© 2005 All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute or repurpose this work without written permission from the copyright holder(s).
Printed from https://www.damninteresting.com/retired/stem-cells-restore-some-mobility-to-paraplegic-woman/
This article is marked as 'retired'. The information here may be out of date, incomplete, and/or incorrect.
In Korea, medical science may have just taken an impressive stride. A woman named Hwang Mi-Soon, who had been paralyzed below the waist from an injury 19 years before the procedure, was treated with an experimental stem cell therapy. Incredibly, she began regaining the ability to move her legs within 7 days, and within 13 days, she was able to maintain an upright position.
The treatment used “adult” umbilical cord stem cells, implanted directly into the woman’s spinal cord. Cautious optimism is advised, because a single success is no promise of future success, but the peer-reviewed findings are very encouraging.
From the article:
Umbilical cord cells are considered “adult stem cells,” in contrast to embryonic stem cells, which have raised ethical concerns because a human embryo must be destroyed in order to harvest them.
The report said motor activity was noticed on day 7, and she was able to maintain an upright position on day 13. Fifteen days after surgery, she began to elevate both lower legs about one centimeter.
The study’s abstract says not only did the patient regain feeling, but 41 days after stem cell transplantation, testing “also showed regeneration of the spinal cord at the injured cite” and below it.
Studies using such adult stem cells are not hindered by US stem cell laws, and treatment such as this will most likely be embraced by the US medical community if it proves viable.
Updated October 6, 2005 at 4:38pm: Apparently the treatment occured a while back, but is only being publicized now that it has appeared in a peer-reviewed publication.
© 2005 All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute or repurpose this work without written permission from the copyright holder(s).
Printed from https://www.damninteresting.com/retired/stem-cells-restore-some-mobility-to-paraplegic-woman/
Since you enjoyed our work enough to print it out, and read it clear to the end, would you consider donating a few dollars at https://www.damninteresting.com/donate ?
Why, I have a journal on this very subject. View it at:
http://journals.aol.com/chatcruzin82361/NAVSandStemCellResearch
This story is bogus (unfortunately).
Michael Tam : vitualis’ Medical Rants
Yet another stem cell hoax. Stem cell stories always make me think of a cartoon Christopher Reeve slurping the brains out of dead babies.
Hwang Mi-Soon had a second surgery to see if things could be further improved, and ended up with debilitating pain. An alternate explanation for the apparent success of the first surgery is that the surgery could have decompressed the spine, which can cause functional improvements much like what was originally seen. See:
Wired: Exploiting Paralysis 101 (3/9/’06)
http://www.wired.com/medtech/stemcells/commentary/spinalcolumn/2006/03/70301
The Korean Times: Korea Tightens Rules on Stem Cell Therapy (1/22/’06)
http://search.hankooki.com/times/times_view.php?path=hankooki3/times/lpage/200601/kt2006012217113010440.htm
The second article notes:
Currently, Hwang cannot sit longer than a couple of hours due to side effects of the second-round operation conducted last April. Both surgeries were carried out as an emergency clinical trial.
“The second-round operation was designed by some unscrupulous doctors who were more concerned with making their names and earning money by enabling me to walk than the potential risks,” Hwang said.
So, she’s actually worse off than she was before. This is why science and science reporting should not jump the gun on apparently good results in a very limited un-replicated sample.
Stem cells do seem to have an extraordinary ability to help cure a wide variety of health problems. Unfortunately, there seems to have been an undue emphasis on embryonic stem cell research, which has serious ethical problems. Strangely, adult stem cell research, which has none of the ethical problems, have received very little exposure while holding the most promise. According to the count at stemcellresearch.org (peer reviewed journal references available), adult stem cells have found 73 applications, while embryonic stem cells have none. You may also find this article on the issue interesting: http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/articles/winter01/stem_cell.html.
Saving the Cord blood after you give birth is a great precautionary measure. Advances in this field are happening all the time, and cord blood can cure 30 something diseases. However, at the time of this post, it costs roughly $2,000 for them to take it, transport it, and store it, then you have to pay roughly ~$130 per month after that to keep it stored. All of this cost incurred “just in case” something happens. I did find one place that cost $2,000 total – for transporting and storing it for 20 years.