Posted on 06/10/2009 1:49:31 PM PDT by neverdem
Four patients have had holes in their bones patched up using their own stem cells in a pioneering treatment.
Doctors carried out the treatment on patients suffering from bone cysts on their hips, who would normally have the spaces plugged with metal plates.
Experts said some of those treated were now able to walk without pain.
They say more work is needed to take the procedure to the mass market, but predicted that it could be in clinics within five years.
It could eventually also be used for hip replacement revisions, the approximately one in 10 such operations which need further surgery.
The research was presented at the start of the UK National Stem Cell Network annual conference in Oxford, which also heard that researchers were using tiny magnetic machines to move the cells around the body.
Stem cells have been hailed as possible cures for a range of diseases because of their ability to change into other types of cells.
However, they have also attracted controversy because some are extracted from embryos.
Researchers at the conference also called for a greater push in research to unlock the full potential of stem cells.
Doctors in Southampton treated the patients after researchers proved that the method worked in the laboratory and in animals.
Prof Richard Oreffo, who led the study, said: "With a cyst it is like an apple that is rotten, you have got to core it out and fill that hole. What we do is impact that site with donor bone and the patient's own stem cells, what creating what we call a 'living composite'"...
--snip--
Prof Orrefo said that he expected the operation to be shown to be effective using patients own cells "within five years" but that it would take longer for trials involving donor cells...
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
The embryonic stem cell fans always fail to mention the rejection headaches in transplantation medicine. The patient usually has to take immunosuppresant drugs that leaves them immunocompromised if the transplanted tissue or organs are not perfectly matched with the patient.
Which has proven time and time again to be a waste of time. The real promise is in the adult stem cell research, which Obama CUT.
As in this case, of course.
I note the article obfuscates the two, and doesn't make it clear that this particular use is from Adult/umbilical stem cells.
Here is the MSM code so you know. If it is from embryonic stem cell research, the word embryonic would be in the headline and throughout every paragraph in the story along with references to George Bush killing the funding for such research.
If Embryonic Stem cells are good for anything it is for a research tool to figure out how stem cells work so that Adult Stem cells can be used to cure people using their own cells.
The Left Has brained washed everyone in the media to think that eventually Fetal Stem Cells will be a “one size fits all all-purpose wonder putty” that will justify the harvest of millions of embryos to make this new “All purpose Soylent Goo”.
It is nothing more than an attempt add another rationalization to the practice of Abortion.
Fetal Stem cells should re-main in the laboratory and never be put in any adult due to rejection concerns. Plus a lot of initial stem cell testing can be done first on mice and Zebra fish before need to devise tests on fetal stem cells.
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