Gizmorama - June 24, 2013

Good Morning,

Research has revealed that stem cells under the base of a fingernail could one day be used to treat malformed nails or possibly amputated limbs. That's astounding! What a wonderful breakthrough that could help so many people.

Learn about this and other interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Research: Nail zone stem cells, tissue regrow fingertips --*
NEW YORK - Stem cells under the base of a fingernail could one day be used to treat malformed nails or possibly amputated limbs, research by New York University suggests. A study in mice indicated a chemical signal that triggers stem cells to develop into new nail tissue also attracts new nerves that promote nail and bone regeneration, ScienceNews.com reported Wednesday. Mayumi Ito of New York University Langone Medical Center and her colleagues found stem cells that produce the hard nail and the soft tissue underneath. When they cut off the end of a mouse's toe, signals from the regrowing nail stimulated the tissue below to form new bone, the authors said. Researchers said they found the digit bones can regenerate only if the stump has some nail stem cells remaining. However, they also found that cells alone weren't enough -- also necessary was an area of tissue that grows from the stem cells during normal nail growth, ScienceNews.com said. After amputation, the tissue sends signals that attract nerves into the end of the stump and begin bone regeneration, researchers said. If the nail zone is removed or the signals are blocked, regeneration won't occur. When the researchers genetically manipulated the mice to initiate the regeneration signals permanently, nail stem cells alone spurred regeneration even without the nail tissue zone, ScienceNews.com said.


*-- Research: More than 2 dozen potential black holes in Andromeda Galaxy --*
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - A plethora of black holes have been discovered in the Andromeda Galaxy, one of the galaxies nearest to the Milky Way, a U.S. researcher said. Using data from more than 150 observations by NASA's X-ray Observatory spread over a 13-year period, researchers identified 26 black hole candidates in Andromeda, said Robin Barnard of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., and lead author of a paper describing the results. "While we are excited to find so many black holes in Andromeda, we think it's just the tip of the iceberg," Barnard said Wednesday in a release. "Most black holes won't have close companions and will be invisible to us." Astronomers can detect these otherwise invisible objects as material is drawn away from a companion star and heated to produce radiation before it disappears into the black hole. The research group previously identified nine black hole candidates within the region covered by the Chandra data, so the present results increase the total to 35, the center said. This differentiates Andromeda from the Milky Way because astronomers have yet to find a similar black hole in one of the Milky Way's globular clusters. "When it comes to finding black holes in the central region of a galaxy, it is indeed the case where bigger is better," said co-author Stephen Murray of Johns Hopkins University and Center for Astrophysics. Results are available online and will be published in the June 20 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

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