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The Wonder of Adult Stem Cells


So far nothing has been accomplished with embryonic stem cells. But adult stem cells are effecting more cures all the time. Just today another means of collecting adult stem cells was discovered.

So far, research into embryonic stem cells has resulted in controversy. Embryonic stem cell research is not far enough along to have yielded any beneficial treatments, but adult stems cells are providing all sorts of cures. The National Institutes of Health recently said:

Research on adult stem cells has recently generated a great deal of excitement. Scientists have found adult stem cells in many more tissues than they once thought possible. This finding has led scientists to ask whether adult stem cells could be used for transplants. In fact, adult blood forming stem cells from bone marrow have been used in transplants for 30 years. Certain kinds of adult stem cells seem to have the ability to differentiate into a number of different cell types, given the right conditions. If this differentiation of adult stem cells can be controlled in the laboratory, these cells may become the basis of therapies for many serious common diseases.
In today's press, it was announced that another means of collecting adult stem cells has been found:

Researchers at Wake Forest University and Harvard University reported the stem cells they drew from amniotic fluid donated by pregnant women hold much the same promise as embryonic stem cells. They reported they were able to extract the stem cells without harm to mother or fetus and turn their discovery into several different tissue cell types, including brain, liver and bone.

In a Utah story today, the Deseret News reports that an adult stem cell therapy will be tried to improve awareness and motor skills in a young lady who was in an accident and was deprived of oxygen for several minutes:

What the Schmanski trip to China may bring is well worth the trip, they say. Tori and her parents will fly to Washington, D.C., then Paris, then Shanghai, China, afterward driving to Hangzhou, where a Beike Biotechnology clinic and research facility is located. Throughout their 32-day stay, doctors will inject Tori's spine with 10 million stem cells every five or six days — 50 million in all — that will hopefully become new brain cells.

Stem cells can be used to replenish many different cell types within the body...

In early 2006, they began talking to other families whose family members have had the same procedure and have seen some positive results — the kind the Schmanskis hope to see in Tori: more awareness, better control of her body, more effective communication and improvements in eating and swaddling.

"There's even people who have been paralyzed for 20 years that are moving and feeling their feet," Tim Schmanski said. "There's no guarantee, but the vast majority have seen results."

Tori will receive adult stem cells taken from an umbilical cord instead of embryonic stem cells...

As embryonic stem cells come from aborted or miscarried embryos, adult stem cells can be harvested without the harming or taking of life.
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Comments

  1. Anonymous1/10/2007 01:57:00 PM

    "So far nothing has been accomplished with embryonic stem cells..." - False. That's a myth propogated by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter. Just because Tony Snow says it's so, don't make it so. Here are the facts:

    – June 20, 2006 — CBS reports that ES cells have been used to help paralyzed rats walk.
    – July 5, 2006 — Science Daily reports that ES cells have been used to create T-cells, which could lead to a cure for AIDS.
    – July 11, 2006 — The Guardian reports that ES cells have been used to create sperm that successfully fertilize mouse eggs, which could aid those with infertility.
    – Sept. 21, 2006 — The Washington Post reports that ES cells have been used to slow vision loss in rats.
    – Oct. 23, 2006 — The Washington Post reports that ES cells have been used to reduce the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease in rats.
    – Oct. 31, 2006 — The New Scientist reports that ES cells have been used to create insulin-secreting cells, which could be used to treat diabetes.
    – Nov. 10, 2006 — Nature reports that ES cells have been used to make a vaccine that protects mice from lung cancer.
    – Nov. 22, 2006 — The New Scientist reports that ES cells have been used to create cardiovascular “precursor” cells, which could be used to treat heart disease.

    ES cells are superior to the amniotic fluid variety because they can become any type of cell in the human body. Amniotic fluid stem cells can become multiple types, but not all.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Frank Staheli1/10/2007 02:32:00 PM

    I appreciate the clarification. It's good to know that there has been progress (apparently a whole bunch in the last 6-7 months) in Embryonic research.

    What I probably should have said "So far nothing has been accomplished..." that, is they have not yet been used to treat humans.

    This may invalidate some of the statements I made in a previous post.

    ReplyDelete

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