FDA approves embryonic cellular procedure
The FDA has approved the first human treatment using embryonic stem cells. The procedure only gave permission to test the cells in patients with thoracic spinal cord damage. This type of damage occurs below the neck and usually creates a situation where the person has use of their arms and hands, but nothing below the middle of their chest. Regular life functions become more complicated as the injury forces the loss of control of bladder function, bowel, as well as that of the legs and feet. Tests that were performed on rats found that control of all damaged body functions were returned to 97%. Geron, the company that came up with the procedure found that the cells that they injected rebuilt myelin damage and also started nerve growth. In addition the injected cells stopped cellular death in the surrounding tissue and reduced the immune system response which reduced inflammation. If this procedure works anywhere near as well on humans as it did in rats it would be the most important find in the fight against spinal cord injuries. Up to this point there is nothing that can be done once the damage has happened other than working with rehabilitation doctors to build up the tissue that still works. No word was given when this procedure would be available to the general public or when human tests would begin. (Source: Science Daily)
This is fantastic news that after all these years of research we are starting to see real medical procedures for repairs. Unlike the fly-by-nite groups in Asia that pump a patient with umbilical cord cells and hope for the best, this procedure actually repairs the damage of almost every animal that was in the study. Of course the real work will be with human testing. While rats are very close to humans for testing, there are always differences that seem to frustrate procedures that look so promising. We hope that this is very successful because there are millions of people that could be given back their lives with a procedure that fixes 97% of the damage. There is no way to calculate the response of being able to give someone the chance to walk again, to drive or go back to work as the used to. Not to count that sexual function could be returned to all those with spinal cord injuries. All these people that are on Social Security Disability could go back to work or back to school and do the things they used to without all the pain and loss of control they had because of their accident.
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If this procedure is succesful in humans. It will be the greatest medical achievement since the discovery of Penicillin.