Stem Cell breakthrough in Korea

[Morgeruat]

link

A team of Korean researchers claimed Thursday they had performed a miracle by enabling a patient, who could not even stand up for the last 19 years, to walk with stem cell therapy. During a press conference, the scientists said they had last month transplanted multi-potent stem cells from umbilical cord blood to the 37-year-old female patient suffering from a spinal cord injury and she can now walk on her own. The team was co-headed by Chosun University professor Song Chang-hun, Seoul National University professor Kang Kyung-sun and Han Hoon, Ph.D, from the Seoul Cord Blood Bank (SCB). ``The stem cell transplantation was performed on Oct. 12 this year and in just three weeks she started to walk with the help of a walker,’’ Song said. The patient’s lower limbs were paralyzed after an accident in 1985 damaged her lower back and hips. Afterward she spent her life in bed or in a wheelchair. For the unprecedented clinical test, the scientists isolated stem cells from umbilical cord blood and then injected them into the damaged part of the spinal cord. The sensory and motor nerves of the patient started to improve 15 days after the operation and she could move her hips. After 25 days, her feet responded to stimulation.

I find it interesting that this breakthrough was using Umbilical Cord stem cells, not Embrionic which are the ones people get up in arms about using for research. so to everyone naysaying Bush for not funding embryonic stem cell research I say to you, [img]graemlins/musicboohoo.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/e_3_11.gif[/img]

[ 06-17-2005, 03:56 PM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

[Morgeruat]

also from the article:

``There have been many controversial debates on embryonic stem cells and also such stem cells are not practical due to their property of possibly causing teratoma (cancer of cells),’’ he explained. Kang added that since cord blood stem cells are later than embryonic stem cells, they have little chance of causing the fatal teratoma. ``Embryonic stem cells are omni-potent in that they can divide into any thing even including a tumor cell. But cord blood stem cells are developed enough not to cause such troubles while retaining as powerful a differentiation capacity at the same time,’’ he claimed. Another upside of cord blood stem cells is that they can adapt to the injected bodies without triggering a big negative inner reaction, which are common in other transplantations, according to Han, Ph.D, of the SCB. ``We don’t need a strict match between cord blood stem cell type and the immune system of a patient because the latter accepts the former pretty well thanks to its immaturity,’’ Han said.

[armageddon272]

Score another one for science.

I'm glad there are still countries researching Stem Cells. It's good to know that cures are still being discoverred and that someday someone being paralyzed would be not be too much harder to sure than, let's say, someone needing stitches.

[Azred]

I keep stating that folks in Washington are going to make us fall really far behind in this area of research simply because they think it is "unethical". What is truly unethical is to stay on the cutting edge of medical research!

When combined with the latest in exoskeleton design, people who have completely lost the ability to walk could regain complete mobility without the assistance of any sort of chair-based mechanism. That is to say, people like Christopher Reeve, who unfortunately passed before he could benefit from the latest developments, would be able to walk to the grocery store on thier own.

I've always said that if we don't continue researching this then other people will.

[Morgeruat]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05156/516098.stm

more info on stem cell research restrictions and funding worldwide.

[ 06-23-2005, 10:50 AM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

[Timber Loftis]

Thanks for the article Morgie. A couple of comments:

"There were efforts in England, the United States and Germany to ban animal experimentation altogether on moral grounds [animal suffering] and scientific grounds [other animals are different from humans]," Lederer said. "The arguments for allowing unrestricted animal research sound strikingly similar to those for stem cell research."

Sorry, call me a Luddite, but I would have joined in the fray to ban animal testing 100 years ago, had I been kicking around, and I would join the fray to ban such practices now as well. When given the choice, I do not buy products tested on animals. What minor benefits medicine may have received from its epidemiological studies on animals are vastly overshadowed by the millions of animals that suffer every year to unnecessary amputation, torture, and slaughter -- 99.9% of which is done for no real reason other than the fact the program has been funded by the government (i.e. free money for a research lab).

They created 11 new stem cells lines that were exact genetic copies of patients with spinal cord injuries, diabetes and other disorders. They did this by fusing genetic material in skin cells from potential patients with that of donated eggs. Special processing made the eggs form embryos, just like naturally fertilized eggs. This is called "therapeutic" cloning because the embryos are produced for their stem cells and not to create a new human being. In therapeutic cloning, the embryo grows for only about five days until it consists of perhaps several hundred cells and reaches .01 inch in diameter. Stem cells are then extracted, destroying the embryo.

This is abortion at the least, and murder at the worst. What if we let the embryo get to be 50 days old? 500? 5,000? What if we grew clones and kept then separated on a clone island, and they were there for our use if we needed them. So, I lose kidney function from my years of boozing up hard liquor -- great, they grew a donor clone, so we just cut out his kidneys and give them to me. Right?

But, wait a minute. At what point does a clone become a separate person with rights? At what point can that clone assert that he is a human and you can't just cut him up for spare parts?

I'm not in favor of embryonic stem cell research, and it's good to know that the better technological advances are going to come from other types of stem cells.