Stem Cell Breakthrough?

[filkertom]

If this works as advertised, Holy Shit.

Thanks to ororo for the heads-up.

Comments

[eibii.livejournal.com]

Fantastic. Sandwich that with the nanofiber filter discovery, and we've got one bloody *hell* of a leap on our hands.

[starfallz.livejournal.com]

Wow. That is awesome.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

If this goes on... we can thank Christopher Reeve for helping spearhead the research. *snif*

[huskiebear.livejournal.com]

That story's actually from last fall. Nothing has been published on it yet and it hasn't been replicated, so it's promising, but still only anecdotal. They're apparently working on getting it into clinical trials, but the fact that nothing has been announced after 7 months makes me wonder - if it was really working that fast and well, I would think they'd have fast-tracked it and we should have heard something more by now.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I was looking for a date on it. Idiot me, it's right there in the URL....

[partiallyclips.livejournal.com]

I'm more interested in the British scientists who grew back new teeth in adult rats. That was cool.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Especially if you're a rat dentist.

[jss]

Dammit:

Son, be a rat dentist: (Be a rat dentist!)
You have a talent for causing great pain. (Pain!)
Be a rat de-entist: (Be a rat dentist!)
People will pay you to be inhumane! (Inhumane!)

etc.

wow....

[ciarrai.livejournal.com]

The thing that interests me is that it is umbilical cord stem cells that they were working with and they made an interesting case that they are actually safer than working with embryonic stem cells.

I would say that if you can make this kind of advancements a byproduct of a natural function, something that is routinely thrown away, then that removes a lot of the ethical concerns.

There is only one source of concern that I have. I remember reading an article a few months back about how if this became widespread, we would have trouble getting the amount of umbilical cords that we need because very few doctors and hospitals save them in a usuable format. But if the science became widespread, I could see that being changed quickly.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Actually "Holy shit" is PRECISELY what's going to prevent this kind of medical practice from taking place in the good ol' Yoo-Ess-uv-Aye.

Sorry to be a buzzkill.

[lapislaz.livejournal.com]

No apologies necessary - when you're right, you're right.

[cktraveler.livejournal.com]

Even if they are using umbilical cells (to which I cannot think of a single ethical objection -- basically, it's healing people using garbage), I can imagine this being an impossible sell anyway.

Too many people make up their minds about an issue after hearing a randomly chosen 50% of the words in the first sentence of its description, and cannot be dissuaded from this opinion by any means.

[realtegan.livejournal.com]

My god, did you read the comments on that article? So many people hoping that they can get the same treatment.

Lord, I hope it works. I hope they can eventually duplicate it and prove the theory.

[beki.livejournal.com]

Part of me hopes that it really works and works that fast. My sister has MS. Stem cell research is one of the things that may contribute to a cure for it.

Part of me is skeptical that it would work that fast. My son has multiple orthopedic issues due to a birth defect called arthrogryposis. We have been working with him for years to get him to the point where he can do things. If the patient was paralyzed for 19 years, it is going to take more than three weeks to build those muscles back up.

[suecochran.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was wondering about muscle atrophy issues myself.