Study: (ADULT) Stem Cells Reverse Paralysis in Rats

LiveScience ^ | 01/29/09

[presidio9]

Transplanted adult stem cells have been found to reverse paralysis associated with spinal cord injuries in lab rats, a new study finds.

The study, headed up by Miodrag Stojkovic, deputy director and head of the Cellular Reprogramming Laboratory at Centro de Investigacion Principe Felipe in Spain, involved transplanting so-called progenitor stem cells from the lining of rats' spinal cords into rodents with serious spinal cord injuries.

The rats recovered significant motor activity one week after injury, Stojkovic and his co-authors wrote in the Jan. 27 early online edition of the journal Stem Cells.

Spinal cord injury, for which no therapy currently exists to undo the damage, is a major cause of paralysis. Up to 400,000 people in the United States are estimated to live with these injuries, according to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. Most spinal cord injuries are caused by vehicle crashes and falls, and most of those injured are males.

The researchers say the new rat results "open a new window on spinal cord regenerative strategies."

The rat study involved adult stem cells, which are found in adult tissues. It is the other type of stem cells, embryonic stem cells, that some activists find objectionable, partly because these cells are derived from embryos though a process that currently destroys them.

Last week, there was big news related to embryonic stem cells. The Food and Drug Administration approved the first study to inject human-derived embryonic stem cells into individuals with acute spinal cord injuries.

The Bush Administration had placed restrictions on federal funding for new lines of embryonic stem cells for research, but the cells to be used in the study are old ones that would still have been eligible for funding in the Bush era. It is expected that President Obama will lift the restrictions

[SunkenCiv]

Ping!

[Berosus]

“I believe that’s what Ba’al worshippers thought ~ that the death of the innocent would improve their lives.”

I agree. Whether you call it child sacrifice, abortion, suicide bombing, or embryonic stem-cell research, the result is the same — a lost future.

[Smokin' Joe]

That is partially true. But there are many new treatments that can potentially reduce the risk of rejection. If organs can be successfully transplanted, by a combination of tissue typing and immunosuppression, then embryonic stem cells can be successfully introduced as well. It is only a matter of time.

I have little doubt the folks marketing antirejection drugs would like that, but why not just use the patient's own cells and avoid the whole mess?

Follow thw money.

As for me, given the choice of debilitation or death versus killing an offspring or someone else's offspring, I would choose the former rather than live on with the knowledge that I only lived or was healed by the death of another who was innocent. YMMV.

[mo]

“Follow thw money...”

FWIW....here’s where it starts.....

http://www.genpol.org/index.html

Run by a shyster...name of Bernie Siegal..

[rfp1234]

Transplanted adult stem cells have been found to reverse paralysis associated with spinal cord injuries in lab rats

Well, if they enacted stricter seat-belt rules for rodents, many of these injuries wouldn't happen in the first place...