Here are a couple of important stories collected from Adult Stem Cell Awareness to further encourage your confidence that morally responsible scientific research does indeed provide the best hopes for medical progress. Both stories concern research to help victims of Parkinson's Disease.The first concerns clinical trials conducted in Peru which have established very promising results using bone marrow stem cells from the patients' own bodies. (The original item is here.)
And the second comes from Yale School of Medicine where researchers injected uterine stem cells to trigger growth of new brain cells in mice with Parkinson's disease. "Previously, we were able to coax these multipotent stem cells to differentiate into cartilage cells," said lead author Hugh S. Taylor, M.D., professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine and section chief of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Yale School of Medicine. "Now we have found that we can turn uterine stem cells into neurons that can boost dopamine levels and partially correct the problem of Parkinson's disease."
As Adult Stem Cell Awareness comments, "The latter story surely debunks the theory that ASCs are unable to differentiate into other specialized cells. And each disprove the notion that the use of human embryos is necessary for the advancement of stem cell research and the development of stem cell treatments, therapies and cures."
