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MAIN
Health
Stem
Cell Research
Using
Your Own Blood To Cure You
Science Fact or Science Fiction
 While
mainline scientists debate and scoff, it seems a small London
company is developing a method that may let doctors use your own
blood to cure you of... anything.
Treatment
for diseases as wide ranging as heart
disease and Parkinson's
could be revolutionized by this method if the claims are true.
The company,
TriStem,
has claimed to be able to turn normal blood cells into "stem-cell-like"
cells. Stem cells are the primitive form of every organ in the
human body. Research with stem cells from embryos has been hotly
debated because the treatments derive from cells that may have
be obtained from an aborted fetus.
Other methods
of turning normal blood cells into stem cells are being developed
for use in diseases where a bone marrow transplant is necessary,
but according to a 2004 article in The New Scientist, the
procedure takes several days. TriStem's method might make it possible
to obtain stem cells in a fraction of the time. Tim McCaffrey,
a cardiovascular researcher at George Washington University in
Washington DC commented, "I was extremely skeptical."
After he observed the results of the procedure he declared it
"stunning," and added, "What's radical is the speed
and ease with which it works."
The stem-cell-like
cells have been used in mice to generate human blood cells according
to a report in Current Medical Research and Opinion (vol
20,p 87). Ilham Abuljadayel, the scientist who founded TriStem,
claims that by adapting standard culturing methods she has managed
to turn white blood cells into heart, nerve, bone, cartilage and
other human organ cells. TriStem has not yet published results
proving these claims. The difficulty is that the company works
with human tissues. This causes a problem in testing the results
of any experimental treatment.
They are
now using the treatment in a clinical trial to treat a dozen patients
with aplastic anemia, a condition in which people have a severe
lack of bone marrow. The location of the trial is being kept secret,
but results should be available very soon.
Using your
own blood removes the need to match blood types and makes the
procedure much safer. If this method proves effective, it may
change the way many life threatening diseases are treated. This
may be the breakthrough that has long been hoped for to repair
deteriorating brain tissues or damaged nerves that can cause paralysis.
Repair of damaged heart tissue, brain, lungs or liver by regenerating
new cells seems far fetched, but if it works...
Source:
The New Scientist, Current Medical Research and Opinion
Date published: January 2004
Last updated: January 2006
Related
Web Pages:
Stem
Cell Research Full Coverage on Yahoo! News
Stem
Cell Basics - what are adult stem cells?
Stem
Cell Therapies Today
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