First Clinical Trial Begins for Stem Cell Therapy

Los Angeles Times ^ | October 12, 2010 | Amina Khan

[lbryce]

Researchers announced Monday that they had injected stem cells into a patient with a spinal cord injury on Friday, kicking off the world's first clinical trial of a therapy derived from human embryonic stem cells.

The patient was treated at Shepherd Center, a spinal cord and brain injury center in Atlanta.

Though the trial, run by Geron Corp. of Menlo Park, Calif., is in its earliest stages — aimed primarily at testing the treatment for safety — the event stands as a landmark one for embryonic stem cell researchers, who for years have studied the cells' potential to treat spinal cord injuries, diabetes and a variety of neurodegenerative diseases.

"All of that work, all of that money sent to the ivory towers is manifesting something. It's a real shot in the arm for the field," said Hans Keirstead, a neurobiologist at the Reeve-Irvine Research Center at UC Irvine who led a team that pioneered the treatment in rats and licensed the technology to Geron.

Keirstead's team managed first to turn human embryonic stem cells into oligodendrocytes, the cells that insulate nerve fibers with coatings of fatty myelin. Growing the "tubing" that protects nerve cells could in many cases be enough to allow signals to travel up and down the spine again, Keirstead said. That's because, in the vast majority of spinal cord injuries, the cord is not completely severed — rather, the myelin sheath that protects the nerve cells is damaged or destroyed.

In the animal trials, rats with spinal cord damage that had lost control of their hind limbs regained at least the partial ability to walk and run after treatments with the stem cells

[lbryce]

May very well be the dawn of a new era in medical science.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Well, we’ll see if he develops cancer. In the mean time, all sorts of medical advances and trials have been done with adult stem cells all over the world.

[Jemian]

This is sad. Sacrificing one human being, murdering them, because someone else will profit by it. Did they even try adult stem cells?

[napscoordinator]

Nothing to celebrate that is for sure. It is very sad. Adult Stem Cells is what they should completely use and not embryonic.

[A.A. Cunningham]

May very well be the dawn of a new era in medical science.

Correction: May very well be the dawn of a new era in Mengele science.

[Sacajaweau]

Cancer and rejection are the two "bad news" items associated with embryonic stem cells. There are probably more items...they just aren't gonna say.

It's all about grant money and what I truly believe they really want to do....create a "parts farm"....

[frogjerk]

At least Dr. Frankenstein didn’t kill his victims before he used their body parts. He dug them up in a graveyard

[goodwithagun]

Off topic a bit, but I’m looking for a list of vaccine brands that use aborted fetal tissue. I’ve seen it on here before, but I can’t find it now.

[stuartcr]

Has this been duplicated using adult stem cells?

[so_real]

May very well be the dawn of a new era in medical science.

I don't think so. My opinion is that with recent successes in autologous adult stem therapies reaching the media, the "other team" (so to speak) is anxious to publish a "success" of their own. They are concerned the well of available funding dollars is drying up. And without a "win" in their corner, their research will shrivel and die in favor of the more proven and ethical options. As such, I think this news is politically motivated, premature, and unlikely to succeed. I just pray they don't give that poor man cancer as he plays guinea pig and that he doesn't have to take a cocktail of anti-rejection and immunosuppression drugs for the rest of his days.

[G Larry]

What are these idiots talking about?

They were doing human trials with ESCs at CU Hospital in Denver, more than 15 years ago!

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Yep

http://www.lifenews.com/bio2711.html

[stuartcr]

Was it a success?

[ArrogantBustard]

Brave new era ... we’re reverting to cannibalism.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Did you click on the link and read it? Right there in the article, including a link at the bottom to Lima's research.

In a July 2006 Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine article, they wrote that adult stem cells are beginning to offer the most hope for those paralyzed from spinal cord injuries.

Lima's team's adult stem cell research showed restored motor function and sensation in a few paralyzed patients using adult stem cells obtained from a patient's own nose.

Lima and his research team demonstrated that a patient's own adult stem cells and olfactory mucosa can treat paralysis caused by spinal cord injury.

"Every patient had improvement in ASIA motor scores," Lima wrote in his team's paper. "This study shows that olfactory mucosa autograft transplantation into the human injured spinal cord is feasible, relatively safe, and potentially beneficial."

[stuartcr]

Thanks

[Does so]

See?

Bush was wrong to stop this! /s

ObaMedia is rubbing our nose in this just before the November election!

[TheDon]

Horrifying.

[madprof98]

Successful trials of stem cells that are not derived from human embryos are rarely reported—and then on an inside page. This particular trial—the results of which are still quite uncertain—is not medical news; it is political news. In fact, in Atlanta (where the test will take place) the report appeared in the newspaper’s “Inside Politics” column.