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Men may cringe at the idea, but sperm-producing stem cells found in testicles could be extracted, grown in the lab, and frozen for future use Men may cringe at the idea, but sperm-producing stem cells found in testicles could be extracted, grown in the lab, and frozen for future use. A team in the Netherlands has successfully harvested spermatogonial stem cells from cows and cultured them inside mouse testes. The hope is that the same thing could be done for men. "This is a very promising route to help young cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy," Dirk de Rooij of Utrecht University,...

Autopsy Shows Withdrawn Drug Was Helping Man With Parkinson'sBy Randolph E. Schmid Associated Press Writer Published: Jul 1, 2005 WASHINGTON (AP) - A drug withdrawn from clinical trials because of safety concerns was helping regrow nerve fibers in the brain of a man with Parkinson's disease, scientists report. The finding probably will renew debate over the drug, GDNF. It had offered encouragement to people with Parkinson's who reported improvement when using it in trials. But the drug was withdrawn by the manufacturer, Amgen Inc., this year. Some of those patients in the trial sued Amgen to get continued supplies of...

With his condition deteriorating from Parkinson's disease last year, Steve Kaufman gave up making improvements to his home in Algonquin, Ill. "I couldn't even hold a nail stable," he recalled. Earlier this year, after taking an experimental drug in a clinical trial, Mr. Kaufman built new kitchen cabinets and an outdoor deck. He was so steady he could walk across a narrow piece of lumber like an Olympic gymnast on the balance beam. The drug, however, is no longer available to Mr. Kaufman or other Parkinson's patients in clinical trials. In June, its developer, Amgen, announced that the drug, which...