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Stem Cells to Treat Brain Injury in Children

Posted by samzenpus on from the grow-a-better-brain dept.

BigDukeSix writes "The first stem cell trial with widespread public health implications is set to begin in Houston. From the article: "Trauma is far and away the main cause of death and disability among children, and the main reason children die from trauma is brain injury...The clinical trial is the first to apply stem cells to treat traumatic brain injury. It does not involve embryonic stem cells.""

2 of 222 comments (clear)

  1. More Information: by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 5, Informative


    Some more information on using stem cells from bone marrow to grow neurons can be found here.

    As you can see from the date of the above referenced article, the idea of using stem cells derived from bone marrow to treat brain injury has been around for a while, but now that we've finally progressed to human trials, this field is going to get very exciting very fast. This has the potential to completely rewrite the textbooks on brain & nerve trauma...it's a real pity that Christopher Reeve had to leave us before we made these advances.

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    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

    1. Re:More Information: by PortHaven · · Score: 4, Informative

      PLEASE....educate yourself on this issue. You are extremely misinformed!

      Try reading the article for starters, here is a quote:

      The clinical trial is the first to apply stem cells to treat traumatic brain injury. It does not involve embryonic stem cells.

      A bit more about stem cell research:

      1. There is no ban on stem cell research. Merely, a provision stating that Federal funds will not be used for fetal stem cell research. (Privately funded research is still available.) Furthermore, the government allocated $500 million to stem cell research. Far from a ban to say the least.

      2. All successful or promising stem cell development has been achieved using adult & umbilical stem cells. In fact, many experts in the field believe that there is no need what-so-ever to use fetal stem cells. a) that all goals can be achieved from non-fetal stem cells given a bit more time and study b) said additional study will likely take less time than the study necessary to learn how to control and utilize fetal stem cells.

      3. Fetal stem cell research has to date had very little success. The most common end result is "tumors". The fetal stem cells are too reactive and uncontrolled. Of the few dozen articles on stem cell success I have read not a single one has been due to fetal stem cells.

      4. When people keep ignorantly making statements above they merely show themselves to be poorly misinformed at best and quite a bit more at worse.

      - Saj