Replies

1 posted on 06/06/2007 5:02:58 AM PDT by Brilliant

to date - not one cure in a human being due to embryonic stem cell treatment.

The success stories due to adult stem cell treatment continue to pile up daily.

2 posted on 06/06/2007 5:07:50 AM PDT by Scotswife (Yeah, and when women show up without head coverings someone plops a kleenex on their heads. That’s b)

3 posted on 06/06/2007 5:09:33 AM PDT by don-o (“I don`t expect politicians to solve anyone's problems.The world owes us nothing” Bob Dylan)

Gary Steinberg, a Stanford University professor, says it's true that embryonic stem cells may first have to be transformed into adult stem cells to have value in the brain. But he thinks there may be a sweet spot with tissue created from embryonic stem cells. The tissue would be developed enough so it's not cancerous, but still at an early stage where it could turn into many types of brain cells in just the right proportion to help stroke victims and others with brain damage.

"The beauty of these more primitive stem cells is that they're smart," says Dr. Steinberg, who is using both fetal and embryonic stem cells in research to treat brain injuries. "You're using some of the cells' own innate properties to decide what's best in that part of the body."

A considerable practical problem for scientists working with adult stem cells, says MIT biologist Rudolf Jaenisch, is that "we cannot grow these cells in culture" whereas "embryonic stem cells you can grow forever. They're inexhaustible."

From the article, looks like there's two sides to the research story.

4 posted on 06/06/2007 5:19:12 AM PDT by cryptical (The Dining Cryptographers always wait until Bruce Schneier has been served.)

Another scientist who has looked at both embryonic and adult stem cells, and decided for SCIENTIFIC reasons to pursue only ADULT stem cell research, is Dr. Brian T. Butcher, associate director of the Tulane Center for Gene Therapy in New Orleans.

The center is the only National Institutes of Health-sponsored organization to distribute adult stem cells to other academic researchers around the world. The following article presents this better than I can summarize: http://news.healingwell.com/index.php?p=news1&id=525412

I should point out that he still supports embryonic stem cell research to learn more about their functions, but does not believe that it is likely to lead to actual therapies.

Please read the article linked above for a useful, non-technical explanation.

9 posted on 06/06/2007 7:31:54 AM PDT by MainFrame65

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