Politics
Monday April 30, 2007
See today's LifeSiteNews stories
Research Provides New Clues about How Adult Stem Cells Work
By Hilary White
WASHINGTON, DC. April 30, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new study shows that not only do stem cells from the patient’s own body readily repair all sorts of damaged tissue, they stimulate the growth and differentiation of existing stem cells. Dr. Darwin J. Prockop, Director of Tulane University’s Center for Gene Therapy says his research suggests multiple strategies to treat diseases using adult stem cells.
Injected stem cells taken from bone marrow transfer mitochondrial DNA to existing local cells whose own mitochondria are inactive and stimulates those cells to start working.
While scientists and doctors are seeing increasing success with treatments using adult stem cells, the actual mechanism by which the cells are able to repair and even replace damaged tissue has remained largely a mystery.
It has been shown that even small numbers of stem cells taken from a patient’s own body, often from bone marrow, have been used successfully to treat Parkinson’s disease, kidney and liver disease, diabetes and various forms of heart disease and cancer.
Speaking at the American Association of Anatomists in Washington April 19, Prockop described experiments in which human stem cells were injected into diabetic mice. The cells traveled to and engrafted themselves into the pancreas. They increased the production of insulin and lowered the mice’s blood sugar.
The cells also engrafted themselves onto the kidneys and repaired the damage normally associated with diabetes. Mitochondria provide the energy for a cell's parts to function.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Success Stories with Adult Stem Cells Coming in Almost Too Fast to Track
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jan/05012007.html
Back to TopSHARE THIS STORY: E-mail Print Newsvine Digg Reddit Del.icio.us Facebook
Latest Headlines
- Texas Bishop Repents Publicly for Catholic Hospital Which Was Doing Sterilizations
- Poll Shows a Solid Majority of Canadians Want Legal Protection for Unborn Children
- Interview: Bishop Explains Why a Bishop "Would Consider It a Privilege to Die to End to Abortion"
- Christian-Founded Dating Website eHarmony Forced to Cater to Homosexuals
- Italian Government Must Act Fast to Define Food and Hydration as a Human Right to Save Eluana: Prominent Italian Lawyer
- Brazilian Christian Censored and Fined for Making "Homophobic" Remarks in Book
- Grandmother's Account of Traumatizing Experience with Abortion Moves Jamaican Parliamentarians to Tears
- Bush Pushes Ahead with Regulations to Protect Doctors’ Conscience Rights
- Levant Acquitted after Republishing Letter by Pastor Previously Found to Be “Hate Speech”
- The Death of Catholic Culture and the Election of Barack Obama
- Brazilian Psychologists Prohibited from Helping Catholic Church Screen Out Homosexual Priesthood Candidates
- Letters to the Editor for Friday, November 21, 2008
- US Election Message to Catholic Bishops Part III: The Broken Window Strategy
Most Read this Week
- Italian Nuns Refuse to Kill Eluana
- Lawsuits Proliferate Demanding Proof of Obama's Natural-Born Citizenship before Electoral Vote Count
- Christian Prayer Group Sexually and Physically Assaulted by Homosexual Mob
- Vatican Cardinal: "A New World Order is Gaining Ground"
- Mormons, Knights of Columbus Face Chilling Threats and More Vandalism for Prop. 8 Support
- The Coming "War" Between the Obama Administration and the Catholic Church
- Texas Bishop Repents Publicly for Catholic Hospital Which Was Doing Sterilizations
- Obama Fortifies Administration with Team of Anti-Life, Anti-family Radicals
- Arnold Schwarzenegger's Wife: I'm "a Catholic in Good Standing" But Also Pro-abortion and Pro-Homosexual
- Martin Luther King's Niece: Obama Election Heals "White Guilt" at the Cost of Life and Family
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.