Adult Stem-Cell UPDATE: Adult Stem-Cells Transformed into Functional Lung Cells!

It's been one of our mantras here at A Shepherd's Voice since Fr. Malloy, the Church and others opposed California's Proposition 71 in 2004: Are California voters having second thoughts yet about shelling out $3 billion + for immoral & unproven embryonic stem cell research, which has yet to show a single cure, while adult stem cells are curing people left and right?

This is from Stem Cells Freak, a website devoted to  stem-cell news:

"Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center announced today that they have succeeded in transforming human induced pluripotent stem cells into functional lung and airway cells.

The advance, has significant potential for modeling lung disease, screening drugs, studying human lung development, and, ultimately, generating lung tissue for transplantation.

"Researchers have had relative success in turning human stem cells into heart cells, pancreatic beta cells, intestinal cells, liver cells, and nerve cells, raising all sorts of possibilities for regenerative medicine. Now, we are finally able to make lung and airway cells.

 
This is important because lung transplants have a particularly poor prognosis. Although any clinical application is still many years away, we can begin thinking about making autologous lung transplants -- that is, transplants that use a patient's own skin cells to generate functional lung tissue.", said study leader Hans-Willem Snoeck, MD, PhD (above, left), professor of medicine (in microbiology & immunology) and affiliated with the Columbia Center for Translational Immunology and the Columbia Stem Cell Initiative."

God bless all scientists who are ethically doing so much to better the human condition!

Adult Stem-Cell UPDATE: Researchers Grow Heart From Human Skin Cells

One of our long-time mantras here at "A Shepherd's Voice" is "Are California voters having second thoughts yet about shelling out $3 billion + for immoral & unproven embryonic stem cell research, which has yet to show a single cure, while adult stem cells are curing people left and right?"

There have been too many adult-stem cell advances to count, but we just ran across this one today. It's an August 14 report from io9.com:

Breakthrough: Scientists build a beating mouse heart with human tissue

In a major scientific first, a team of developmental biologists has built a functional mouse heart from human tissues. The results herald a future where specific patches of heart muscle – or even the whole organ – could be grown for transplantation.

The work, which was led by University of Pittsburgh's Lei Yang and is recounted in the latest issue of Nature Communications, hinges on the combination of two major regenerative medicine techniques. The first is the use of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells). iPS cells are mature, differentiated cells (liver cells, for instance, or skin cells) that have been reprogrammed into an undifferentiated state.RELATED

Like embryonic stem cells, iPS cells can be stimulated by growth factors to give rise to a wide range of different cell types; just because an iPS cell started out as, say, a renal cell expelled in the urine, doesn't mean it can't be coaxed into becoming dental tissue (fun fact: a team of researchers recently did exactly that) – it just needs the right set of instructions. Yang and his colleagues took cells from a small biopsy of human skin, reverse-engineered them into iPS cells, then instructed them to produce what are called multipotential cardiovascular progenitor cells. These "MCP cells," as they're called, are the precursors to three very important types of heart cell: cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, and smooth muscle cells."

The same article had an embedded link to another adult stem-cell advance:

Scientists grow teeth from human urine because why the hell not

"A new study shows that stem cells extracted from urine can be turned into rudimentary tooth-like structures."

Read the whole thing

"Scam Cell": Will California Voters Learn From Proposition 71 Debacle?

It's been one of our mantras here at "A Shepherd's Voice": Are California voters having second thoughts yet about shelling out $3 billion + for immoral & unproven embryonic stem cell research, which has yet to show a single cure, while adult stem cells are curing people left and right?

Of course, the adult stem-cell success are now too many to list. And this week Lloyd Billingsley has an excellent article in City Journal about where all that $3 billion of taxpayers money went. There is only $859 million of the $3 billion left. and the $2.1 billion already spent has not cured a headache.

Scam Cell
California’s embryonic stem-cell research institute fails to deliver.
14 March 2013

"The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state’s controversial, $3 billion stem-cell research agency, has yet to follow recommendations from a December report by the Institute of Medicine, a division of the National Academy of Sciences. The report, which urged the agency to overhaul its board of directors, did not fully convey the magnitude of CIRM’s failure—but it did confirm that CIRM might be better described as Conflict of Interest Research Money. Almost all members of the CIRM board, investigators noted, “are interested parties with a personal or financial stake in the allocation of CIRM fundings.” In fact, CIRM directed a full 91 percent of its research funding to institutions with representatives on its governing board. Similarly, the CIRM board overruled the Institute’s own scientific reviewers, who twice rejected a proposal to fund a for-profit company on whose behalf CIRM founder Robert Klein had lobbied, and the board went ahead and gave the money to the company anyway. According to a Sacramento Bee report, “it was the first time in the board’s eight-year history that it approved an application twice rejected by reviewers....

Yet CIRM has been a scientific bust. It played no role in noteworthy medical-scientific advances of recent years, such as the construction of a new windpipe for a Colombian woman or the near-total restoration of sight for a man whose eyes sustained severe chemical damage in 1948. These were triumphs of adult stem-cell research. A ballpark figure for the number of life-saving cures and therapies CIRM has delivered is zero. But as a staffer said at a meeting of the Little Hoover Commission in 2009, CIRM was “getting money out the door,” as though this was a legitimate measure of success.

CIRM was always more about the money than the medicine. Klein cleverly wrote Prop. 71 to install himself as the institute’s chairman, and he freed it from almost all legislative oversight by requiring a 70 percent supermajority of both houses to make any structural or policy changes...”

Do read the whole thing.

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

Sleazy Tactics by Counterfeit "Marriage" Supporters: Minnesota Version

 Proponents of counterfeit "marriage" in the state of Minnesota are resorting to the sleazy tactics that have become their hallmark. Mark Ritchie, the Democratic Secretary of State has changed the wording of the Minnesota Protect Marriage Amendment, hoping to confuse the voters. As we posted on April 27, 2012, they tried the same type of deception  in North Carolina, and in California. It did not work in those states, and, pray God, it will not work in Minnesota. In any event, YOU can help the good people of Minnesota by contributing. Just hit the "Minnesota for Marriage" button on the right hand pane to help them as they fight for the family.

Here's our April 27 post in full:

Same-sex “marriage” activists in North Carolina are resorting to outright deception in order to advance their cause. As Brian Brown, of the National Organization for Marriage writes:

“…in North Carolina they've conceded defeat on the main question—should marriage be a union of husband and wife?—and are blanketing the airwaves with lies to scare voters into thinking the amendment will somehow strip women of protection from domestic violence”

A thorough refutation of such hysterical claims has been presented by three professors from the Campbell University Scool of Law. It may be read here.

Such behavior is typical same-sex “marriage” activists and it is a good indicator of 1) their inability to win the issue on the merits; and 2) their lack of concern for the common good of society.

On November 29, 2011, the New York Daily News reported on a ruling by New York state Judge Robert Wiggins codemning the tactics of the Cuomo administration in ramming through same-sex “marriage” legislation in violation of the state’s “Open Meetings” law:

“It is ironic that much of the state’s brief passionately spews sanctimonious verbiage on the separation of powers in the governmental branches, and clear arm-twisting by the Executive on the Legislative permeates this entire process,' Wiggins wrote."

Such tactics are nothing new, of course. In 2007, the legislature of Massachusetts even refused to allow a constitutional amendment proposing to overturn Massachusetts' court-imposed redefinition of marriage to be put on the ballot. This was in spite of the fact that a record 170,000 citizens had signed the petition. But the legislature refused to even allow Massachusetts citizens to vote on the matter.

In California, the sleazy tactics used to force counterfeit marriage down the people's throats began long before Proposition 8 even reached the ballot, and it continues long after the people of the state passed it:

• When Mayor Gavin Newsom unilaterally and in violation of the law decided to start issuing counterfeit "marriage" licenses;

• When opponents of Prop8 filed suit to have the measure removed from the ballot. Prop 8 went to the voters anyway.

• When then-Attorney General Jerry Brown changed the title of Proposition 8, in order to weaken support for it. Prop 8 won big despite the change.

• When then-Attorney General Brown refused to do his duty and defend Prop 8, passed by a significant majority of Californians.

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

SB 1172: More Homosexual Totalitarianism in California

From Catholic News Agency:

"California's senate has approved a bill restricting the therapeutic treatment of homosexuality in minors. Critics say the measure fails to respect scientific standards, as well as personal and family rights.

Dr. Christopher Rosik, president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), said the largely partisan May 30 vote represented a “triumph of political activism over objective science.”

Approved by a 23-13 margin, Senate Bill 1172 now awaits consideration by the state assembly....

Although softened in some respects, amid criticism over issues of religious and personal freedom, the bill still contains its most controversial provision: It would ban those under 18 from receiving therapy or counseling for same-sex attraction, regardless of their wishes or the decision of their parents"


The  editors of the L. A Times, which opposes the bill, said:

“Legislators have no special insights into psychiatry, nor are they elected for their abilities as parents,” the editorial stated. “Frankly, it's worrisome to have them stepping in to tell therapists what they may or may not say or do to treat patients.”


One wonders if the Times is lying or just naive. The Times supports counterfeit "marriage," which is the creation of a false reality. Once you start creating false reality (or lie), as we have argued many times before, you have to keep creating other false realities (telling more lies) to prevent the original lie from being exposed.  That's the essence of totalitarianism. SB 1172 shows that the state Senate, doing the bidding of homosexual activists, does not want anyone even exposed to the idea that same-sex attraction is an experience which some people would just as soon not have.

Adult Stem Cell Update: More Amazing News

Check out this amazing video from ABC--well, amazing to people who have not been following the progress of adult stem-cells (or as our long time source for stem-cell news, Don Margolis, refers to them "repair stem-cells"). It's so amazing it's even a little creepy.

While the Obama Administration and the and the abortion-loving Democratic party are chasing the will-o-the-wisp of embryonic stem-cells, hoping for some amazing cure that will, in their minds, justify the 40 million+ murders they have supported since Roe v. Wade, adult stem-cells are continuing their absolutely unprecedented progress.

From the article:


"There's an 80% chance that in five months Bill Weir will be the first person ever to see his cardiac tissue beating outside his body.


Last week Bill visited Dr. Tim Nelson at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota to report on a revolutionary new stem cell treatment that would have sounded like science fiction even five years ago.


Different from the controversial embryonic (Yes, it's morally acceptable and it works-ASP) stem cell treatment, Dr. Nelson's team took a biopsy from Bill's Bicep and are in the process of turning those cells into his own beating cardiac tissue; tissue that will beat at the same rate as the heart in his chest.


And this isn't just for the heart. After the biopsy is taken, doctors are able to wipe the hard drive of the cells and use them to create brain and lung tissue as well.


What this means is that in the future you may be able to go to your doctor and deposit a batch of cells, and if you have a stroke or heart attack later in life they'll be able to use those cells to repair the damage."

Let's hope the government does not get involved and screw things up.


Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

Adult Stem-Cell UPDATE: "This could be the biggest revolution in cardiovascular medicine in my lifetime.''

More great adult stem-cell news. This story is from the Telegraph:

'''The results are striking,' said Professor Roberto Bolli, one of the research leaders from the University of Louisville in the US. ''While we do not yet know why the improvement occurs, we have no doubt now that ejection fraction increased and scarring decreased.'

''If these results hold up in future studies, I believe this could be the biggest revolution in cardiovascular medicine in my lifetime.''

The ground-breaking new treatment involved extracting cardiac stem cells (CSCs) - self-renewing cells that rebuild hearts and arteries - from patients during bypass surgery.
The cells were purified and grown in the laboratory before being injected back into damaged regions of the patients' hearts four months later.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports more good news. Geron is abandoning the field of embryonic stem-cell research:

"The company doing the first government-approved test of embryonic stem cell therapy is discontinuing further stem cell work..."

UPDATE: Hah! The great Wesley Smith on Geron's pullout:

"This is an atom bomb of a story that will have a serious effect on the entire regenerative medical sector. And it should embarrass the critics of President Bush; the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which bragged about its part in funding a scientist involved in the research; and, perhaps most of all, the fawning media that have acted as press agent for both the field generally, and Geron specifically."

And we repeat one of our mantras here at A Shepherd's Voice: "Are California voters having second thoughts yet about shelling out $3 billion + for immoral & unproven embryonic stem cell research, which has yet to show a single cure, while adult stem cells are curing people left and right?"

You can read all our adult stem-cell posts here.

Adult Stem-Cell Update: Patient's new Windpipe Grown From Own Stem-Cells

Now for some good medical news. We have not blogged much about adult stem-cell treatments lately because there seem to be so many, but this caught our eye:

"Surgeons working at Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden have taken a huge step forward for regenerative medicine by successfully executing the world’s first synthetic organ transplant. The donor-less transplant saved the life of a 36-year-old cancer patient, who is doing well now after having received a new windpipe grown from his own stem cells.

This story is about as international as it gets: The Eritrean patient, Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene, was pursuing his doctorate in geology in Iceland when his trachea was consumed by an inoperable tumor that grew so bad that it was actually blocking his breathing. So 3-D scans of his windpipe were sent to scientists at University College London, which crafted a glass scaffold that was a perfect match for Beyene’s trachea and two main bronchi.

The scaffold was in turn was sent to Sweden, where it was soaked in stem cells from Beyene’s own bone marrow. The stem cells took hold and within just two days had filled the scaffold, creating a new trachea that is, biologically speaking, Beyene’s own tissue. A 12-hour operation by an Italian surgeon specializing in trachea operations removed Beyene’s windpipe and all signs of the cancer and then replaced it with the new, lab-grown organ.

That was a month ago. Today, Beyene is recovering well. Because the organ was grown from his own cells, there is no risk of his body rejecting it and no need for the harsh regimen of anti-rejection drugs that usually go hand in hand with an organ transplant."

Praise God! Emphasis above added.

As always, we advise readers to check out the blog of Don Margolis, who has been beating the drum for adult stem-cells (which Don refers to, probably more accurately, as "repair stem cells') for years.

For all of our posts on adult stem-cell research and cures, go here. And we repeat one of our mantras here at A Shepherd's Voice: "Are California voters having second thoughts yet about shelling out $3 billion + for immoral & unproven embryonic stem cell research, which has yet to show a single cure, while adult stem cells are curing people left and right?"

h/t Instapundit

Adult Stem-Cell Update: Heart Attack Damage Reversed

You can read the American Heart Association's press release on the treatment here.

From Fierce Biotech Research:

"Writing in the journal Circulation Research: Journal of the American Heart Association, scientists show in a small study that stem cell therapy can reverse heart damage in patients with enlarged hearts due to heart attacks. In addition, the benefits from the stem cell injections appear to be three times better than that offered by current medical treatments, according to a release. Scar tissue decreased and heart function improved, the scientists from the University of Miami said.

In an interview with the Miami Herald, Joshua Hare, the study's lead author and director of the UM Medical School's Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute, seemed pumped about the heart development.

'That's the Holy Grail, the quest the whole field has been pursuing for close to a decade, and this is evidence we're on the right track,' Hare told the Herald.

A participant in the small eight-person trial, Max Eaton, 68, seconded that emotion. 'I feel very grateful,' Eaton told the Herald. 'Almost certainly, I would be deceased or in much worse shape had I not had the opportunity to be in this program.'"

And would these be Embryonic Stem Cells? Not on your life. Two different times of bone marrow stem-cells. Go here for all of our posts on amazing adult stem-cell treatments.

It's been one of our mantras here at "A Shepherd's Voice: "Are California voters having second thoughts yet about shelling out $3 billion + for immoral & unproven embryonic stem cell research, which has yet to show a single cure, while adult stem cells are curing people left and right?"

Readers interested in the latest amazing stem-cell treatments should visit the blog of Don Margolis. He's been on the story for years, and has just about daily updates.

Adult Stem-Cell UPDATE: HIV-Postive Man Cured by Transplant

We just can't keep up with all the great adult stem-cell news. The latest: an HIV-postive man in Berlin has been cured. From Fox News:

"Doctors believe a 42-year-old man was cured of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant in 2007, the medical journal Blood reported.

Timothy Ray Brown, an HIV-positive American living in Germany, had leukemia and was undergoing chemotherapy, when he received a transplant of stem cells from a donor carrying a rare, inherited gene mutation associated with a reduced risk HIV.

The transplant appeared to wipe out both diseases, giving hope to doctors. Brown’s case was published in a February 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

"The patient is fine," Dr. Gero Hutter, who treated Brown, of Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin in Germany said in 2009. "Today, two years after his transplantation, he is still without any signs of HIV disease and without antiretroviral medication."

We repeat what has been one of our mantras here at "A Shepherd's Voice" ever since Prop 71 in California passed:

"Are California voters having second thoughts yet about shelling out $3 billion + for immoral & unproven embryonic stem cell research, which has yet to show a single cure, while adult stem cells are curing people left and right?"

Meanwhile, our President funds this useless and immoral embryonic reasearch.

For all of our stem -cell posts, go here, and, as always, check out the blog of Don Margolis for the latest adult stem-cell (or as Don calls them "repair stem cell") news.

Adult Stem Cell UPDATE: Burns Treated, Leukemia Patient Healed

We have not been following the amazing adult stem-cell progess as much as we should lately. Here are two MORE amazing stories:

From KSL in Salt Lake City:

Stem cell spray heals burns

A spray solution of a patient's own stem cells is healing their severe burns. So far, early experiments under a University of Utah pilot project are showing some remarkable results.
What was once a serious burn on Kaye Adkins foot is healing nicely now because of a topical spray. With diabetes as a complication, the small but open wound had not healed after weeks of failed treatments.

Dr. Amalia Cochran with the university's Burn Care Center says, "With a wound that is open for several months, as this patient suffered prior to seeing us in our burn clinic, we worry about a pretty heavy bacterial load there."

But enter the evolutionary world of regenerative medicine, using almost a bedside stem cell technique that takes only about 15 minutes."

_____________________________________________________

And from LifeSiteNews:

Amazing first: leukemia patient completely cured with cord blood stem cells

"BERLIN, November 26, 2010 - Doctors associated with the German umbilical cord blood bank Vita 34 say that they have cured a child’s leukemia completely using an infusion of stem cells from umbilical cord blood.

The procedure was reportedly performed in 2005 on a four-year-old girl whose chemotherapy treatment had failed and who had a prognosis of only three months to live. The procedure was possible because the parents had decided to preserve their child’s umbilical cord blood at the time of birth.

After continuous monitoring of the child for five years now, with no sign of leukemia cells in her blood, doctors say that they have confirmed that the treatment worked."

As our friend Don Margolis often says, adult stem-cells are the greatest medicine in the history of man. It's tragic that our current President, for ideological reasons, chooses to spend his efforts on immoral and pointless Embryonic Stem Cell Research.

For a rundown of our posts on this subject, click here. And you can always visit our friend Don Margolis, whom we have called "The Best Stem Cell Blog" for more. Don follows all the latest adult stem-cell news, and has made it his life's work. God bless him!

Adult Stem-Cell UPDATE: The Blind can Now See With Their Own Stem-Cells!

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! From LifeSiteNews:

"For individuals blinded by chemical burns, the ever advancing field of adult stem-cell research has provided yet another astonishing cure – giving them sight through their own stem cells.

Italian researchers have reported developing a very successful therapy to cure those who were either blinded, or whose vision was severely impaired, thanks to chemical burns to their corneas. Such burns can come about through handling everything from toxic cleaning substances at home to heavy-duty chemicals at work....

In a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists treated 107 eyes of 106 patients with stem cells derived from the limbus, the rim around the cornea, where stem cells are naturally produced by the body to do repairs on the cornea.

The researchers derived the stem cells from a patient’s healthy eye, and then encouraged them to multiply. Once they had enough stem cells, they removed the scar tissue over the bad eye, and then grafted the stem cells on over the site of the cornea, which then began to generate new corneal tissues.

After 12-24 months had passed, these grafts were then followed up by corrective surgeries.

One patient had severe alkali burns on both his eyes from 1948. Researchers, however, were able to adapt and derive limbal stem-cell cultures with biopsied tissue taken from the patient’s left eye. The therapy managed to successfully restore both corneal surfaces, transitioning the man from blindness to having an almost normal, combined vision of close to 20/30. Follow-ups after two and five years showed that both eyes were stable after the treatment.

In all, the treatment had a 76.6 percent success rate, sustained over the past decade. The researchers note that all their failure cases occurred within the first year of treatment. In all 82 of 107 eyes had successful cures, with partial success in 14 others.

"They were incredibly happy. Some said it was a miracle," one of the study leaders, Graziella Pellegrini of the University of Modena's Center for Regenerative Medicine in Italy, told the Associated Press. "It was not a miracle. It was simply a technique."

The Family Research Council blog has more, including ABC News video about the case. We also repeat what has become one of our mantras at "A Shepherd's Voice" ever since Prop 71 in California passed:

"Are California voters having second thoughts yet about shelling out $3 billion + for immoral & unproven embryonic stem cell research, which has yet to show a single cure, while adult stem cells are curing people left and right?"

We must point out it was idiots in the press (like ABC News) that were foursquare behind ESCR, and painted those of us opposed to it as anti-science bigots.

Our friend Don Margolis has been beating the adult stem-cell drum (he refers to them as "repair stem-cells") for years, calling them the greatest medicine ever known to mankind, and it looks like he is right. Visit his website: http://donmargolis.com/blog/ and check out the list of diseases and conditions being treated with adult stem-cells.

"NHS Didn't Pay For It- Why? Because it works?"

That was our friend Don Margolis' response to the amazing adult stem-cell treatment that more or less rebuilt the leg of 53 year-old Englishman Andrew Kent.

What with one thing and another, we have neglected Don's blog of late, which is always a mistake. Because although we say "amazing" the treatments with adult-stem cells have quickly redefined the word.

From the story:

"A man's own stem cells have saved his crushed leg from amputation in England. Andrew Kent, 53, of Kent has had his leg saved by adult stem cells after a huge boulder landed on it, shattering his bones in his leg.

After the accident, Andrew had 3 surgeries on his leg attempting to save it. None of them worked. His doctors told Andrew that he was facing amputation.

Surgeons told Mr Kent he could lose his leg unless they tried the new stem cell technique.

He said: “I was given two choices. I asked what the surgeon thought was best and he said he wanted to try the stem cells. I was the first in the country at that time.”

Orthopaedic surgeon Anan Shetty removed stem cells from bone marrow in Mr Kent’s hip. These were mixed with a new collagen gel called Cartifill to make a paste, which was smeared into the fractures.

They finally fixed his leg in a metal cage to gently press the bones together. The cage was finally removed six months after the procedure.

Mr Shetty said: “He’s really surprised us. This is an amazing technique. Mr Kent won’t be able to run for about a year, but after 18 months his bones will have healed completely. I’m sure he’ll be able to go back to rock climbing.”

Cartifill was invented by an orthopaedic surgeon from South Korea, Professor Seok Jung Kim, who has helped Mr Shetty pioneer a series of procedures. Prof Kim was present to watch the operation.

Cartifill has also been used in combination with stem cells to repair torn knee cartilage. The gel holds the stem cells against the bone, where they form a new layer of cartilage. Ten patients have been treated so far in Britain, with an 80 per cent success rate.

Cost is always a factor in medicine, but this technique only costs a few hundred pounds.
Prof Kim said: “Many people who have problems with knee injuries can now get effective, low-cost treatment.”

"It is ESCR researchers who have politicized science and stood in the way of real progress"

That's the conclusion of an editorial in today's "Investor's Business Daily"

"Five years after a budget-busting $3 billion was allocated to embryonic stem cell research, there have been no cures, no therapies and little progress. So supporters are embracing research they once opposed....

Five years later, ESCR has failed to deliver and backers of Prop 71 are admitting failure. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state agency created to, as some have put it, restore science to its rightful place, is diverting funds from ESCR to research that has produced actual therapies and treatments: adult stem cell research."

Longtime readers of "A Shepherd's Voice" know that's a mantra we've been chanting since this blog began, and in the Saints Peter and Paul parish bulletin before that. We admit we've fallen behind of late, but that's because there are so many amazing stories of treatment with adult stem-cells we just can't keep up.

For a rundown of our posts on this subject, click here.

And you can always visit our friend Don Margolis, whom we have called "The Best Stem Cell Blog" for more. Don follows all the latest adult stem-cell news, and has made it his life's work. God bless him!

Adult Stem-Cell UPDATE

Our friend Don Margolis has lots of new information about adult stem-cell treatments.

Check out this excellent video from "The Texas Alliance for Life." It's about a man whose heart (damaged by a heart attack) was totally healed using adult stem-cells. The Texas Alliance For Life is promoting a couple of bills in the Texas State Legslature to establish a consortium to further adult stem-cell research, which (unlike embryonic stem-cell research) is morally sound and actually produces results. One of the things I had not known was that when Californians gave $3billion+ to Proposition 71, a stated goal of the ESCR backers was to produce just one treatment within 10 years. This, while adult stem-cells are treating and curing people just about weekly if not daily.

Will the FDA Kill Adult Stem Cell Medicine?

That's the title of a story in H+ Magazine, by Jeff Morris, AAMG and Stephen Coles, Md, Ph. D. The authors are interviewing Dr. Christopher J. Centeno, whose specialty is orthpedics. Dr. Centeno has been using adult stem-cells to treat his patients for over four years. The article begins:

"Within the next five years, it's quite possible that physicians will come into routine possession of a remarkable set of tools — a brand new way of dealing with the frailty and disabilities of aging. The tool kit is autologous stem cells derived from the patients themselves, amplified in culture, and infused back into the patient according to a precise protocol. It would be such a leap from today's medical diagnostics and treatments; it could only be called revolutionary.

The purpose of employing autologous cells is to prevent rejection of histo-incompatible cells by the patient's immune system. But it's also possible that these new therapies could slip from our grasp, at least in the US. If we're not careful, these therapies could become the exclusive domain of the pharmaceutical industry, as regulated by the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This could push the availability of this tool kit 15 to 20 years into the future. The opportunity-cost in terms of morbidity and mortality could be catastrophic....

The story then tells a little about Dr. Centeno:

Prior to becoming involved in stem-cell research, Dr. Centeno was already an international expert and specialist in musculoskeletal, spinal, and neurologic injury. Having trained at the Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Medical Center, and the Institute for Rehabilitation Research, he is an M.D. who is double-boarded in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation as well as Pain Medicine. Dr. Centano has seen the results that are achievable in an orthopedic context. 'We've done this for four years for patients with orthopedic conditions. So, as a test case, we know it can work safely and effectively.'”

What's the danger? The FDA wants to classify your own stem-cells as a drug. We blogged on this back on March 26, 2009. The story continues:

"To Dr. Centeno, it is inconceivable that a person’s own cells could be classified as a drug — but that's exactly what the FDA wants to do. “The FDA is working to protect the interests of Big Pharma,” he says. 'If we wanted to insert some kind of new genes into these cells, we might all agree that could be a drug — a new entity. But what we're doing is simply culturing a person’s own cells. Most of the cells are bone-marrow derived; you can get them from synovial fluid in the knee or from other locations....'

The stakes for the pharmaceutical industry are obviously also high. 'You’re talking about replacing $60 billion in drug- and device-care with $6 billion in stem-cell care,' Dr. Centeno observes. The end result will either be individual physicians owning and controlling labs, or, says Dr. Centeno, 'It will all be controlled by Big Pharma, and innovation will move at a snail’s pace.'”

Dr. Centeno heads an organization created to define guidelines and standards for American adult-stem cell treatmet called The American Stem Cell Therapy Association (ASCTA). Their website is here.

h/t Instapundit.

Let's pray "The Science President" instructs his FDA not to get in the way of REAL science!

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In other great adult stem-cell news, our friend Don Margolis has a story about a lady who has been treated with her own adult stem-cells for COPD (serious lung disease). The lady had been a smoker, and had been on oxygen 24/7 until being treated last December. She is now totally off oxygen. Pray God this sucess continues!

Adult Stem-Cell UPDATE: Diabetes

From today's "New Scientist":

"DAZZLING but controversial claims about a stem-cell treatment for diabetes now seem to have been borne out. The latest results indicate that the initial positive response was indeed due to the treatment and not simply to better care, as critics suggested in 2007.

The treatment is designed to stop the immune systems of people with type 1 diabetes from destroying the pancreatic islet cells that make insulin, the hormone which regulates sugar concentrations in blood. A team led by Júlio Voltarelli of the Regional Blood Centre in Ribeirão Preto in southern Brazil took blood from 15 patients and saved the CD34 stem cells from it....

In 2007, Voltarelli's team announced that some of the patients were able to live without injections of insulin for months - in one case for three years. Others, however, put this down to the "honeymoon" period after a treatment, in which patients receive better care as they are being monitored.

The latest results, which cover the initial 15 patients plus eight more who have received the same treatment, seem to put such fears to rest. Twelve now live free of insulin injections, eight need less insulin than before and only three have not benefited at all. All who benefited had drastically raised concentrations of C-peptide, a by-product of insulin production, which indicates that they were making the insulin themselves." (emphasis added)

As our friend Don Margolis often says, adult stem-cells are the greatest medicine in the history of man. It's tragic that our current President, for ideological reasons, chooses to spend his efforts on immoral and pointless Embryonic Stem Cell Research.

For a more technical take on the story, go to the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association.

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

Adult Stem-Cell UPDATE: Al Gore gets on Board.

Evan Al Gore gets it...at least when there is money involved.

From USA Today:

"Former vice president Al Gore is entering the stem cell arena with an announcement today of a $20 million biotech venture in the hot area of "induced pluripotent" stem cells.

Induced cells are attracting interest from researchers and biotech firms as an alternative to embryonic stem cells. Induced cells are made by inserting four genes into ordinary skin cells, and they offer a new path for "regenerative" medical treatments."

It's certainly not a moral issue with these guys. They don't invest in embryonic stem-cell research beacuse they don't think it will work.

It's been one of our mantras here at "A Shepherd's Voice:" Are California voters having second thoughts yet about shelling out $3 billion + for immoral & unproven embryonic stem cell research, which has yet to show a single cure, while adult stem cells are curing people left and right?

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

Adult Stem Cell UPDATE: Dr. Oz Gets It!

Adult stem-cells are one of our regular themes on "A Shepherd's Voice." Below is a clip from the Oprah Winfrey Show on Monday.

We hope all of Oprah's many millions of viewers start to get the truth about stem-cells too!




To see all of our posts on this subject go here.

And we always recommend that readers interested in this subject start with Don Margolis.

H/t American Papist

Doctors Challenge FDA Over Adult Stem-Cell Restrictions

We've all heard how under an Obama administration the government would no longer stand in the way of scientific research. Well, maybe President Obama could have a little talk with his own FDA. Here's a press release from group of Doctors who wishes he would (emphases added):



Physician Group Opposes FDA’s Position on Adult Stem Cells

BROOMFIELD, COLO. (March 26, 2009)-The American Stem Cell Therapy Association (ASCTA) announced today the on-line publication of its mission statements and charter. The organization was formed in response to the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) recent position that the adult stem cells found in everyone’s body are drugs, a position the ASCTA opposes. This physician organization is establishing laboratory guidelines that will allow doctors to bring adult stem cell therapy to their patients more quickly. These guidelines will be similar to those used by fertility specialists in In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) labs, where many of the same cell culture techniques are used.

"Many patients are dying or suffering day by day with incurable diseases or problems that require major surgery. These patients should have access to basic adult stem cell therapy now.” stated Christopher J. Centeno, M.D. “ASCTA is establishing guidelines which will allow the safe use of the patient’s own adult stem cells under the supervision of doctors.” continued Centeno. Another ASCTA physician member, Frank Falco, M.D. stated, “The FDA’s position against someone using their own stem cells is taking it too far. We are talking about a person using their own tissue to treat a degenerative disorder or process safely without the use of medications or surgery. Although we agree that oversight and standards are necessary, this should be provided through a physician organization such as ASCTA rather than by a government agency.”


The rest of the press release is here.

H/t to our friend Don Margolis, who weighed in on the issue:



"FDA’s Stance On Your Own Stem Cells

The FDA’s stance on Adult Stem Cells taken from a patient is that it should be treated as a new drug- ie, subject to 7-10 years of clinical trials and testing for each use of it. This means 7-10 years of clinical trials for adult stem cells for heart disease. 7-10 years of clinical trials and tests for diabetes, 7-10 for spinal cord injury…you get the picture. Think about how much money and how much time it will take to get through the hurdles for each particular disease/condition. How many people will die and suffer during that time because they can’t be treated with their own cells- which are safe and have no side effects.


Adult Stem Cells- the same as Lipitor or Viagra?

Cells taken from your own body are being treated by the FDA exactly the same as Lipitor or Viagra were treated. Lipitor and Viagra have side effects (ex. Lipitor- muscle weakness, Viagra- risk of heart attack) because you are introducing a new foreign chemical into your body. Adult Stem Cells are not some mysterious concoction of chemicals brewed up after 10 years of research and development. The Adult Stem Cells are your own cells- removed from a patient so they have no side effects. They are safer than taking an aspirin.

Stem Cells- Your Own Repair System In Place

In essence, your own stem cells are already there to repair damage to the body, let the body heal itself. When you fall and scrape your knee, your body will send stem cells to heal the damage. However, sometimes for certain conditions and diseases, there aren’t enough of these stem cells to do that. Therefore, these doctors/researchers are multiplying the amount of adult stem cells and then putting them into the area that needs repair- and then they let the body’s own repair mechanisms (the adult stem cells) do what they are “born to do”- no controversy, no ethical concerns, a 3rd grader can understand this— so why shouldn’t it be available in the United States?

These American doctors are finally speaking up and I (and thousands of patients who can benefit from using their own stem cells) applaud them."


Let's pray the FDA gets out of the way!

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney