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(remove the two * symbols).. and you're there.
And here is your pic....
EBUCK
Posted on 10/29/2002 9:43:24 AM PST by Gophack
Montreal, Canada -- In what might be a world first, doctors at Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal transfused a woman suffering from leukemia with the umbilical-cord blood of her baby daughter.
Seven months later, 27-year-old Patrizia Durante is in complete remission and credits her daughter with saving her life.
"I gave my daughter life, and then she gave mine back," Ms. Durante said yesterday, cradling 13-month-old Victoria. "It's a miracle. She was meant to be born to save me."
Umbilical-cord blood is usually banked for later use by the child should she develop a life-threatening illness such as leukemia. Dr. Pierre Laneuville, director of hematology at the McGill University Health Centre, said he believes the offspring-to-parent transplant is the first of its kind in the world.
Ms. Durante's case highlights the growing interest by doctors in using umbilical cord blood as an effective alternative to bone-marrow transplants. "We're elated," Dr. Laneuville said. "This is the best-case scenario we could possibly have imagined.... From a doctor's point of view, the chances are she's cured."
Umbilical cord blood is rich in hemopoietic stem cells -- the kind of cells that can rebuild a blood system damaged by heavy doses of chemotherapy. In Ms. Durante's case, the stem cells regenerated her blood system and destroyed the residual cancer cells in her body.
"We are now in an era where we are realizing scientifically and medically that we have sources of stem cells that can become other tissues and can be used therapeutically," Dr. Laneuville said. "And the most accessible source and the one we're throwing in the garbage all the time are these cord cells."
Durante, a Laval financial advisor, learned she was suffering from acute myloid leukemia when she was 26 weeks pregnant with Victoria, her first child.
"It was terrifying," she recalled. "I was afraid for the baby. I was afraid of dying and not being there for my daughter. It was very stressful and difficult for my family."
Durante underwent moderate doses of chemotherapy while pregnant. She did not respond to the drugs, so her doctors decided to induce labour so they could switch to high doses without risking harm to the baby. On Sept. 2, 2001, Victoria was born two months premature, weighing three-and-a-half pounds. She was placed in an incubator while her mother renewed her chemotherapy.
At the time, doctors were looking for a suitable donor for a bone-marrow transplant, even though Victoria's umbilical-cord blood had been frozen in liquid nitrogen. But by last March, Ms. Durante was severely ill and she could not wait any longer for a bone-marrow transplant.
Dr. Laneuville decided to infuse her with Victoria's cord blood, although the procedure was risky because Durante's body might have rejected the blood.
Ideally, individuals should be infused with their own banked cord blood. Victoria's blood, however, was only a half-match, carrying her mother's genes as well as her father's.
"But in this case, the incompatibility -- that is, the genes that the baby's dad contributed -- theoretically could have been very beneficial in this transplant," Dr. Laneuville said.
"Part of the blood cells include the immune system. There was the possibility that the immune system of the baby may identify the leukemia as foreign and attack. That's something that's beneficial."
The baby's cord blood did exactly that to her mother's leukemia. The stem cells also flooded Ms. Durante's bloodstream and stuck to her bone marrow -- the part of the body that manufactures the blood -- and began rebuilding her blood system.
"So what is circulating in her veins now is actually her baby's blood," he said. "She has her baby's blood system in her at the present time."
Dr. Laneuville said "mismatched" cord blood might be effective in controlling Ms. Durante's type of cancer, but stressed cord blood transplants should be used only as a last resort.
Scientists are also studying whether stem cells derived from cord blood can repair damaged heart and brain tissue. Preliminary results from animal studies are promising. Doctors are now carrying out clinical trials on humans in the United States and Europe to determine whether such stem cells can repair damaged heart muscle.
Unlike embryonic stem cells -- which have sparked a huge ethical debate -- stem cells from cord blood are free of any moral considerations.
Dr. Laneuville urged authorities to set up a public cord blood bank for research and therapeutic purposes.
I'm going to attempt to post a picture from this article, but I've never posted a picture before. It's beautiful, and worth going to the article to see.
<*img src="http://url.lru.com/your-pic.jpg"*>
(remove the two * symbols).. and you're there.
And here is your pic....
EBUCK
EBUCK
Wow!
Bump for pro-life.
Anyway, this is a great story for them, and for those of us who don't believe in harvesting organs and tissue from murdered babies. This is a major step for sound, life-affirming science.
I probably will get kicked in the groin for this but my take on fetal material research is this.
The child is going to waste anyway (I DO NOT think abortion is right but what's done is done). We might as well make use of the material, especially if lives are at stake, which they are.
EBUCK
EBUCK
Eminent neuropathologist J. Hallervorden - described as "a small cheerful man," "warm, friendly" - in his own words:
I heard they were going to do that and so I went up to them: 'Look here now, boys, if you are going to kill all these people at least take the brains out so that the material can be utilized'.... There was wonderful material among these brains, beautiful mental defectives.... They asked me: 'How many can you examine?' and so I told them an unlimited number - the more the better.... They came bringing them in like the delivery van from the furniture company. The Public Ambulance Society brought the brains in batches of 150-250 at a time. Where these brains came from and how they came to me was really none of my business. > Shevell, M. Neurology 42(1992):2214-2219
Cordially,
And while the baby is aborted and we didn't have a choice in it, the baby is still a human person deserving of respect, not medical dissection. It further diminishes our country's already pathetic view of human life. The baby had no choice in donating his/her organs and cells to research, unlike an adult who can voluntarily sign a donor card (though I have mixed feelings about this). We are essentially saying that society can do anything they want to these murdered infants simply because they have no say and we had nothing to do with their murder. I just can't buy it.
But I know you're on our side on the life issue, and medical research is a complicated and fraught with ethical dilemmas. But I just believe after experimenting with aborted babies, it just won't stop, i.e. clone-and-kill.
Personal opinion...
EBUCK
Please see my above post, RE: use of aborted fetuses. I'm not going to get to far into this discussion because I know how emotional it can get. And I also know that I'm on the wrong emotional side.
EBUCK
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