Video: Claire McCaskill’s Michael J. Fox ad

One of the biggest risks with embryonic cells is the problems of it being rejected, which is one of the reasons adult stem cells, which can be taken from the individual receiving the cells, is more reliable.

Esthier on October 23, 2006 at 2:02 PM

Show me a successful ASC study from a dozen years ago.

Stem cells from fat used to repair girl’s skull (from MSNBC)

Surgeons have used stem cells from fat to help repair skull damage in a 7-year-old girl in Germany, in whats apparently the first time such fat-derived cells have been exploited to grow bone in a human.

Scientists believe adult stem cells may be more flexible than first thought. (from the BBC)

US researchers said evidence had shown adult cells could be effectively fused with other cells to work elsewhere, New Scientist magazine reported.

The researchers have shown that mice with a disease called tyrosinemia type 1, which causes jaundice and cirrhosis of the liver, can be cured by infusing their livers with bone marrow stem cells.

Stem cell advance fuels embryo debate (also BBC)

But the Italian research supports the view that adult stem cells are far more flexible than previously realised.

The study adds weight to the argument that the use of embryos to generate stem cells may not be necessary.

UK researchers are pioneering tests of the use of adult stem cells which could reverse cirrhosis of the liver. (BBC)

London’s Hammersmith Hospitals team will use a patient’s own bone marrow stem cells to treat the disease.

New Scientist magazine also reports on a Japanese team looking at using the treatment for liver fibrosis.

Currently, the only hope for many patients is a transplant – but there are too few organs available, so other treatments are urgently needed.

Adult stem cell breakthrough (BBC again)

The scientists’ work also adds to the body of evidence that shows adult stem cells are more versatile than previously thought.

Adult stem cells not only avoid these moral issues, it is possible they will be more effective as well.

The researchers found that adult stem cells from bone marrow can differentiate into several cell types of the central nervous system.

Scientists hope to replace the damaged areas of the brains in patients with diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis.

If they use embryonic of foetal cells to do this, there is a danger that patients’ bodies may reject the new cells.

But if the stem cells used come from the patients’ own adult tissues then there is no danger of them being rejected and the treatment is much more likely to work.

Dr Yu told the BBC he hopes to start clinical trials with stroke patients using their own stem cells in a year’s time.

60 Minutes II: Holy Grail
(CBS)

One young boy agrees with that. He made medical history because he’s been cured of his life-threatening disease. The key to his cure did not come from a human embryo, where all the controversy is, but from something that is routinely toss in the garbage – an umbilical cord.

Keone suffers from a case of sickle cell, a painful genetic blood disease. He was diagnosed when he was 6 months old. He was 5 when his sickle cell caused a stroke.

A year later, doctors declared that the sickle cells in Keones body had disappeared. Today, he is considered cured.

Stem Cells From Fat Cells
(CBS)

Researchers say that stem cells have the potential to grow new heart muscles for people with cardiac disease and generate new nerve tissue for those with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. There is even hope for those suffering from spinal cord injuries.

Esthier on October 23, 2006 at 3:08 PM

Current Stem Cell Applications

(And by stem cells theyre referring primarily to umbilical cord blood stem cells)

Acute Leukemias
Acute Lymphoblast Leukemia (ALL)
Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML)
Acute Biphenotypic Leukemia
Acute Undifferentiated Leukemia
Chronic Leukemias
Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML)
Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)
Juvenile Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (JCML)
Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia (JMML)
Myelodysplastic Syndromes
Refractory Anemia (RA)
Refractory Anemia with Ringed Sideroblasts (RARS)
Refractory Anemia with Excess Blasts (RAEB)
Refractory Anemia with Excess Blasts in Transformation (RAEB-T)
Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia (CMML)
Stem Cell Disorders
Aplastic Anemia (Severe)
Fanconi Anemia
Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria (PNH)
Pure Red Cell Aplasia
Myeloproliferative Disorders
Acute Myelofibrosis
Agnogenic Myeloid Metaplasia (myelofibrosis)
Polycythemia Vera
Essential Thrombocythemia
Lymphoproliferative Disorders
Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
Hodgkin’s Disease
Phagocyte Disorders
Chediak-Higashi Syndrome
Chronic Granulomatous Disease
Neutrophil Actin Deficiency
Reticular Dysgenesis
Other Inherited Disorders
Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome
Cartilage-Hair Hypoplasia
Glanzmann Thrombasthenia
Osteopetrosis
Adrenoleukodystrophy
Inherited Platelet Abnormalities
Amegakaryocytosis / Congenital Thrombocytopenia
Inherited Metabolic Disorders
Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS)
Hurler’s Syndrome (MPS-IH)
Scheie Syndrome (MPS-IS)
Hunter’s Syndrome (MPS-II)
Sanfilippo Syndrome (MPS-III)
Morquio Syndrome (MPS-IV)
Maroteaux-Lamy Syndrome (MPS-VI)
Sly Syndrome, Beta-Glucuronidase Deficiency (MPS-VII)
Adrenoleukodystrophy
Mucolipidosis II (I-cell Disease)
Krabbe Disease
Gaucher’s Disease
Niemann-Pick Disease
Wolman Disease
Metachromatic Leukodystrophy
Histiocytic Disorders
Familial Erythrophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis
Histiocytosis-X
Hemophagocytosis
Inherited Erythrocyte Abnormalities
Beta Thalassemia Major
Sickle Cell Disease
Inherited Immune System Disorders
Ataxia-Telangiectasia
Kostmann Syndrome
Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency
DiGeorge Syndrome
Bare Lymphocyte Syndrome
Omenn’s Syndrome
Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID)
SCID with Adenosine Deaminase Deficiency
Absence of T & B Cells SCID
Absence of T Cells, Normal B Cell SCID
Common Variable Immunodeficiency
Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome
X-Linked Lymphoproliferative Disorder
Plasma Cell Disorders
Multiple Myeloma
Plasma Cell Leukemia
Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia
Amyloidosis
Other Malignancies
Ewing Sarcoma
Neuroblastoma
Renal Cell Carcinoma
Retinoblastoma

The lame can walk

On July 14, 2004, two of Dr. Lima’s American spinal cord injury patients testified before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space. Their reports about their individual improvement after receiving Dr. Lima’s experimental treatments were breathtaking. For example, Susan R. Fajt testified:

I have recovered some functional improvement through Dr. Lima’s procedure, such as the ability to hold my bladder and at times even void on my own. Sensation has been restored, though it is not completely normal. When concentrating, I am now able to contract my thighs slightly . . . this was impossible before my surgery in Portugal. But most important on my way to recover is that I can now walk with the aid of braces. I am now preparing to shed the shell of this wheelchair . . . to more and more use my braces and walker for mobility. This is something my doctors in America told me would never be possible with my level of injury and to accept my fate.

Similarly, 19 year-old Laura Dominguez, “paralyzed from the neck down” in an auto accident, testified at the same hearing about the improvements she received from Dr. Lima’s adult stem cell procedure. Within 6 months of the surgery, she testified:

I had regained feeling down to my abdomen. Improvements in my sensory feelings have continued until the present time. I can now feel down to my hip level and have started to regain feeling and some movement in my legs. My upper body has gained some more strength and balance. Another one of the most evident improvements has been my ability to stand and remain standing, using a walker, and with minimal assistance. When I stand I can contract my quadriceps and hamstring muscles. I can also stand on my toes when I am on my feet. And more importantly, while lying down in a prone position, I am able to move my feet.

Esthier on October 23, 2006 at 3:20 PM

BTW, the 60 Minutes piece refers to cord blood derived cells, not adult. I believe those are more closely related to ESC’s than ASC’s.

Cords are counted as ASC, not ESC. I’m not sure exactly why except that no ASC cause a life to be terminated whereas ESC do, and yes most of the cures are coming from cords. They are currently the best source for stem cells. So everyone donate your cords after giving birth.

And I didn’t realize you wanted older stories. Yours was recent, so I assumed you wanted recent.

Oh and I forgot to address this:

oh hang on, the paper came from Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea? Wait, hasn’t there been some issue with scientific integrity out of South Korea lately? Probably fine, but gives me a bit of pause.

Could this be what you’re talking about?

criminal fraud

Just this week, the South Korean government charged disgraced researcher Hwang Woo-suk with criminal fraud and embezzlement for his role in fabricating data in two highly publicized studies claiming significant advances in embryonic stem cell research one claiming to have cloned the first human embryo and the other to have created patient-specific stem cells.

Esthier on October 23, 2006 at 3:31 PM

And someone mentioned tumors…

Stem Cells

Uncontrolled stem cell growth may have tumor-forming potential. Because embryonic stem cells don’t come from the patient being treated, there may also be problems associated with immune system rejection following transplantation of foreign stem cells.

Stem Cell

The researchers stated in their write-up that a substantial technical barrier remains before hybrid cells could be used for therapeutic purposes: specifically the elimination of the embryonic stem cell chromosomes.

In other words, its not sufficient to simply fuse adult cells with embryonic stem cells; its also necessary to then remove the embryonic stem cell genetic material from the hybrid cell and hope that the hybrid cell keeps behaving like an embryonic stem cell.

The researchers have not yet figured out how to remove the embryonic stem cell chromosomes from the hybrid cells, nor do they know what will happen when the chromosomes are removed. The researchers have merely produced hybrid cells that, so far as they know, are useless.

Esthier on October 23, 2006 at 3:34 PM

I don’t condone the use of Fox in this political ad, but I do support him and all people like him who give of themselves for a cause, any altruistic cause. Do most of you give of yourself, and why?

No offense, but how is Fox being altruistic? He’s asking for the government to give money to research so he can beat Parkinson’s.

I could see calling it altruistic if he was saying this on behalf of a family member or friend, but he’s asking it of himself. That’s not altruistic by any standard. I could understand not calling it selfish. But altruistic?

al·tru·ism (ltr-zm) Pronunciation Key Audio pronunciation of “altruistic” [P]
n.
1. Unselfish concern for the welfare of others; selflessness.

Does that really fit with a man who’s asking the government to fund research to help cure his disease?

And don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to condem the man. If I were him, I’d probably do the same thing he is, assuming he truely believes ESC hold a cure that ASC do not. But I don’t find anything selfless in his actions.

Dont try to take that dignity from them.

And again, no offense intended, but the man intentionally quit taking his medicine in order to make a political ad. I sincerely see no dignity in that act, specifically considering what the disease does to a body without medication.

Esthier on October 23, 2006 at 3:50 PM

Actually, they’re classified as CBE’s. or cord-blood-derived embryonic-like stem cells. They’re not as developed as ASC’s but not quite as primative as ESC’s.

That must be recent. Every count I’ve seen breaks them up into two categories of either ASC or ESC. And when that is done, the cords go with ASC.

It matters little really. Either way, we’re talking about side-stepping the moral question and getting to what medical science is supposed to be all about, saving lives.

The fact that CBE’s are so useful is a good indication that this will happen.

I’m not convinced. Everything I’ve read seems to imply that people who have been treated with ESC have actually been worse off than before being treated.

I mean I understand the shaking thing with Parkinson’s, but articles point to severe shaking, enough to disturb someone who’s had the disease for years.

Besides, there are more hurdles for ESC than for ASC considering that ESC have a greater risk of being rejected, whereas blood cells taking from the patient do not have that problem.

And I understand what you’re saying about the more recent stories. It’s possible there are older stories, but it’s hard enough finding stories about ASC considering that most stories leave out the information as to whether it’s ESC or ASC and simply call them stem calls.

Plus, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the stem cell issue just takes time and that once ESC have been researched for as long as ASC that they will acheive the same results. It could be as simple as technological advancements that have made the research easier in general.

There are too many variables there to know for certain.

Esthier on October 23, 2006 at 4:00 PM

Only with the consent of the bio “parents”, which isn’t that common. A lot of couples won’t do it, and it’s illegal to use them without the “parents” consent, for research or for adoption.

So either way, without consent there is nothing a doctor can do. The embryo will still be discarded despite government funding for ESC research. Is that what you’re saying?

Esthier on October 23, 2006 at 4:03 PM