Another blind child travels to China and the same child returns to the United States with the gift of sight thanks to repair (adult) stem cells.  Stories like these are beginning to appear more often and that is a good thing.  I want to give these stories maximum exposure so more and more people will realize the value of repair (adult) stem cells.

Daegan Archie, 4, of Missouri, just returned from China where he received multiple repair stem cell injections to help him see for the first time.  As a result of this repair stem cell therapy in China, Daegan's mother, Paige, received an extra special birthday gift this year:

After several stem cell injections, Daegan's mom Paige says the hospital staff's reaction to Daegan's progress blew her away."It makes you feel good, you know they're happy for some reason, but you can't understand what they're saying.  They're smiling and clapping, and then all of a sudden the interpreter says 'He's responding to light.' That was on my birthday, so it was extra special,"  recalled Paige.

Click here to read the full story 

Yesterday, in my post about repair (adult) stem cells healing broken bones, the story I linked to also mentioned a man in Germany who had grown a new jawbone from his own repair stem cells about 4 years ago.  This is an old story in stem cell research, but it is one of my favorite stem cell research story and I wanted to post it here in case any of you missed it when it came out 4 years ago:

New jaw bone grown in man's back muscle

German doctors use novel procedure to create transplant

A German who had his lower jaw cut out because of cancer has enjoyed his first meal in nine years a bratwurst sandwich  (that sandwich must have tasted like heaven-DM) after surgeons grew a new jaw bone in his back muscle and transplanted it to his mouth in what experts call an “ambitious experiment.

Read that again- he grew a new jaw bone inside his back muscle (his back seems to have been used similar to an incubator) !!!  

Repair Stem Cells-- Read the whole article here

Another "works on mice" study using repair (adult) stem cell therapy and you all know I don't like to chronicle these stem cell research studies until they begin to work in humans, but this one sounds more promising than most and this study  surprises me not in the least:

Medical researchers at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill announced recently that they have made strides in the technology to rebuild damaged bone tissue using stem cells.  The research team, led by Dr. Anna Spagnoli, an associate professor of pediatrics at the university, derived the stem cells from bone marrow samples to locate and repair broken bones in mice. Now the work is poised to move to humans.

It's a field that is generating possibilities. A recent case in Germany, in which a man lost his jaw to an aggressive tumor, was reported in the journal Lancet in 2004. In that instance, German scientists used a titanium jaw prosthesis as a scaffold in which they planted stem cells extracted from the patient's bone marrow. The scaffold served as a mold for a new jawbone to grow from the cells.   (This is one of my favorite repair stem cell stories ever!- DM)

But how do the stem cells know where to go when they are injected into the body? Spagnoli's team noticed that a certain molecule in the stem cells was the key to homing in on the fracture. The molecule, called CXR4, was responding to a chemical signal sent out by the damaged bone.

"Nobody knew if the stem cells would even go to the place where they were needed -- the fracture," Spagnoli said

"We put the mice in a dark box and we saw the light, and we could see it was going to the right place," Spagnoli said.

"It's like the fracture is sending out a message that says 'please come here, there is help needed here,'" Spagnoli said.  (And that is the precisely the reason why I call them repair stem cells! The body cries for help and the repair stem cells listen and respond-DM)

Click here to read the whole thing

We all hate those people who say "I told you so," - "I told you the Celtics were going to win!" "I told you not to invest in that bridge," etc. Well, I don't like to admit it, but I am one of those people. Earlier this month, I wrote about a young boy from Florida who was going to a repair stem cell treatment center in Costa Rica to treat his cerebral palsy and epilepsy with repair stem cells. Here is what I wrote about Aston Santos on June 2:

Ashton, I wish you the best and I expect you to be another adult stem cell victory soon. One day in the near future, I hope to help make this stem cell therapy available here in the United States so that you (and others like you) won't have to travel out of the country to get the treatment that you need.

Three weeks later, I am happy to say "I told you so." It is still early, but it looks like the repair stem cell therapy is already working! :

Teen improves after stem-cell treatments

By MARK I. JOHNSON
Staff Writer

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Heel, toe. Heel, toe replaces heel, toe, slap. Heel, toe, slap.A left middle finger now touches its thumb and picking something up between that thumb and its adjacent index finger comes with ease, as does opening a door.

Little things to most of us, but for a 17-year-old who suffers with cerebral palsy and epilepsy -- triumphs -- all attributable to stem cell therapy.

"It's cool," Ashton Santos said.

Yes Ashton. I agree. Repair stem cell therapy is very cool indeed- DM

Click here to read more about Ashton's improvement after repair stem cell treatment

Recently I have been hearing more and more of repair stem cells helping lung patients- pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary fibrosis, and COPD are diseases I sometimes see in the news, diseases that repair stem cells can work their magic on thanks to new stem cell research

This story  is about a patient suffering from pulmonary hypertension, a disease said to have no cure.  Through the miracles of stem cell research- perhaps now there is a cure (or at least a good treatment):

Stem cells offer new hope

Lung therapy. Patient with rare disease taken off of transplant list

Ever since Lucie Moisan developed pulmonary hypertension more than a decade ago, she's often been short of breath. Unable to work, even simple household chores tired her out.

Yet last year, she underwent an experimental procedure that holds the promise of reversing her rare disease. Doctors at the Jewish General Hospital harvested stem cells from her blood, genetically re-engineered them in the lab and then infused them into her lungs.

The re-engineered cells entered the tiny arteries in her lungs, and helped repair(my favorite word- repair-DM) tissue. Even though the treatment lasted only three days, Moisan said she felt a difference almost immediately.

"I went out to play tennis for 10 minutes about a week afterward," she recounted yesterday with a smile. "I felt an improvement. It wasn't just psychological. During the three days of the treatment, I saw my (pulmonary blood) pressure go down."

Moisan, 45, had been waiting for a lung transplant, but she has responded so well to the stem-cell therapy and other drugs that's she's no longer on the transplant list.

No longer on the transplant list-  Thank you repair stem cells.  You did it again!

Click here to read the whole thing