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Adult Stem Cells Provide New Life for Livers By Michael Fumento Scripps Howard News Service, October 20, 2005 Copyright 2005 Scripps Howard News Service I have frequently written on the gulf between the "PROMISE" of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and the REALITY of therapy from adult stem cells (ASCs) – those already in our bodies and umbilical cord blood. ESCs get publicity; ASCs get results. The latest example: ASCs are now rebuilding human livers.  This is a healthy liver . . .   Until now, the only hope for persons with irreversible liver failure from such diseases as cirrhosis, which...

Over the last two years, more than 30 people died awaiting liver transplants at UCI Medical Center in Orange as the hospital turned down scores of organs that might have saved them ... Although patients may not know it, the UC Irvine medical center has not had a full-time liver transplant surgeon since July 2004... The center has performed just five liver transplants this year and has consistently fallen below the minimum number required by the federal government to maintain funding... Even when patients did get transplants, the report says, they did not fare as well as they should have....

LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - British scientists have successfully repaired patients' damaged livers by using bone marrow stem cells from their own blood. The victim is first injected with a drug which stimulates their bone marrow to produce extra stem cells. The stem cells are then harvested from the blood and injected into a vein or artery leading directly to the liver. Although the researchers are unsure what the cells then do they seem to help repair any liver damage, reports New Scientist. The finding raises the prospect of regenerating diseased livers and avoid problems with current liver transplants where...

Insulin, a hormone long recognized as a generator of fat, also keeps fat in the liver under control, according to a new study in the July issue of Cell Metabolism. The newly discovered role for insulin may explain how an organ frequently flooded with the fat-building hormone normally stays trim and also suggests new dietary strategies and treatments to avoid fatty liver, a growing healthcare epidemic, said the researchers. Insulin produced by the pancreas allows cells to take up glucose from the bloodstream and burn it for energy. In the liver, insulin promotes the synthesis and storage of lipids and...

MIDI - A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS What would it take for a filibuster To be keeping you off of the court What if you left a girl so she would die For 10 hours you made no report Hey, that might just be extraordinary...hey, I think many of us would agree Yes, that would be extraordinary What if you're scared of your last Spanish test You'd not studied 'cause you're such a fool What if you hired a friend to take your test You got caught and you're thrown out of school Hey, that might just be...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Indiana Parole Board voted unanimously Friday against a death-row inmate's request that his execution be delayed so he can donate part of his liver to an ailing sister. The board recommended that Gov. Mitch Daniels deny Gregory Scott Johnson's request for clemency or a 90-day reprieve from his execution, scheduled for early Wednesday. Johnson, who was convicted of the 1985 murder of 82-year-old Ruby Hutslar, said he wants time to donate part of his liver to his 48-year-old sister, Debra Otis, who lives in an Anderson nursing home. Board member Randall Gentry suggested that media attention...

LOMA LINDA, Calif. (AP) - A Marine who received a liver transplant because of a near-fatal infection that developed after his return from Iraq may now need a bone marrow transplant. Lance Cpl. Christopher LeBleu, 22, has a "high probability" of needing the transplant because he has developed aplastic anemia, which has caused his bone marrow to stop producing enough red blood cells to keep him alive, Loma Linda University Medical Center officials said Wednesday. The hospital appealed for blood donors with Type O blood to join a registry of potential bone marrow donors so doctors can find a potential...

I have 2 prayer requests. First is for a man at our church. His name is David and he has cancer everywhere. My dad just participated in David's laying of the hands after the service yesterday. It has worked before. Our church did this before for David and annointed his body with oil before a cancer surgery and when the doctors opened him up, they thought there was a mistake because they couldn't find the cancer anywhere. They thought they must have mixed up the scans. This was a couple of years ago. David is in the position now where...

The researchers, from Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, discovered a genetic ''master switch" in the liver that is turned on when people become obese. Obesity has long been linked to diabetes, but the reason, until now, has been unknown. Joslin researchers found that once on, this switch produces low-level inflammation, which disrupts the body's ability to process insulin, causing type 2 diabetes. Reasoning that aspirin-like drugs are used to quell inflammation, they successfully used the drugs, called salicylates, to eliminate the symptoms of type 2 diabetes in mice. Human tests are already underway in Boston, though no results have been...

Hi My friend's 19 year old son was taken from where he's stationed in Kansas to Omaha NE. The army is paying for my friend to fly which is good since she doesn't have much money. His name is Isaac. I just chatted with her for the first time in weeks yesterday and we even talked about Isaac since she had just finished reading the Wolves of Calla and the Dark Tower is among Isaac's favorite books and she started reading them as a way to stay connected. Then today I got an email from another friend asking for prayers...

Vitamin K is absolutely essential to build strong bones -- and it is proven to prevent heart disease. For several years, compelling evidence has shown that most people don't get enough vitamin K to protect their health through the foods they eat.Green leafy vegetables supply almost half of the vitamin K for the majority of Americans. Most foods considered rich in vitamin K have shown to have less vitamin K than previously thought. Despite this vital information, the majority of multi-vitamins don't contain any vitamin K at all -- and those that do don't contain enough.Recent research supporting vitamin...

The Washington Times www.washingtontimes.com FDA mulls availability of drug for cholesterolBy Tom RamstackTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished January 14, 2005 A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel is scheduled to recommend today whether a drug aimed at treating high cholesterol should be sold from store shelves like common remedies for headaches, colds and allergies.     Merck & Co. and Johnson & Johnson, in a joint venture, have asked the FDA to let them sell a low-dose version of cholesterol-lowering Mevacor directly to consumers.     During the first day of a two-day hearing yesterday at a Bethesda, Md., hotel, FDA drug advisers questioned whether...

Johnnie Stevens is not one to shy away from a fight. As a young man, he fought with the 761st Tank Battalion to help cut the German supply lines that kept American troops pinned down during the Battle of the Bulge. For his heroism, he won the Bronze Star, and more recently, mention in the book "Brothers in Arms," by former NBA great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anthony Walton. A movie based on the book is coming. But instead of reveling in the glory of his accomplishments, Stevens, now 84, finds himself fighting another battle -- one that could cost him...

MIDI - MASTER OF THE HOUSE It's a machine...quite a machine...it's the most putrid thing I have seen Come take a look...please take a look...it's in my book You'll be concluding they're really mean...so very mean They abuse their wives and lead sordid lives But there is one who's clearly the most obscene Bastard of the house...that is Teddy K That should sum up well the things I've got to say He's a piece of work...he's the worst of all At the bar he'll always be at final call I am surely not a psychic...but I have a real...

<p>NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey (AP) -- Living in a college dorm can mean little privacy and exposure to a lot of booze. That can make it a tough place for young adults who are in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction.</p>

SEATTLE, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- New, experimental technology allows doctors to kill cancers deep inside the body with high-intensity ultrasound instead of scalpels and other surgical instruments, researchers report. The procedure promises to give patients too ill to face conventional surgery a chance to fight their disease, and further applications of the technology -- called high-intensity focused ultrasound -- someday could save the lives of accident trauma victims or soldiers on the battlefield. "We are in the very early days of using this technique to treat liver cancers," said Gail ter Haar, head of therapeutic ultrasound at London's Royal Marsden...

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. Dec. 15 — Route 11 was closed for almost six hours Sunday after a tractor-trailer jackknifed, spilling roughly 32,000 pounds of liver onto the highway and a business parking lot. The driver of the truck told police he thought another vehicle might have bumped his truck's back end. When the truck driver hit the brakes, the vehicle jackknifed and crashed into a ditch in front of the Bloomsburg Carpet plant, spilling its load into the parking lot. There were no injuries in the crash, which happened at about 2:45 p.m.

<p>True meaning of giving ST. LOUIS (AP) — A divorced man donated part of his liver to his ex-wife earlier this year — at the suggestion of his new fiancee. Doctors at St. Louis University Hospital said the transplant may have saved Vivian Corrie's life. Corrie, of Troy, Ill., learned in 1995 that she had primary biliary cirrhosis, a genetic liver disease that can lead to life-threatening complications. Five years later, Corrie's brother discovered he had the same disease. Before he could receive a transplant, he died in 2001 at 56.</p>

Genetic "smart bomb" knocks out hepatitis   19:00 20 April 03   NewScientist.com news service   Human liver cells harbouring the hepatitis C virus can be selectively targeted and destroyed by a new gene therapy approach, according to new research. The key is a genetically-engineered "suicide" gene, delivered aboard a harmless virus, which is triggered only when it enters a hepatitis-infected cell. The two current treatments for the debilitating liver disease - alpha interferon and ribavarin - can reduce the level of infection, say researchers, but the virus usually comes back. The new gene therapy approach could one day "offer the potential of...

YORK, Neb. -- Calvin Stock's life was saved by a liver transplant three years ago, and he would hate to see anyone else lose their chance at survival because a convicted killer was ahead of them on the transplant list. But that's exactly what could happen, Stock says, because of Carolyn Joy's conditional approval to be included on the list of 118 Nebraskans and 17,300 people nationwide waiting for new livers. "She made her choice. It sounds real cruel to say that, but nonetheless, we all have choices in our life," said Stock, a 68-year-old retired Lexington farmer. Joy, convicted...