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Paraplegic breakthrough using adult stem cells
WorldNetDaily.com ^ | September 28, 2005

Posted on 09/28/2005 8:30:45 PM PDT by pending

Paraplegic breakthrough using adult stem cells

Apparent major breakthrough with patient paralyzed 19 years Posted: September 28, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

In an apparent major breakthrough, scientists in Korea report using umbilical cord blood stem cells to restore feeling and mobility to a spinal-cord injury patient.

The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Cythotherapy, centered on a woman who had been a paraplegic 19 years due to an accident.

After an infusion of umbilical cord blood stem cells, stunning results were recorded:

"The patient could move her hips and feel her hip skin on day 15 after transplantation. On day 25 after transplantation her feet responded to stimulation."

Umbilical cord cells are considered "adult stem cells," in contrast to embryonic stem cells, which have raised ethical concerns because a human embryo must be destroyed in order to harvest them.

The report said motor activity was noticed on day 7, and the woman was able to maintain an upright position on day 13. Fifteen days after surgery, she began to elevate both lower legs about one centimeter.

The study's abstract says not only did the patient regain feeling, but 41 days after stem cell transplantation, testing "also showed regeneration of the spinal cord at the injured cite" and below it.

The scientists conclude the transplantation "could be a good treatment method" for paraplegic patients.

Bioethics specialist Wesley J. Smith, writing in Lifesite.com, expressed enthusiasm about the apparent breakthrough, but also urged caution.

"We have to be cautious," said Smith, a senior fellow at the Seattle-based Discovery Institute and a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture. "One patient does not a treatment make."

The authors of the study note, writes Smith, that the lamenectomy the patient received might have offered some benefit.

"But still, this is a wonderful story that offers tremendous hope for paralyzed patients," he said.

The fact that the patient has a very old injury, Smith added, makes the results even more dramatic.

Smith said he has known about the study for some time, "but because I didn't want to be guilty of the same hyping that is so often engaged in by some therapeutic cloning proponents, I waited until it was published in a peer reviewed journal."

Like most breakthroughs using adult stem cells, this one has been completely ignored by the U.S. mainstream media, Smith pointed out.

"Can you imagine the headlines if the cells used had been embryonic?" he asked.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: adult; adultstemcells; breakthrough; cordblood; embryonic; healthcare; korea; paraplegic; prop71; spinalcord; stemcells; umbilicalcordblood; wesleyjsmith; wesleysmith
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Wow,good news. Hope it is for real. Non embryonic stem cells too. Patient had been down 19 years...yikes.
1 posted on 09/28/2005 8:30:46 PM PDT by pending
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To: pending

Bizarre that there hasn't been a peep over here in the US media (other than WorldNetDaily)


2 posted on 09/28/2005 8:33:41 PM PDT by wizardoz
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To: pending
This is good news, albeit it cautiously good. I certainly wouldn't have thought twice about donating an umbilical cord for use of the stem cells.
3 posted on 09/28/2005 8:38:28 PM PDT by gidget7 (Get GLSEN out of our schools!!!!!!)
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To: wizardoz

bump for the good guys


4 posted on 09/28/2005 8:38:28 PM PDT by stocksthatgoup (Polls = Proof that when the MSM want your opinion they will give it to you.)
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To: wizardoz; pending

I will try to find the links. Our media doesn't want to talk about it. Here in PA, PITT made the news for it's work in the area of adult stem cells. Stanford, the Univ of Hawaii and one other one in particular. I have an early morning and it's late, but I will find the links. Work is being done and it's promising and less scary than the work being done with fetal stem cells. That work had scary side effects.


5 posted on 09/28/2005 8:42:24 PM PDT by fortunecookie
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To: fortunecookie

So, let me get this straight. We can use umbilical cords instead of killing babies to get these stem cells? Hmmm.... I seem to remember hearing this before. Oh yeah, I'VE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR NEARLY 5 YEARS!!!!! Christopher Reeves apparently didn't want to get better since he didn't move to New Zealand where he could have used umbilical cord stem cells all the live long day.


6 posted on 09/28/2005 9:12:53 PM PDT by bpjam (Now accepting liberal apologies.....)
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To: pending

"The authors of the study note, writes Smith, that the lamenectomy the patient received might have offered some benefit."

There`s always something stuck in these articles like this.

I hope this is more than just hype. Umbilical cord blood stem cells don`t require the death of a child, but a birth. : )


7 posted on 09/28/2005 9:25:06 PM PDT by Peace will be here soon (Liberal definition of looting: " Self-help Humanitarian Aid.")
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To: bpjam
So, let me get this straight. We can use umbilical cords instead of killing babies to get these stem cells? Hmmm.... I seem to remember hearing this before. Oh yeah, I'VE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR NEARLY 5 YEARS!!!!!

Isn't that the truth! I've heard of a story with fat cells as well, and heaven knows, the US alone has a supply of that! I will find those links, which I'm sure you're well aware of, for Pitt and the other study.

8 posted on 09/28/2005 9:30:19 PM PDT by fortunecookie
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To: pending

Wow. Need to hold onto this one. Future reference bump.


9 posted on 09/28/2005 9:33:40 PM PDT by Angry Republican (" I want to bring back the radical side of Republicanism." - Michael Steele)
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To: pending

runaway bride
Wendy's chilli w/finger
Dan Rather's memo


10 posted on 09/28/2005 9:36:18 PM PDT by greasepaint
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To: wizardoz

According to most media: If it didn't happen in NY, it didn't happen.


11 posted on 09/28/2005 10:10:47 PM PDT by Finalapproach29er (Americans need to remember Osama's "strong horse" -"weak horse" analogy. Let's stop acting weak.)
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To: pending

Here is a Slashdot thread on the post.

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/28/1943224

Read the comments (warning: the general run of Slashdot commenters tend to be young, left-wing, and not too bright, with limited vocabularies that cause them to repeat the same profanities at length. However, there are many worthwhile technologists on that site).

Among the treasures amongst the generally obtuse comments is a link to the article abstract.

There is one fact omitted from the WND report. While the patient got the umbilical-cell treatment, she (a 37 year old female, paraplegic at 10th thoracic vertebrae x 19 years) also received a laminectomy (having the spinal cavity in the vertebra opened up) at the same time. Historically, a laminectomy has not produced this kind of result.

This blogger seems informed (I got his blog address from the slashdot thread, but this is the exact post on this):

http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/2005/09/umbilical-cord-blood-stem-cells-treat.html

If you read that, you might like Smith's blog. I did and bookmarked him for regular reading. Among other observations in his blog, he notes that when New Jersey made a bucket of money available for stem cell research "since the feds don't fund it," all requests for grants but one were for adult or umbilical cell research -- and the one exception wasn't for a research project, but for a training project.

http://www.wesleyjsmith.com.nyud.net:8090/blog/

Journal abstract of the original article for the techically inclined (same credit, Slashdot; you can download the article from this page, but I don't recommend it to people without a VERY solid biological background at the molecular and cell structure level and up -- there's lots of specialised neurocytology in there):

http://journalsonline.tandf.co.uk/(hibl2tibmt1yldqlfhsywa55)/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,8,9;journal,1,40;linkingpublicationresults,1:107693,1

I want to believe that this is possible. (I have a friend in similar straits as the woman in the study). I want to believe that this is true. But I recognize that one patient after one treatment is not proof of anything.

Finally, it is important for you all to recognize that this was not a miraculous recovery like Jesus's laying of hands on Lazarus produced. This woman has gotten a shred of motion and a thread of sensation back, which is a miracle, but it's still miles from recovery -- in functional terms, she's still paralysed.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F


12 posted on 09/29/2005 1:51:08 AM PDT by Criminal Number 18F (In my line of work a lot of guys got neurological damage)
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To: Criminal Number 18F

Well, I'm sure even that little bit of improvement means a lot to her. Hope is what keeps us going. My father was a quadriplegic for the last 11 years of his life and I think he committed a form of passive suicide by stopping his drug regime that kept his kidneys going. I'd sure like to see some breakthroughs.


13 posted on 09/29/2005 5:58:18 AM PDT by wizardoz
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To: pending; 2ndMostConservativeBrdMember; afraidfortherepublic; Alas; al_c; american colleen; ...


14 posted on 10/04/2005 9:41:05 PM PDT by Coleus (Feast of St. Francis & L'Shana Tova, May your name be Inscribed in the Book of Life)
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To: bpjam
Using non-embryonic stem cells doesn't fit in with their creepy vampiric Malthusian eagerness to slaughter the unborn. Hence, liberals remain ominously silent on any reports of success using non-embryonic stem cells. The liberal secular humanist pro-abortion ideology distorts their thinking on this and many other issues.


15 posted on 10/04/2005 9:57:19 PM PDT by HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
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To: pending
Made my day!

GREAT news.

Guess we don't need embryonic stem cells ... . But they'll still insist there is MORE promise with them, SIGH.
16 posted on 10/05/2005 4:18:45 AM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: bpjam

Christopher Reeves wanted embryonic stem cells used not adult.


17 posted on 10/05/2005 4:19:45 AM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: pending
Adult Stem Cell Research Treats Spinal Cord Injury Patient

18 posted on 08/29/2006 10:48:16 AM PDT by Coleus (I Support Research using the Ethical, Effective and Moral use of stem cells: non-embryonic "adult")
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To: nmh
How about Byronic stem cells?


19 posted on 08/29/2006 10:52:23 AM PDT by Oberon (What does it take to make government shrink?)
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To: Oberon

Inject those in your brain, and everything you say comes out in rhyming verse.


20 posted on 08/29/2006 10:54:26 AM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilisation is aborting, buggering, and contracepting itself out of existence.)
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