Study Finds Stem Cells Reverse Paralysis in Rats

If this turns out to be true, and can be applied to humans, then we need to make sure that every moron in the U.S. that has worked to ban stem cell research is on a Moron List. Nobody on the Moron List can ever receive any medical assistance that has resulted from the study of stem cells.

And please, don't talk about the difference between adult and embryonic stem cells. If your child was paralyzed and medical research held out the hope of regaining use of their body, nobody would want to debate whether the stem cells came from a test tube or a human being. What difference would it make? None to the person helped by the procedure.

"Transplanted adult stem cells have been found to reverse paralysis associated with spinal cord injuries in lab rats, a new study finds.

The study, headed up by Miodrag Stojkovic, deputy director and head of the Cellular Reprogramming Laboratory at Centro de Investigacion Principe Felipe in Spain, involved transplanting so-called progenitor stem cells from the lining of rats' spinal cords into rodents with serious spinal cord injuries.

The rats recovered significant motor activity one week after injury, Stojkovic and his co-authors wrote in the Jan. 27 early online edition of the journal Stem Cells.

Spinal cord injury, for which no therapy currently exists to undo the damage, is a major cause of paralysis. Up to 400,000 people in the United States are estimated to live with these injuries, according to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. Most spinal cord injuries are caused by vehicle crashes and falls, and most of those injured are males.

The researchers say the new rat results "open a new window on spinal cord regenerative strategies. "

Human potential

The presence of these stem cells in the adult human spinal cords suggests that stem cell-associated mechanisms might be exploited to repair human spinal cord injuries.

Given the serious social and health problems presented by diseases and accidents that destroy neuronal function, there is an ever-increasing interest in determining whether adult stem cells might be utilized as a basis of regenerative therapies." http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090129/sc_livescience/studystemcellsreverseparalysisinrats/print