LA JOLLA/VANCOUVER, September 20, 2004 (LifeSiteNew.com) – Despite the claims of some researchers that only embryonic stem cells hold any promise, the most promising work is being done without any ethical difficulties on so-called adult stem cells, those taken from a patient’s own body. One group is working to treat an incurable degenerative eye disease, retinitis pigmentosa, that leads inevitably to complete blindness. Dr. Martin Friedlander at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla leads a team that has taken mice with the disease and injected stem cells taken from their bone marrow. The cells migrated to the damaged blood vessels in the retina and the mice retained partial vision. Dr. Friedlander said his work “may be useful in the treatment of currently untreatable blinding disease.”
Injection of stem cells before the onset of the disease maintained normal appearing blood vessels. The vision retained by the mice was not complete but the structures of the eye which normally degrade with the disease were preserved for up to six months.
In related news, Dr. Fabio Rossi, a medical geneticist at the University of British Columbia and a team of scientists are creating a natural biological ‘glue’ to hold together hip replacements that they hope will help to actually regenerate the damaged bone. Stem cells, also taken from bone marrow of the patient, can be mixed with other substances containing calcium and phosphate that will help keep the cells alive during the healing process after surgery. By including in the mix certain proteins, called growth factors, the scientists hope the glue itself will eventually develop into the patient’s own bone tissue.
Hip replacement surgery is often unsuccessful because of a failure of the artificial compounds used to hold the new structures in place. “What we are trying to do is replace these artificial materials that get pumped under pressure into your bone when you get a hip replacement with a more biological material that in time can be remodeled and essentially regenerate the (bone) tissue,” Rossi said. It will take more trials on animals before human tests can begin – Dr. Rossi predicts another ten years before a treatment is developed.
Other applications for the treatment are being considered. Dr. Rossi said, “in theory, there is no limit to what you can use this (glue) for. You could also use it to cure osteoporosis if you put this material just next to the weak part of the bone…We could repair large bone defects left by bone cancers.” Reuters coverage: https://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=6247573 Canada.com News coverage: https://www.canada.com/components/printstory/printstory4.aspx?id=4bc5d5a2-fa91-4548-ab08-f5b2d2631f99
ph