Found this AP article on the Kansas City Star website (thanks Bob for the link) today.. it is titled
Adult stem cell research far ahead of embryonic and began with this great story:
A few months ago, Thomas Einhorn was treating a patient with a broken ankle that wouldn’t heal, even with multiple surgeries. So he sought help from the man’s own body.
Einhorn drew bone marrow from the man’s pelvic bone with a needle and injected that into his ankle.
Four months later, the ankle was healed. Einhorn, chairman of orthopedic surgery at Boston University Medical Center, credits so-called adult stem cells in the marrow injection. He tried it because of published research from France.
I love that story. Here is another from the article:
Another heart-related condition under study is critical limb ischemia, where blood flow to the leg is so restricted by artery blockage it causes pain and may require amputation. The goal is to encourage growth of new blood vessels by injecting stem cells into the leg.
Sherman said limb ischemia research is moving fast and the results “are very, very encouraging.”
Physician Gabriel Lasala of TCA Cellular Therapy has reported positive preliminary results. One success is Rodney Schoenhardt of Metairie, La.
Schoenhardt had already had surgery on both legs for the disease, and his surgeon was talking about amputating his left leg. Schoenhardt suffered so much pain in his left leg while standing that he used a wheelchair instead.
For Lasala’s research, Schoenhardt got 40 shots in each leg about 18 months ago, with stem cells going into his left calf and a placebo dose into the other. Soon, he said, the pain in his left leg was gone.
Schoenhardt, 58, now mows his lawn, and he remodeled his living room to fix damage from Hurricane Katrina.
“My wheelchair is in my garage, collecting dust,” he said.
Not sure what you all think about this stuff but I am pretty wowed by it. It gives me some hope for Ann's condition as the article also says that adult stem cells are being studied in people who suffer from multiple sclerosis, heart attacks and diabetes. Not too much hope for folks with neurological diseases these days - great to hear stories that inspire a bit of it.
Hope....that's what keeps us all going, Bob. A friend of mine has just been diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Maybe this treatment will some day turn things around for her too. She still has four children at home who need their mom, the youngest just over a year old.
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