Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Talking Horse Sense About Adult Stem Cells


Bone marrow stem cells have apparently been helping to repair injuries in horses for some time. They are about to be tried in humans now. From the Reuters story in the Washington Post (good for it):

Stem cell therapy may be controversial in human medicine but in the world of horse racing it is becoming the odds-on favorite for tackling tendon damage, which accounts for one in three race course injuries.
An odd sentence for a story about adult stem cells, which are not at all controversial. But rather than go into conspiracy theory mode, let's continue:

In contrast to the controversial field of embryonic stem cell research, which involves the destruction of days-old embryos, the focus in the orthopaedic area is on adult mesenchymal stem cells that are found in bone marrow. These immature versions of normal cells can morph into different forms of tissue, such as bone, cartilage and tendon.

In the case of horses, Smith has developed a technique to extract stem cells from the animal's own sternum and then purify and multiply them in a laboratory. After two or three weeks they are injected back into the horse's tendon, where they regenerate new tissue that fills up ruptures caused by excessive exercise.

Amazing, those adult stem cells. Simply amazing.

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posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 7:26 PM   1 Comments

1 Comments:

At April 26, 2007 , Blogger Laura Echevarria said...

I know I shouldn't be but I am always amazed at the media's ability to ignore the facts on this issue when they please. Generally, adult stem cell successes are always described in such a way as to somehow lump them in with the theories surrounding embryonic stem cell research. Whether it is by alluding to the "controversy," such as in this article, or by talking about the successes of "stem cell research," the combining and interchanging of the two kinds is a constant cause for complaint. Most Americans, if asked, would be hard pressed to distinguish between the two in terms of theories versus successes.

 

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