Induced Stem Cells as a Novel Multiple Sclerosis Therapy.

Stem cell replacement is providing hope for many degenerative diseases that lack effective therapeutic methods including multiple sclerosis (MS), an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. Transplantation of neural stem cells or mesenchymal stem cells is a potential therapy for MS thanks to their capacity for cell repopulation as well as for their immunomodulatory and neurotrophic properties. Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC), an emerging cell source in regenerative medicine, is also being tested for the treatment of MS. Remarkable improvement in mobility and robust remyelination have been observed after transplantation of iPSC-derived neural cells into demyelinated models. Direct reprogramming of somatic cells into induced neural cells, such as induced neural stem cells (iNSCs) and induced oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (iOPCs), without passing through the pluripotency stage, is an alternative for transplantation that has been proved effective in the congenital hypomyelination model. iPSC technology is rapidly progressing as efforts are being made to increase the efficiency of iPSC therapy and reduce its potential side effects. In this review, we discuss the recent advances in application of stem cells, with particular focus on induced stem/progenitor cells (iPSCs, iNSC, iOPCs), which are promising in the treatment of MS

Twin jets as a potential distance detector

A preview study of using observational data of proper motions and Doppler shifted velocities of twin-jets to determine the distance of sources inside and outside our galaxy is made. We investigate the feasibility of this method by studying the uncertainty of the distance caused by the uncertainties of the measured quantities. It shows that, when the motion of components of the jet is relativistic, then the uncertainty of the distance is within the same order of the uncertainties of the measured values of proper motions and Doppler shifted velocities. In particular, when assuming the pattern speed equals the flow speed in the jet, for 10% uncertainties of the measured quantities, the uncertainty of the distance caused by them would be well within 13%. With current technique, this method is realizable. For the convenience of choosing sources to observe, some sources as potential targets are also listed in this paper.Comment: 11 page