Success Stories with Adult Stem Cells Coming in Almost Too Fast to Track

LifeSite ^ | January 20, 2004

[NYer]

January 20, 2005 LifeSiteNews.com - Success stories about adult stem cell treatments are coming in so fast that LifeSiteNews.com, one of the few newswire services to follow the issue closely, is having trouble keeping up. While most disease research organizations, such as Juvenile Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis and the Canadian Cancer Society, continue to promote the use of living embryonic human beings for experimentation, the only success stories to date have all come from the use of adult stem cells.

Adult stem cells are distinguished from those derived from embryos, and do not necessarily mean only those from adult patients. Adult stem cells are being found in abundance in blood taken from the umbilical cord for example. Three stories have appeared only today that show where the real hope lies in stem cell research.

A young American woman, Erica Nader, injured in a car accident and paralysed from the upper arms down, has been treated for a spinal cord injury using stem cells taken from her nose and implanted in the spinal cord at the site of the injury. The procedure, which is performed nowhere else in the world was performed by a team of surgeons in Portugal at Lisbon's Egas Moniz Hospital. “After three years, magnetic imaging resonance tests (MRI's) show that the cells indeed promote the development of new blood cells and synapses, or connections between nerve cells,” says Dr. Carlos Lima, chief of the Lisbon team.

Nader is recovering slowly but steadily. She was paralyzed from her biceps down and three years ago had no finger movements. Now, she can do exercises on a floor mat and walk with leg braces on a treadmill.

Treating children suffering from blood disorders such as leukemia with adult stem cells is common, but treatment for adults is difficult because of the scarcity of cells that can be taken from an adult. Today the American Society of Hematology reports that the problem is being overcome by a new technique that combines two cord blood units from different donors for transplantation into adult or adolescent leukemia patients. Cord blood is more tolerant of differences between patient and donor, making it possible to perform cord blood transplants without an exact match.

“With this new technique of increasing the dose by combining two units, this procedure could be made available to thousands more patients and has the potential to save many lives,” said one of the authors of the University of Minnesota study.

Researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital have found that the spleen may be a source of potential adult stem cells that contain a protein called Hox11, which is associated with embryonic development and limb regeneration. Previously it was believed that the protein was only found in embryos. The spleen was also found to contain stem cells that were involved in the production of insulin. The new discovery, says Dr. Denise Faustman, director of the hospital's Immunobiology Laboratory, could mean that “There may be a previously undiscovered pocket of primitive stem cells in the spleen that are important for healing several types of damage or injury.”

Paraplegic improving after stem-cell implant
http://www.indystar.com/articles/5/209449-5235-047...

Cord Blood Transplantation Now a Viable Option for Adult Leukemia Patients
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=4...

Spleen Surprise Source of Stem Cells
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscou...

[NYer]

3. Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Human embryos are human beings. "Respect for the dignity of the human being excludes all experimental manipulation or exploitation of the human embryo" (CRF 4b).

Recent scientific advances show that often medical treatments that researchers hope to develop from experimentation on embryonic stem cells can be developed by using adult stem cells instead. Adult stem cells can be obtained without doing harm to the adults from whom they come. Thus there is no valid medical argument in favor of using embryonic stem cells. And even if there were benefits to be had from such experiments, they would not justify destroying innocent embryonic humans.

CRF Pontifical Council for the Family, Charter of the Rights of the Family
Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics

Catholic Ping - please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[NYer]

Pro-life ping!

[MontanaBeth]

Interesting article.

[OPS4]

What better way to gain acceptance than to flood the news wires with the successes, but the question is who is tracking the failures? Human hamsters at best, on bothe sides of the knife. Long term results on the so called sucessful treatments? Anybody out there tracking the results?
Ops4 God Bless America!

[alwaysconservative]

Thanks so much for posting this, and please make sure this is made known, here on FR and elsewhere, as much as possible. I'm telling EVERYONE who gets stuck in a conversation with me on the subject (LOL!) that adult stem cells, and cord blood cells are THE way to go.

[polymuser]

Who will convince Nancy Reagan? Would she advocate?
For a freaky take on embryo harvesting, search on 'headless human clones', which some say is ultimate goal -- organ marketing and big $$$.

[NYer]

One of the office staff is due to give birth next month. She can't afford the $2500 to store her baby's cord blood and is donating it. She explained how simple the process is and brought the information to the other women in her birthing class. Best of all, it's free!! Most of them were apathetic.

For anyone interested in donating cord blood, click on this link:

NATIONAL CORD BLOOD PROGRAM

[American_Centurion]

My wife was paid $50 for donating the cord blood from our third child 18 months ago.

Just FYI.

[alwaysconservative]

Both of you have provided valuable information today in service of life. Thank you.

[alwaysconservative]

My post #10 was to you. Sorry for the posting error!

[Mr. Silverback]

ProLife Ping!

If anyone wants on or off my ProLife Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.

[Salvation]

Thanks for the ping!

[cpforlife.org]

Please let me know if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.

[MHGinTN]

Bookmarking the thread ... thanx for posting it.

[Smartass]

How Embryonic Stem Cell Lines are Made

Gene Almanac

How Embryonic Stem Cell Lines are Made

Gene Almanac

What is not being mentioned, is that other then donations, "embryonic cells" come from abortions and Merchants of Death.

[lainde]

bttt

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Bump for life.

[Bellflower]

The thing we need to combat across the board is that usually when the media conveys adult or cord blood stem cell success stories they will not specify but rather just say stem cells. When they talk about opponents to embryonic stem cell research they portray us as simply stem cell research opponents. They try to mix the whole picture all together and confuse people making them think the successes come from the embryonic stem cells and that we pro-lifers are against all stem cell research. We need to come out with media statements to the facts as to the differences between the two and what the real issues are and the real success story. We need to start a campaign for truth in media concerning reporting stem cell based news.