Politics
Wednesday August 20, 2008
Success with Re-growing Horse Ligaments Leads to New NIH Adult Stem Cell Centre
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By Hilary White
BETHESDA, Maryland, August 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Successes in using adult stem cells in re-growing cartilage and other tissues in injured horses have led the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US to establish a bone marrow stem cell transplant centre within the National Institute for Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.
An NIH lab in Bethesda Maryland reports having grown human muscle, cartilage and spinal disks in vitro. While these new breakthroughs are not ready for human transplants, the researchers told Wired magazine that it is only a matter of time.
Veterinarians are already using stem cells of horses, injected back into the animal's leg, to heal leg injuries. In many cases, Wired reports, the stem cells re-grew damaged tendons and ligaments.
NIH researcher Rocky Tuan works to create tissue to replace spinal disks using stem cells grown around a polymer scaffolding. The use of cells taken from the patient, and not developed from embryos, negates any ethical problems and also makes the new tissue a genetic match, ruling out problems with immune system rejection.
"Stem cells are very promising, but what they do for horses may not work so well for humans because humans are the hardest animal to rebuild," Tuan said. But given time, he thinks that his research could end the need for invasive spinal surgery to repair torn anterior cruciate ligaments.
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Pro-Lifer Attacked with SUV, Alleged Attacker Charged
- Huckabee Hashes Out Abortion Arguments with Comedian Jon Stewart
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Amnesty International Caught in "One Big Lie"
- Editorial: Archbishop Weisgerber is Wrong - Vatican Stopped its Donation to UNICEF in 1996
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Government of Trinidad and Tobago: No Homosexual "Weddings," No Abortion
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
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.