Posted on 09/28/2005 8:30:45 PM PDT by pending
My daughter has brain damage, and I keep on wondering if they'll find a way to reverse the damamge.
That said, my daughter has turned out remarkedly well, and if we could fix the damage I don't know if we would encourage it. She's only 9, and she is such a hard worker. She can do almost everything (except speak clearly) these days. Of course, everything is more difficult for her, and she still has lots of meltdowns.
Anyway, it's nice to see progress in these areas. It gives a lot of people hope!
It would be fine to see progress in these areas. This case doesn't appear to be such a thing.
It's a spinal cord injury, and spinal cord injuries and brain injuries have many similarities. You'll see lots of research that includes both areas.
Drs. Cox and Baumgartner in Houston have been doing a study on using children's own bone marrow in trauma cases. They're focusing on new damage and severely limited in funds. But, there is hope.
http://www.uthouston.edu/Media/newsreleases/nr2005/stemcell-child.html
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00254722?order=1
Every day, we learn more about the stimulation and recruiting of stem cells from the patient's own body and from donor cells, like cord blood.
Donations of cord blood, fat, peripheral blood, bone marrow are found much more easily and in larger numbers in practical terms, because there are more people than embryos that will ever be available for destruction, more babies being born than embryos in any lab or freezer, and because no one has to die for them.
Cord blood "unrestricted somatic stem cells" appear to me to be the most promising of all the stem cells.
Here's a fantastic review article
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1796850
The answers are obvious if you think about it -- even the "embryonic proponents" are trying to make *adult stem cells.*
None of the treatments involved in therapy - or likely to be in the future - are embryonic stem cells, because the cells we need only function in specific conditions and surroundings. The specific conditions and surroundings are only found in place, in the actual site of damage.
Embryonic stem cells function to make embryonic tissues and must develop into precursors and then specific tissues.
If you read the research articles, even those embryonic cells from the inner mass are not all universal cells. They have had some genes turned on and some genes turned off. The researchers select out the cells they desire by creating conditions that favor only those cells.
The trick in *both* embryonic and adult stem cell research is to find and support only the cells that are desired. And, again, the conditions that support the cells desired are only reliably found in the body, in site, and are best for non-embryonic stem cells and precursors.
On the other hand, "adult" or non-embryonic stem cells are found all over the body. Like the embryonic stem cells that come from the destruction of embryonic humans, there are many kinds. We are discovering which organs and tissues have their own stem cells in relatively large amounts, and which do not. Researchers have found precursors or other cells in bone marrow, fat, and cord cells and cord blood that can be induced to turn into the necessary cells, in numbers large enough for treatment.
That's great!!
Thank you for the ping ... encouraging. I note that you mentioned even embryonic stem cell researchers are seeking to generate adult stem cells. The vast majority of folks don't realize that.
I do wonder where the following idea came from:
Scientists Reverse Paralysis in Dogs
My Way News | Dec 3, 2004 | RICK CALLAHAN
Posted on 12/03/2004 7:07:48 PM EST by neverdem
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1293973/posts
A corollary to what you said: if it happened in California, it's more important than if the same thing happened anywhere else.
I would think the difference between NO motion or sensation and a "thread" or a "shred" is huge -- a lot bigger than some motion/sensation vs. more motion/sensation. When you've got some motion, you can build on it; when you've got nothing, you've got, well, nothing.
pa - ping!!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.