This one from United Press International...

Device able to pull stem cells from blood
Published: Jan. 25, 2008 at 11:13 PM
ROCHESTER, N.Y., Jan. 25 (UPI) -- A tiny, implantable device can pull adult stem cells out of a living rat with greater purity than any present technique, a U.S. study found.

The device was designed by Michael R. King, who was studying how white blood cells, called neutrophils, know how to migrate to a point of infection. He observed that near an injury, the walls of the nearby blood vessels expressed an adhesive protein and if passing neutrophils brushed against selectins they stick to the vessel wall, but did remain struck, the neutrophils rolled to the site.

Together with Jane Liesveld, a hematology clinician doing work on bone marrow stem cells at the University of Rochester, King found that the basic rolling mechanism was the foundation of a number of other processes, including stem cell transplantation -- a natural phenomenon where stem cells move in and out of bone tissue via the blood.

In the study, published in the British Journal of Haematology, the researchers implanted the device in a living rat and they were able to capture stem cells straight out of the bloodstream,

"One of our ultimate goals is to develop an implantable device that will selectively remove metastatic cells from the blood," King said in a statement.
 

Man travels to Russia for stem cell treatment

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Excerpt from story:
He's already seen some improvement in controlling his torso and balance. Alwood can now lean froward and push himself back up, something he couldn't do before the treatments.  He can also lean from side to side.  "My trunk muscles are starting to come back," Alwood said. He is trying to rehabilitate muscles that have "atrophied to almost non-existence," he explained¦
¦His ultimate goal is to someday walk again.

For the full story go here:
www.themorningsun.com/stories/012708/loc_russia.shtml

For the autologous stem cell treatment center go here:
www.neurovita.ru/eng_index.html

Summary of story:
¦The 32-year-old Mt. Pleasant resident has been going to the Neurouita Clinic in Moscow to receive adult stem cell treatments that are not available in the United States.   Alwood was severely injured Sept. 9, 2005, in a bull riding accident while participating in a rodeo at the Double J Resort in Rothbury about 20 miles north of Muskegon¦
¦The accident fractured three vertebrae, leaving him as a quadriplegic and confined to a wheelchair. He was paralyzed from the chest down. He can move his arms but has little feeling¦I went there (Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan in Rockford) for nine months and that's when I learned about the adult stem cell treatments in Russia from some other patients who were going over there," Alwood said.
During his first visit to the clinic, which lasted about three weeks, doctors conducted extensive tests, then gave him a series of shots that made his bone marrow produce an abundance of stem cells. They were then drawn from Alwoods blood and separated by a special machine.  "The thing is, the machine they used was made in the United States and they can't even use it here," he said. They harvested enough stem cells, which are injected into the lumbar region of the spinal cord, for 20 doses. Alwood received two injections, or four doses, during each of his first two visits to the clinic. The next time he goes in March the two injections will include three doses of stem cells each.
"It's something new they are trying," Alwood said. "The program is still considered experimental even there."
He's already seen some improvement in controlling his torso and balance. Alwood can now lean froward and push himself back up, something he couldn't do before the treatments.  He can also lean from side to side.  "My trunk muscles are starting to come back," Alwood said. He is trying to rehabilitate muscles that have "atrophied to almost non-existence," he explained¦
¦His ultimate goal is to someday walk again. He is encouraged by the results and the stories he has heard from others who have received similar treatment¦
¦Adult stem cell therapy is conducted in the U.S. on cancer patients, and on an experimental basis for those with heart disease, but not for spinal cord injuries.
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The NeuroVita Clinic

http://www.neurovita.ru/eng_index.html

The NeuroVita Clinic is an active participant of interinstitutional and international research programs to develop and implement state-of-the-art medical techniques of diagnostics and therapies of severe diseases and injuries of nervous system. The main interests of the Clinic belong to research of new cell medical biotechnologies for neurology, neurosurgery and neurooncology. The unique feature of the Clinic is that it does not use donor, fetal and/or embryonic cell material and transplants only autologous (patient's own) cell material. Only transplantation of autologous stem cells permitted us to overcome the barriers of tissue compatibility, refuse from immunosuppressive therapy, to resolve ethical, legislative and religious issues that are linked with administrative limitations of clinical application of cell therapy and tissue engineering of brain and spinal cord.

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THE BOY WHO CRIED WOLF

Every week we hear of a new and ground breaking embryonic stem cell accomplishment. How long must we endure these false-victories and half-truths? Remember‚¦

In the Boy Who Cried Wolf, a bored shepherd boy entertains himself by calling out "wolf". Nearby villagers repeatedly come to his rescue only to find that the alarms were false and that they'd wasted their time. When the boy was actually confronted by a wolf, the villagers did not believe his cries for help and the wolf ate the flock. The moral is stated at the end of the fable as:

"Even when liars tell the truth, they are never believed. The liar will lie once, twice, and then perish when he tells the truth."

Unfortunately, the consensus of even pro-embryonic scientists is that there will be no cures from embryonic stem cells for at least 10 years. So we will have to endure the ‚“wolf cries‚ of victory from embryonic promoters for at least 10 years. And when, and if, embryonic stem cells do create cures in 10 years, the sad news is that our flock of Americans, with no access to adult stem cells, will already have been eaten by the wolf.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_Who_Cried_Wolf

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RESPONSE TO STATE OF THE UNION

"BUSH IS IN FOR A DISAPPOINTMENT"

President G. W. Bush joined the growing club of cheerleaders who believe the impossible about embryonic stem cells. Whether one chooses to use real embryos or the faux-embryos discovered by the father of embryonics, Jamie Thomson, no humans will benefit from having embryonic stem cells implanted in their bodies for at least another decade. The cures are just not there and won't be until 2018, if at all.

Meanwhile, America continues to fall further and further behind, as the rest of the world now all but ignores the hopeless search for embryonic stem cell cures while concentrating on what has worked on human beings for over seven years---adult stem cells. While adult stem cells were once believed by scientists to hold only limited possibilities, it turns out that the scientific truth is:

"adult stem cell CURES are being discovered almost as quickly as sources of adult stem cells are being found by researchers"

Adult stem cells are both super-potent and non-cancerous stem cells and American "science" is all but ignoring their cures, successes and further future potential. American scientific hype continues to promote two erroneous and damaging myths.

1. That embryonic cures are merely waiting for Bush to leave office.

2. That adult stem cells can't do much of anything.

By these actions, American citizens are becoming the doomed inheritors of the world's largest second-rate stem cell treatment system. While the rest of the world redefines more and more incurable diseases as now being treatable, all America can do is trail Brazil, Germany, and Thailand in the development of therapies for the heart and falsely calling them "groundbreaking." Over and over we have heard their exclamations of victory but to date, there have been no diseases cured by embryonic stem cells.

For the real facts about Jamie Thomson's latest discovery, click here for "The Story of the Year."

DON MARGOLIS

Excerpt from State of the Union transcript

...On matters of life and science, we must trust in the innovative spirit of medical researchers and empower them to discover new treatments while respecting moral boundaries. In November, we witnessed a landmark achievement when scientists discovered a way to reprogram adult skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells. This breakthrough has the potential to move us beyond the divisive debates of the past by extending the frontiers of medicine without the destruction of human life. (Applause.)

So we're expanding funding for this type of ethical medical research. And as we explore promising avenues of research, we must also ensure that all life is treated with the dignity it deserves. And so I call on Congress to pass legislation that bans unethical practices such as the buying, selling, patenting, or cloning of human life. (Applause.)

TO read the entire SOTU click here: www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2008/index.html

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