Posted on 12/17/2004 2:55:15 AM PST by MikefromOhio
Surgeons have used stem cells from fat to help repair skull damage in a 7-year-old girl in Germany, in what's apparently the first time such fat-derived cells have been exploited to grow bone in a human.
The girl had been injured two years before in a fall, which destroyed several areas of her skull totaling nearly 19 square inches, the German researchers reported.
Other surgeons had failed to correct the defects, and the girl wore a protective helmet. Her brain could sometimes be seen pulsating through the missing areas of her skull.
But several weeks after the stem-cell surgery, she was able to leave her helmet behind, the researchers report in the December issue of the Journal of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery. The skull is now smooth to the touch, the missing parts replaced by thin but solid bone, said Dr. Hans-Peter Howaldt of the Justus-Liebig-University Medical School in Giessen, Germany. The child was not identified.
Howaldt, who performed the surgery last year, said the damage was too extensive to be repaired with bone grafts from her body. He said the hope was that if bits of the child's bone were mixed with stem cells, the cells would turn into bone-building cells that would create additional bone.
That appears to have happened, Howaldt said in a telephone interview Thursday.
"I cannot prove that our success comes from the stem cells alone," he said, "but the combination of the two things simply worked."
In August, other German doctors reported growing a jaw bone in a man's back muscle and transplanting it to his mouth to fill a gap left by cancer surgery. The researchers used bone marrow, which also contains stem cells, to help grow the bone. But it's not clear whether the stem cells were responsible for the bone growth.
(Excerpt) Read more at story.news.yahoo.com ...
I think that as this stem cell issue gets more study, we will find that the stem cells from many parts of adult humans will do the trick, not just unborn baby stem cells.
Wouldn't it be ironic if body fat, a substance as common as idiocy at a MoveOn convention, turns out to be the very thing that saves us all?
well then in that case this fatbutt country of ours will save the World!! :)
yeah that would be very very ironic
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You dirty rat. By one second ! :)
asgard got ya man....
not only him, but algore now too :)
Exactly what type of stem cells are these?
they are stem cells from fat....which every living human being has. and they generally have to many of them....
But you're right - that source alone should render down to provide enough stem cells to cure every ailment down through ho-hum mouth in the US for the next 25 years.
You just watch: the lack of distinction of these cells as not from embryos will lead this report to be used to boost embryonic cell research.
Sorry I don't think so..... yuck!!!!!!!!!!
I would bet on that in the near term. But as I stated, I think as the entire subject gets more study, the differences will cancel out, and any stem cell will be able to do what any other stem cell can do.
At least that is my guess right now. As medical science improves, the boundaries will greatly decrease...
This kid went from having a big bulging brain to a fathead in a few weeks
This article fails to mention the richest, most available source of stem cells, umbilical cords, which have been generally tossed out after the baby is born. Just think what we could do with THAT if skull bone was grown with ordinary fat stem cells? Wow. I just wish more people would educate themselves about the benefits of saving umbilical cords for future use.
In short, there is NO scientific reason to use embryos to obtain stem cells. It is a great tragedy that again, the left will "sell" embryonic stem cells as the only legitimate stem cells, when it is so patently not true.
the left is taking a horrible gamble in risking the lives of our unborn by experimenting on them. It is wrong on all counts, especially as other types of stem cells are showing the same remarkable qualities as embryonic stem cells are....
Good find. I understand that a University in Toronto, IIRC, has made significant progress in the use of adult stem cells. They are rejected by the patient at a much lower rate then fetal cells.
the issue needs to be studied further.
Never know what we may find....
And if you use your own stem cells, the risk of rejection is almost nil. That's why I keep harping on using other than embryonic stem cells.
It's similar to a situation I had a few years ago. I had surgery scheduled and one of the options explained to me was to donate my own blood beforehand to give back to myself during the procedure, called autologous transfer. I did it and bounced back almost immediately, the best results of a surgery ever, for me.
Wouldn't it be cool if we could grow our own organs for transplant?
Good as I become too old to donate blood, I can donate a couple of pounds of fat every couple of months and feel good about it.
So we're not overweight, greedy, sloppy Americans - we're stem cell colonies for the rest of the world!
If fat donation becomes as common as blood donations, beside the drug donor/gay sex questions, they should ask if the donor is a left wing lunatic or a republican.
The last thing I would want is to receive a stemcell from someone like Michael Moore. He probably would want a donation from me.
I'm not fat nor overweight! I'm a Proud Stem Cell Producer/Donor!
It is my understanding that there have been quite a few successes in using stem cells from OTHER than embryonic sources. There have been NO successes I am yet aware of in using embryonic stem cells.
I think the real push for embryonic stem cell research is driven by the idea that it can to remove the guilt from abortion.
Sure, there are some very earnest scientists who think it's necessary, but I suspect that most of the political heat is being generated by pro-aborts.
That could be... even tho', from what I've read, most embryonic stem cell lines come from "left-over" embryos that were created for in-vitro fertilization.
I wonder how long you could preserve your own umbilical cord? The placenta is supposed to be rich in stem cells too. BTW, it's interesting to note that since these cells come from the time when the baby is fully formed, they are considered to be adult stem cells.
Hey, I got plenty of fat cells to donate! Where do I sign up?
Seven years ago, when I was pregnant with my daughter, I had tinkered with the idea of saving my daughter's umbilical cord with a lab. The "core blood," as they called it back then, was to be frozen for your personal needs (if my child or any future chidren ever needed a bone marrow transfusion, developed leukemia, etc., the core blood could be used treat her or her siblings because it would be a perfect match). It could be kept in freeze for a period 3-5 years, I believe.
At the time it was a very expensive procedure, because it involved immediately harvesting the cord after birth and flying it out to be frozen at one of the two national labs in existence. It really says something about the poor quality of my memory since I can't recall the name of the lab or the procedure, but I remember thinking how this was science working for the benefit of all mankind in a truly ethical manner, for once. I wonder if this option is still available, or has the lab now put its efforts into more "profitable" research.
This story was carried on PMSNBC with a sidebar about embryonic stem cell research. The MSM is still lying to people about this, making them think there is a ban on all federal funding for all stem cell research and implying that all treatments that are discovered come from embryonic stem cells.
Are they adult or infant fat cells? Oh well...I wouldn't object to taking some infant fat cells since he would live through that.
nice tagline...lol. I remember that thread.
Very ironic. I certainly hope that stem cells can be obtained from a source other than a fetus.
ping
I saw on CBS, Chinese doctors in China are using stem cells from aborted babies and injecting it in paralyzed people.
They used parts of aborted babies for a lot of things. They actually buy aborted baby parts from the U.S.
How about taking some cells from my thick skull to rejuvenate the old fat cells and help them get rid of themselves?
No seriously, this is very intersting and sheds more light on the fact there not only is embryonic stem cell research evil, it's not even useful.
Which makes one wonder, why do they want it so much?
Adult. From liposuction or such.
They did that with Gloria estefan when she busted her back...
yeah, and the guy that was after is still going at it on that thread. I am just ignoring him/being as sarcastic as I can with him because he is only trying to drive me off of FR, which isnt going to happen anytime soon.
23 days....
yeah, and the guy that was after is still going at it on that thread. I am just ignoring him/being as sarcastic as I can with him because he is only trying to drive me off of FR, which isnt going to happen anytime soon.
23 days....
I think they had already tried that....
I'll be happy to donate 20 pounds - all in the interest of serving humanity, of course.
yeah me too...
but its more like 40 for me :)
Thanks for the links and the ping
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Maybe now we can cure Michael Moore.