Amniotic fluid a promising stem cell source

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Monday, January 8, 2007 | Carl T. Hall

[saganite]

Congress is once again drawing the political spotlight to human embryos as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, leads a new attempt this week to expand federal grants for stem cell research.

Scientists are all for that. At the same time, they keep moving in other directions. They are looking for different sources of stem cells perhaps more practical in the long run than the controversial, days-old embryos getting all the attention on Capitol Hill.

On Sunday, researchers offered new evidence that stem cells, very much like those derived from embryos, can be obtained from ordinary amniotic fluid, the liquid that bathes the fetus during pregnancy.

Although such cells had been found before, a report in the journal Nature Biotechnology suggests they can be isolated from the fluid more easily than previously thought and coaxed into developing into muscle, bone, liver, brain and other major cell types in the search for new treatments for diabetes, paralysis and many other maladies.

"It's a plentiful source," said Dr. Anthony Atala, senior author of the research paper and director of the regenerative medicine institute at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Now, it appears the birth fluid may be a repository of all sorts of valuable biological material.

stages of life.

[syriacus]

Well, well, well.

I expect the Dems will be in a special hurry to push their ESCR legislation before the public hears this.

[saganite]

I'd given up on this thread. I posted this a couple hours ago and got no responses. Thanks for reading it and NO! the Dems won't give up the demand for embryonic stem cell research, they'll ignore this info just as they've ignored the advances in adult stem cell research.

[JaguarXKE]

Don't worry, I'm sure we can rely on the MSM to remind Democrats about this new information that clearly impacts the need for embryonic stem cells.