8mm
Posted on 08/15/2008 5:38:06 AM PDT by wagglebee
SYDNEY, Australia, August 14, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A team of researchers at the Wake Forest University in North Carolina has extracted stem cells from amniotic fluid that have been found able to grow new organ tissue. This could be used, the scientists say, to treat newborns with serious health problems diagnosed in utero.
The technique of creating tissue from amniotic fluid and placental stem cells, said Dr. Anthony Atala, could potentially work to cure "any abnormality that would not be lethal before a baby is born".
Professor Atala told The Age newspaper, "The hope is … that if you have a baby diagnosed prenatally with a defect then you can take cells from the amniotic fluid and then expand those cells in large quantities and create the tissue or organ that is needed."
"You could turn the cells, for example, into liver cells … and have them ready for when the baby is born."
Presenting his team's findings at a conference on transplantation in Sydney, Australia, earlier this week, he said, "It's all still experimental, but … it shows we have the capacity to create these organs (for transplant)."
The team created liver, pancreatic, nerve and kidney tissue using stem cells found in the placenta and in amniotic fluid. Dr. Atala, a paediatric urologist and a leader in the field of stem cell tissue regeneration, said work with amniotic fluid-derived stem cells (AFS cells) shows great promise and suggests it could ultimately relieve the pressure to procure donor organs for transplants.
He said that the goal would be to create a tissue bank where stem cells derived from amniotic fluid are stored cryogenically for later use. Once a large enough system of banks is established, the technology can be expanded and those who have not saved their tissue could be aided by genetic matching of tissues.
The proof of success came in 2004, when Dr. Atala led the team that developed the first lab-grown organ, a bladder, to be implanted into a human.
Similar to embryonic stem cells (ESC), AFS cells, like those derived from umbilical cord blood, are "pluripotent", meaning they can potentially be manipulated to become many different types of mature tissues while avoiding not only the killing of embryonic human beings to obtain them, but also the problem of tumour formation immune system rejection. Dr. Atala has also said they are slightly easier to deal with and manipulate in animal trials, than ESC.
In 2006, he wrote that it may be possible to create "universal donor cells" that can be injected into the body that "will naturally migrate to the site of injury, where tissue repair and regeneration can occur, all without rejection".
"One could even have preventive 'cell tune-ups' to slow the natural process of ageing with periodic cell injections - using a needle-less system, of course."
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Complete Bladders Grown from Patients' Own Cells
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/apr/06040405.html
Exciting Amniotic Stem Cell Discovery Backed up by New Study
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/07010805.html
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I wonder if they can eventually be used in brain cells. As some may know...our 14 yr old g/son went in for routine allergy shot in Nov and had an anaphylactic shock so severe that within 2 minutes of the shot his heart stopped. They didn’t/couldn’t give him oxygen and he went way too long without it.
He was revived but today is still in a “coma like” state. It’s heartbreaking and I hold out for some kind of new revelation in this field.
I did not know about your grandson, that is horrible and I will certainly keep your family in my prayers.
Stem cell breakthroughs from non-embryonic sources are coming at incredible rates. If you look at where they are with this today vs. a decade ago, it is reasonable to think that the day is not too far off when a whole host of conditions can be treated.
There are two doctors in Houston doing this research on trauma victims - not ‘stroke’ victims like your son, now. Baumgartner and Cox
http://www.uthouston.edu/Media/newsreleases/nr2005/stemcell-child.html
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00254722?term=stem+cells+and+brain+injury&rank=1
It’s for kids who were physically injured within 24 hours.
I’m sorry, but I don’t see any studies on chronic injuries. However, your family and grandson’s neurologist should watch this page, with the search words, stem cells AND stroke or Stem cells AND anoxic brain damage or
He didn’t have a heart attack or stroke. He suffers from anoxic/hypoxic injury (lack of oxygen to brain)
While proving that amniotic stem cells can be grown into organs for use in the specific baby floating around in it is good, I think the bigger impact is that (along with placental blood stem cells) a HUGE population of “lines” of stem cells could be accessed, so genetic matches across the population can be made. I think a “national bank” for the cultivation and storage of stem cells from such sources needs to be instituted. This is one case where the job is big enough that private industry is unlikely to be able to handle it.
I understand that, but he might qualify under stroke studies.
Here’s the page.
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/search
It will let you subscribe by RSS, so you can click on a bookmark and see the changes from the last two weeks.
It’s only a matter of time until some one starts exactly the sort of study your gson needs.
The great hope though, is that he’s at an age where healing is very, very possible on its own. I’ll pray for him and your family.
Thank you. He’s already surpassed Mott’s Childrens Hospital’s Drs first prognosis.
they said after one week (and viewing the MRI) that he’d never be able to gag, cough, talk, walk and that he’d be on life support the rest of his life.
The next day he started doing the gagging when he was suctioned and then cough etc. Yes he still has a long way to go but we found out he’s gained 10 lbs and also 2” so we know his body is still growing. In the beginning they told us that since he was still in puberty he’d have a better chance than an adult.
We’re rejoicing over the little things. When he came home from the hospital from a 2nd relapse, his bladder was not working after a surgery they did. The Dr told us that this was the beginning of organ failure etc and that’s how things go with “these type of injuries” until eventually...well ... then end.
About a week later I got a call from our other grandson (his older brother) that he had peed on his own! Well hallelujah!!! We screamed out YEAH GOD!!! We’re learning to redefine “miracles”
But I definitely will bookmark that site..
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This is great news...
God is a miracule working God..
He inspired these doctors towards this wonderful breakthrough...
Prayers for your grandson.
Interesting stuff
Thank you. All prayers...welcomed
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