Research Provides New Clues about How Adult Stem Cells Work
Stem Cell Research Report
Stem Cell Legislation Update
RESEARCH PROVIDES NEW CLUES ABOUT HOW ADULT STEM CELLS WORK. A new study shows that not only do stem cells from the patient’s own body readily repair all sorts of damaged tissue, they stimulate the growth and differentiation of existing stem cells. Dr. Darwin J. Prockop, Director of Tulane University’s Center for Gene Therapy says his research suggests multiple strategies to treat diseases using adult stem cells.
Injected stem cells taken from bone marrow transfer mitochondrial DNA to existing local cells whose own mitochondria are inactive and stimulates those cells to start working.
While scientists and doctors are seeing increasing success with treatments using adult stem cells, the actual mechanism by which the cells are able to repair and even replace damaged tissue has remained largely a mystery.
It has been shown that even small numbers of stem cells taken from a patient’s own body, often from bone marrow, have been used successfully to treat Parkinson’s disease, kidney and liver disease, diabetes and various forms of heart disease and cancer.
Speaking at the American Association of Anatomists in Washington April 19, Prockop described experiments in which human stem cells were injected into diabetic mice. The cells traveled to and engrafted themselves into the pancreas. They increased the production of insulin and lowered the mice’s blood sugar. The cells also engrafted themselves onto the kidneys and repaired the damage normally associated with diabetes.
Related: Success Stories with Adult Stem Cells Coming in Almost Too Fast to Track
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jan/05012007.html
[30April2007, By Hilary White, DC. LifeSiteNews.com]
STEM CELL RESEARCH REPORT
http://www.webparish.com/prolife/documents/SCRReports/StemCellResearchReports.htm
STEM CELL LEGISLATION UPDATE
63-34. A significant number in that it is four votes shy of the number needed to override the promised veto. One can only imagine the pressure felt by any of the 34 senators who stood their ground for life in the days leading up to the Senate’s vote to authorize more federal spending for the destruction of helpless human embryos.
+ + The Latest on Stem Cells + +
A report was released detailing the successful treatment of thirteen Type I (juvenile) diabetes patients who are now living without insulin or medication of any kind. They were treated with their own stem cells!
According to study co-author Dr. Richard Burt of Northwestern University’s medical school in Chicago, Illinois, “It’s the first time in the history of Type 1 diabetes where people have gone with no treatment whatsoever … no medications at all, with normal blood sugars.”
While the patients have not been pronounced “cured,” some of them have now been off of insulin for more than three years. Curiously, the experimental treatments took place in Brazil, as, according to Burt, U.S. doctors were uninterested in his approach.
Is it possible that the U.S. is bypassing promising ethical research, such as this, in its zeal to pursue the moral minefield of human embryonic stem cell research? [CRA, 23 April 2007]
What You Need to Know About Embryonic Stem Cell Research:
http://www.reclaimamerica.org/Pages/NEWS/news.aspx?story=2673