Breakthrough in stem-cell research

After discussing stem-cells and their potential ability to replace defunct cells, this seemed like an interesting article. By injecting immature immune system support cells into the source of the injury, rats showed tremendous improvement within only two weeks. Stem-cell research is increasing at an astounding rate and advancements in spinal-cord corrections are becoming more of a possibility. When the spinal-cord is damaged, scar tissue is the body creates scar tissue to prevent infection, but makes it impossible for any implanted stem-cells to spur nerve growth. A group of scientists then postulated that the introduction of a stem-cell with the ability to repair itself could support nerve growth while preventing scar tissue. They cultured special glial-restricted precursor stem-cells which worked much better on repairing scar tissue and nerve damage. The neurons of these rats also did not atrophy as much as when injected with normal stem-cells. The data for moving glial-restricted precursors to clinical research shows promise, but the lack of stem-cells in the U.S. greatly impairs research. Fortunately, scientists are showing reason to believe that they will not even need stem-cells in the future because they will be able to make any cell into a stem-cell.

Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20060426-19591300-bc-us-stemcell-spinalcord.xml