This is a great
news story. As soon as my brother heard this story, he sent me to watch the news release and said it would be great for my blog. He was definitely right. This news story is all about how the first human ever was injected with stem cells. The stem cells were from embryo's from previous clinical trials. The candidates that were allowed to be chosen had to have suffered a spinal cord injury within the past 14 days of the trial. They had to have injured their thoracic spine and be paralyzed completely from the waist down. These people had no control over their leg movements or bowel/bladder movements. The scientists re-engineered the cells to make sure they would turn into early myelinated glial cells, a type of cell that insulates nerve cells. These cells are for the exact purpose of providing protection of the spinal cord. So, the hope is that tissue will generate and once again protect the spinal cord. They are not releasing any information on the patient's progress yet. This is a controversial topic as well. Once stem cells are taken from the embryo, the embryo is destroyed. The problem is that this embryo would eventually have turned into an infant. Many believe this is murder of a life. Others see it as this embryo has not developed into a fetus yet, and therefore is not killing a human. This is a huge step for science, and it will be very interesting to see what happens. I wish the best to all of the patients, and hopefully there is bright future ahead for traumatic injury victims.
What an awesome blog!! I knew stem cell research has been going on, but had no idea that they were so far into it that they were doing tests on an actual human study. I am interested in tracking the progress of this person because if this actually works we could change so many people’s lives. If there was a possibility we could regenerate spinal nerves, then there might be a possibility we could regenerate auditory and even optical nerves. The part that stuck out to me in this blog was the fact that the scientists have to destroy the embryo after its stem cells are taken. We get into a huge ethical issue here which could potentially have the ability to halt this research from continuing. Looking forward to seeing where this takes us! Thanks!
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