the same way we would examine glass or metal," said Buehler. "This represents a new way of thinking about biological matter, and it may hold the key to engineering biological systems as we design man-made devices today."
Emergency Medicine: Suspended animation ready for human clinical trials?
War triggers advances in trauma medicine.
Brain damage that doesn't start for two hours?
Docs at Mass General have placed pigs in suspended animation for hours with no discernable effects. First the battlefield, then the ER.
From CNN: Docs test 'suspended animation' as potential battlefield treatment.
"It's a huge leap over the four or five minutes that we had to fix injuries to about two to three hours. Metabolism doesn't come to a halt. So there's still metabolic activity ongoing and the clock is still ticking, just at a slower rate," says Alam. "You buy precious time, but it's a finite amount of time...
...When a patient suffers a traumatic injury, such as a stab or gunshot wound, Alam induces hypothermia by slowly pumping out the patient's blood and replacing it with fluid similar to that used in organ transplants. That process cools the body down gradually from the normal state of 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) to 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit).
Once the body is cooled, the patient has almost no blood, little to no brain activity and no heartbeat. The body's slowed processes give the doctor time to fix all the underlying injuries. Once the wounds are treated, the patient is gradually warmed back up, resuscitated and blood pumped back into the body. The patient slowly regains signs of life.
