Two recent papers–one published online by the New England Journal of Medicine and one just published in Nature Methods–analyzed the genetic ethnic diversity of some of the existing human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines. One group examined 47 hESC lines, while another checked 42 hESC lines; there were 9 lines that both groups checked, for a total of 80 different lines investigated, including some of the most-used hESC lines and some of the few newly-approved hESC lines.

Not surprisingly, they found that most of the hESC lines represent a limited genetic ethnic diversity, primarily from European and Middle Eastern, as well as some East Asian, descent. The University of Michigan group seems to think this is surprising, but in truth it is not surprising and has been noted for years.

Why is this lack of genetic diversity not surprising? Thus far, the embryos destroyed for hESC lines are all taken from in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics. As many have pointed out for years regarding the hESC lines, the IVF technique is expensive, so the sample is self-selected for those who can afford the IVF practice. The sample is further restricted to those parents who are willing to sacrifice their so-called “leftover” embryos to science. They also found that more than one cell line came from the same embryo donors; again, common sense would have indicated that given the selection, this would be the case.

Perhaps the Michigan group was simply naive regarding their expectations of wider genetic ethnic diversity in the hESC lines. The source of the embryos is sometimes actually given in the published hESC papers, e.g., Thomson’s original 1998 paper noted “IVF clinics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and at the Rambam Medical Center”; and four of the five original lines did indeed come from Israeli embryos.

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Ever get an orange in your Christmas stocking? Scientists working with induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) got the equivalent of an orange in their Christmas stocking this year. Chinese and Austrian scientists reported on Christmas Eve that simply adding ascorbic acid (vitamin C) to the culture medium in which cells are grown increases by 100-fold the efficiency of mouse and human iPS cell production. IPS cells behave like embryonic stem cells, but no embryos, eggs, or cloning are involved in their production. Genes are added to normal cells, such as skin cells, that reprogram the cells to behave like an embryonic stem cell.

In trying to produce iPS cells, the group found that higher levels of reactive oxygen species were associated with low reprogramming efficiency. When they tested antioxidants, they discovered that vitamin C slowed cell senescence (cell aging) and improved reprogramming into iPS cells, but other antioxidants did not have the same effect. The results highlight a simple way to improve production of iPS cells and also give insight into the process.

The paper was published online in Cell Stem Cell.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 24, 2009
CONTACT: J.P. Duffy, (202) 679-6800

Washington D.C. – This morning the United State Senate voted 60-39 in favor of final passage of HR 3590, the so-called “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins made the following comments:

“Today’s Christmas Eve vote may signal the end of the debate in the Senate, but it’s far from the end of the debate at large. Since Senator Reid’s bad bill is substantially different from the House’s bad bill, the lower chamber will have to vote on the plan again. The Senate bill’s massive funding for elective abortions and the construction of abortion facilities are among the most radical differences. On Monday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted in an interview that the Senate health care bill will force ‘everybody’ in the exchange to pay an abortion premium. The so-called Nelson ‘compromise’ ensures that everyone will pay for abortion–no matter how the funds are divided up.

“According to a new Quinnipiac poll, Americans–by a huge three to one margin–are overwhelmingly opposed to using taxpayer dollars to fund abortion. Seventy-two percent of the country is now firmly on the side of Congressman Bart Stupak’s (D-Mich.) solution to ban the government’s financial involvement in the deadly procedure. House and Senate conferees would do well to heed that warning when they come together to iron out their differences with the final bill, else this bill could collapse because of it.

“Disagreement over abortion funding is one of the many reasons this fight is far from over. Both House and Senate versions of the bill are seriously flawed. Both bills still allow rationing of health care for seniors, raise health costs for families, mandate that families purchase under threat of fines and penalties, offer counsel about assisted suicide in some states, do not offer broad conscience protections for health care workers and seek to insert the federal government into all aspects of citizen’s lives. Additionally, the bills would place a crushing debt on both current and future generations.”

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More stories making the rounds about the recently-announced success of adult stem cells at treating heart damage. We noted the publication back on December 1, but additional news stories are coming out now. In fact, CNN has finally publicized the story of successful adult stem cell therapy for recent heart attack. Other news groups, as well as other participants in the study, are now publicizing the study showing that adult stem cells can help repair heart damage in patients. The research team is now recruiting patients into a Phase II trial of the adult stem cell therapy at 41 sites.

A second recent published report, in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure, found that infusing a patient’s own bone marrow adult stem cells after a first heart attack could reduce the risk of death as well as the risk of a second heart attack. The clinical trial, conducted at 17 centers in Germany and Switzerland, found that after two years, no patients treated with adult stem cells had suffered a heart attack while seven patients from the placebo group had, and that cell-infused patients were less likely to die or be re-hospitalized for heart failure.

Doctors love adult stem cells for cardiac problems, and patients do, too.

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Kim Peek, the genius savant who inspired the 1988 Oscar-winning movie Rain Man, has died from a heart attack at the age of 58. Peek, born in 1951 in Salt Lake City, was diagnosed as severely mentally retarded and his parents were advised to place him in an institution and forget about him, and even that he should have a lobotomy. His parents thankfully rejected the advice. Thirty years later, he was classified as a “mega-savant,” a genius in about 15 different subjects, from history and literature and geography to numbers, sports, music and dates. He had memorized 12,000 books, including the entire Bible, but had difficulty with ordinary tasks like getting dressed and combing his hair. Peek could read one page of a book with his left eye and the other with his right, and could read a page in about eight seconds.

Dustin Hoffman, who won an Oscar for his role in the movie, interviewed Mr. Peek in preparation for the film, and helped him to overcome his deeply introverted nature. He and his father traveled extensively after that, showcasing Kim’s ability, and also showing that people with disabilities are still people.

Here is an insight into Kim Peek, when he was age 54.

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The Incarnation was the single most unique event in both global and universal history.

With good reason: The Second Person of the Trinity being born of a virgin, then living a sinless life, dying an atoning death and experiencing a bodily resurrection, are events so astounding as to stagger the imagination.  Since they really happened, being humbled and awed by them is altogether fitting.

There are a number of profound and probing stories associated with the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.  The annunciation to Mary, the attendance of shepherds, the arrival of gift-bearing Eastern “wise men,” the birth in a manger and so many other incidents provide illumination to the Savior’s coming that more fully explain its unique meaning.

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Pittsburgh researchers have published more evidence that the solid part of the umbilical cord is a rich source of adult stem cells (tissue stem cells/mesenchymal stem cells). The cells are obtained from a gel-like part of the solid cord, known as Wharton’s jelly, and from blood vessel walls. They note that the stem cells isolated from the solid cord can be grown to high numbers of stable cells, with potential to treat muscular, cartilage, and skeletal disorders. The results are published in the Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology.

Previously, several groups have isolated adult stem cells from the solid part of the umbilical cord and shown their potential. Scientists in Taiwan showed the ability to differentiate the cells into various lineages, including towards cardiomyocytes, have transformed the stem cells into islet-like clusters that secrete insulin and relieved induced diabetes in experimental animals, and have shown that the cells were beneficial to wound healing after spinal cord injury in rats.

A group at Kansas State University was one of the first to isolate stem cells from the solid umbilical cord, and have published an array of studies on the cells’ abilities, including forming neurons and neural cell types, alleviating Parkinson’s symptoms in an animal model, and demonstrating that the stem cells from umbilical cord do not elicit immune response; they have also published a review on the stem cells from Wharton’s jelly in the journal Stem Cells.

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A successful treatment that restored sight to eight patients using adult stem cells is actually getting some media play. We reported on this back on December 11.

Now it is getting noticed by the Times of London, the BBC, the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Irish Examiner, the Indian news agency newKerala.com, as well as other British, Irish, & Indian news outlets, and even the Nature blog. So far no major news outlets in the U.S. are reporting the story, though.

Most of the current stories feature Russell Turnbull, who was squirted in his right eye with ammonia when he tried to break up a fight. Blinded by the attack, doctors used adult stem cells from Turnbull’s good eye to repair the damaged eye. A year and a half after receiving the treatment, Mr Turnbull is now pain-free with dramatically improved vision.

“This has transformed my life, my eye is almost as good as it was before the accident,” he said. “I’m working, I can go jet-skiing again, and I also ride horses. I have my life back thanks to the operation.”

All eight patients who were treated report improved vision, reduced eye pain and a better quality of life. While none of the stories note that it was adult stem cells that were used, they do at least identify that the cells were from the patients themselves, and none try to claim these were embryonic stem cells.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 22, 2009
CONTACT: J.P. Duffy, (866) FRC-NEWS

Senator Landrieu Closes Office: Constituents Turned Away at the Door, Callers Reach Only Busy Signals

FRC’s Tony Perkins Calls Closure the “Height of Arrogance”

Baton Rouge, LA – This afternoon, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins attempted to deliver a letter to Senator Mary Landrieu’s Baton Rouge office only to be told by a federal marshal that her offices were “closed for the holidays.” Over 150 concerned citizens joined Perkins at a rally in front of Senator Landrieu’s office to urge the Senator to oppose the government takeover of health care.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins made the following comments:

“We were stunned to learn why so many phone calls have been unanswered and met with continuous busy signals: As the Senate debates one of the most far reaching pieces of legislation in history, Senator Mary Landrieu has closed her office and her ears to Louisianans.

“Senator Landrieu sent press aides to offer the Senator’s spin on the health care bill but she did not make a staffer available to receive letters or answer phone calls. Senator Landrieu knows that almost two-thirds of Louisiana voters oppose the health care overhaul. However, refusing to take their phone calls is insulting and the height of arrogance. Americans are outraged at the conduct of the Majority in the United States Senate and they should be.

“If Senator Landrieu’s office had been open, she would have heard a clear message that Louisianans want her to stop this abominable health care bill that will force every American to support Planned Parenthood in the killing of unborn children, saddle families with higher insurance premiums, raise our taxes and deny our parents and grandparents the essential health care they need.”

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Tony Perkins and a few other FRC staffers give their rendition of what the classic winter song, “Let it Snow” would sound like if it were written and performed by the current Congressional leadership…

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While the U.S. is drawing down forces in Iraq and building up, by some 30,000, our troops in Afghanistan, thousands of American soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guard are returning to the homeland. Thanks to Operation Welcome Home Maryland, those who come into Baltimore-Washington International airport will not come home alone.

They’ll be greeted by dozens of people from the local community, many of them former service members themselves. Some of these older veterans can tell sad stories of returning from Vietnam to a cold and sullen airport arrival. No more. Operation Welcome Home is determined to give our all-volunteer servicemen and women the homecoming they deserve.

Incoming flights are posted on the organization’s website—www.operationwelcomehomemd.org.  Greeters are invited to bring “goodie bags” of food, water, and other favors from home. When the uniformed service members come through those arrival gates, many are stunned to see the reception committee yelling, cheering, applauding, and playing “I’m proud to be an American” on iPods. To be hugged by total strangers is an unusual experience, to say the least.

But they are not total strangers. They cannot be total strangers. For those who have worn the uniform, no one in the military will ever again be a total stranger. Perhaps watching the made-for-TV series, Band of Brothers, can explain that all-too-bloodless term “unit cohesion.” It might better be called the Bond of Brothers.

The most shocking thing about Fort Hood is that an obvious traitor in our midst was allowed–for reasons of political correctness–to move freely among our troops. Someone at the highest levels should pay with his stars for allowing such a hostile environment to exist.

Our best young soldiers and sailors today say without hesitation “I’d take a bullet for my brother.” Many of them, sadly, have done just that. No one should ever take a bullet from a traitor in the ranks.

This week, thankfully, hundreds of veterans from Iraq have passed through BWI. They’re given special Christmas cheer as they come home in time for the holidays. They are all volunteers. And the ones who welcome them home are all volunteers, too. It’s another reminder that Liberty is the most precious gift under our tree and that we are the land of the free because of the brave.

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With all the big health care news going on this week one could not be blamed for missing the news that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has filed suit against Intel, the computer chip maker, for anti-competitive practices.   This news left me scratching my head.  Of course, it is possible that Intel is crushing its competitors with horrible business practices, but, as the Wall Street Journal notes, it isn’t so obvious.  Chip prices decrease now at staggering rates, and it is not clear that Intel is selling their chips below cost, the lodestar of anti-competitive behavior.

More to the point is this: has anyone at the FTC noticed that we are in a crushing recession and that Intel is one of the very few bright spots in the American economy?  I guess not.   To an outsider Intel appears to be engaged in fierce competition while fighting off regulators using antiquated anti-trust tools.

The Europeans have recently fined Intel a massive amount, but this strikes me as being part of a emerging trade pattern in which EU authorities use their trade laws to cripple America’s leading tech companies.  Of course, the U.S. government appears oblivious to this strategm.   Microsoft has been the most visible punching bag for the Euros.

Bottom line: perhaps, our government would do better laying off our job creating industries and firms until the unemployment rate — the “U-6″ rate which is the broadest — goes from 17% to half that amount.  How’s that for a deal?

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Doctors in the U.K. have used a man’s own adult stem cells mixed with a collagen paste to repair his fractured leg. Andrew Kent broke his leg in five places including a compound fracture, while rock climbing, when a large boulder fell on his leg. After three operations, the bones were still not setting and the wound became infected. Mr. Kent was told that he was likely to lose his leg. The bones were broken so badly that traditional surgery failed. Orthopedic surgeon Anan Shetty offered an alternative. He took some of Mr. Kent’s bone marrow adult stem cells, mixed them with a new collagen gel called Cartifill to make a paste, and caulked the fractures with the mixture. Then the leg was fixed in a metal cage to gently squeeze the bones together. Six months later, the leg can hold weight and the fractures are healing. According to Dr. Shetty:

“This is an amazing technique. He won’t be able to run for about a year, but after 18 months his bones will have healed completely. I’m sure he’ll be able to go back and rock climb again.”

The Cartifill collagen gel was invented by Professor Seok Jung Kim, a South Korean orthopedic surgeon, and has also been used in trials with adult stem cells to repair torn cartilage in the knee.

Previous research with adult stem cells has seen great success at healing non-healing fractures, even getting patients out of their wheelchairs in some cases.

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News reports on Pope Benedict’s recent statement on the environment left out significant quotes relating the Church’s “grave misgivings” of the modern environmental movement.  True, the Pope supports “efforts to promote a greater sense of ecological responsibility” — but only those that “would safeguard an authentic ‘human ecology’ and thus forcefully reaffirm the inviolability of human life at every stage and in every condition, the dignity of the person and the unique mission of the family, where one is trained in love of neighbour and respect for nature.”

For a good analysis of how the mainstream media is spinning the Pope’s World Day of Peace message — and for important quotes you won’t read elsewhere — see John-Henry Westen’s editorial in LifeSiteNews.com.

To read the Pope’s full World Day of Peace Message click here.

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Several weeks after radical homosexual activist Kevin Jennings was appointed to head the Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools in the Department of Education, FRC released a detailed paper listing seven reasons why Mr. Jennings is unfit for this post. One of those seven charges was, “By his own account, Jennings failed to protect the ‘safety’ of a homosexual student he once counseled when working as a teacher”—a student who told Jennings (according to Jennings’ own account) that “I met somebody in the bus station bathroom and went home with him.”

Even though Jennings himself issued a statement in September admitting, “I should have handled the situation differently,” the liberal website Media Matters seems determined to keep arguing that Jennings did nothing wrong. In particular, they have focused on the very narrow issue (which has been raised by Jennings’ own account of the incident) of whether Jennings might have violated “mandatory reporting” laws, which impose a legal requirement upon teachers to report suspected sexual abuse of minors to the authorities.

Media Matters appears to be operating on the assumption that consensual sexual relations between a teenaged boy and a much older adult man can only be considered “abuse” if they violate statutory rape laws—that is, if the teen is below the legal “age of consent,” which in Massachusetts is 16. Media Matters claims to have located the actual boy (now a grown man) involved in the incident, and to have proven that he was 16 years old at the time. This is the very thin reed on which Media Matters is resting its defense of Jennings—an argument, in essence, that “the boy was 16 so everything’s OK!”

Yesterday, they attacked a new video about Jennings that FRC recently released. I would point out that in the narration of the film (as Media Matters even quoted), we said the boy was “believed to be 15 or 16.” But, as was carefully documented in our June paper, the source of the information that the boy was 15 was—Kevin Jennings! How do we know he said this? There is a recording of his voice saying that the boy was 15. Jennings has told other versions of the story in which he says the boy was 16, but the fact that his several versions of this story are mutually incompatible proves only one thing with absolute certainty—Jennings is a liar (or to put it more generously—he has fictionalized the story for dramatic effect). And Jennings has refused to answer questions or clarify the inconsistencies in his accounts of the incident.

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The steel-cold eyes of Vladimir Putin have a way of unnerving his opponents.  When one of those happens to be the President of the United States, the latter might well feel a bit shaken.

Following their meeting, Mr. Obama reported, “On areas where we disagree … I don’t anticipate a meeting of the minds anytime soon.”  Welcome, Mr. President, to the real world.

This must be jarring for the former community organizer, whose utopianism was his presidential campaign’s stock-in-trade.  Shortly before his election in November 2008, he told a Missouri audience that “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”

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In the latest Mapping America, adults who attend religious services at least weekly are more likely to report that being married is personally very important to them than those who worship less frequently.

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Prostitution has long been legal and regulated in the state of Nevada, but a technicality in the law—a health code requirement for “cervical” exams to check for STD’s—had prevented males from serving as prostitutes. The state’s board of health has now lifted that barrier (by allowing urethral exams as well), and Bobbi Davis, owner of a brothel called the Shady Lady Ranch, plans “to add male prostitutes to her stable of sex workers” (in the words of the Las Vegas Sun).

The principal opposition to this step came from an odd source—the lobbyist for the Nevada Brothel Owners Association, George Flint, whom the Sun describes as a “former Assemblies of God minister.” Flint went on record despite the fact that, as the Sun reported, “the [brothel] industry has previously tried to avoid any controversy.”

Flint apparently worries that homosexual male hookers will give the industry a bad name. “We’ve worked hard for years to make the traditional brothel business in this state socially acceptable [and] something we can be proud of that most Nevadans accept.” That struck me as one of the most bizarre quotes of the year—but apparently there are at least a few hundred people in Las Vegas who agree, since the Sun’s online poll showed 475 readers (84% of those voting) affirmed that “brothels are socially acceptable,” while only 85 (15%) disagreed.

Flint’s specific concern is the risk of transmitting HIV between prostitutes and clients—something that he claims the “traditional” brothels have been effective at preventing. “Now we’re getting into an [area] that doesn’t enjoy the same track record.”

This does not mean that there has never been homosexual prostitution in Nevada. The female prostitutes have long been free to accept either male or female clients, according to the report, and male prostitutes will have the same right.

This raises serious questions about gender equity, however. If a Christian psychologist or a fertility doctor is not free to turn away a homosexual client for fear of “discrimination” charges, how can a homosexual male prostitute be allowed to turn away a female client? Isn’t that discrimination, too? On the other hand, if you require them to take all clients, then maybe that would effectively mean that only bisexuals can work as prostitutes in Nevada. Wouldn’t that be discrimination, too?

Such are thickets in which the sexual revolution and political correctness entrap us. In the meantime, if you want to know how to get to Las Vegas—just climb in a handbasket and travel toward the heat as far as you can go.

Las Vegas Sun: New era: Health authorities open brothels to male prostitutes [with poll]

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New video exposé of U.S. Department of Education Safe & Drug-Free Schools “Czar” Kevin Jennings:

Read more at stopjennings.org.

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The Carrie Underwood Christmas Special aired last week.  I was looking forward to it.  I put on my fuzzy slippers, dropped a couple of extra marshmallows into my hot cocoa, and snuggled up in front of the TV.  I couldn’t wait to hear her sing my favorite Christmas song, “O Holy Night”.  I reached for the Kleenex box.  One must be prepared for tears, especially when she hits that ever-famous note toward the end: “Diviiiiiiiiiine.”  I was like a kid at Christmas, bursting with anticipation.

So, you can imagine my shock, sitting there on the floor in my living room, staring at the TV, mouth agape, at the opening of the Carrie Underwood Christmas Special: Miss Underwood rises from under the stage in a throne-like chair, smoke swirling and lights flashing.  She’s clad in skin-tight, black leather from head to toe.  I didn’t know hair spray could get hair that high?  I didn’t know Christmas was about Carrie Underwood.  Male dancers (wearing only pants – yikes – and matching, black leather, of course) flanked her on all sides.  They all started dancing… err, more like flailing, all over the stage.  The song she sang (though, is it technically a “song” if it lacks a discernable melody?) was no more a Christmas song than fruitcake is cake.

I grabbed the remote and hit “OFF”.  Sigh.  “Speaking of fruitcake…”  I trot off to the kitchen.  I figure I’ll have better luck getting into the Christmas spirit with a slice of grandma’s fruitcake.  And that’s not sayin’ much.  Sorry, Grandma.

But, Christmas is about rejuvenation and re-birth, and last night, I got my second chance.  I was on the treadmill at the gym, of all places, barely eeking out that first mile.  (One too many marshmallows, apparently).  There were about eight TVs on the wall, each broadcasting a different channel.  “Let’s see, what can I watch to help me reach mile two?”  TV one: news.  Pass.  TV two: news.  Pass.  TV three: …what’s this?  I see a church sanctuary, brightly lit with candles and adorned with wreaths and garland.  A gospel choir is swaying back and forth.  I see Jennifer Hudson belting something out at a microphone.  Could it be?  I scrambled for my headset so I could listen.  They’re singing, “Silent Night!”

Alleluia!  Throughout the next forty-five minutes, I was delighted by one traditional, Christmas carol after the next.  No self-glorification or self-aggrandizement.  No dance choreography.  Not even any Rudolf.  Only the beautiful singing of the old, great Christmas carols and hymns.  Only the celebration of love, giving and family.  At one point, during an interview before a song, Jennifer Hudson tells us, “Jesus is the light of the world.”  Now this is a Christmas Special.  I was invigorated.  I looked down at my treadmill’s screen.  Five miles?!  I haven’t run five miles in at least five years!  (Okay, a decade, at least).

Thank you, Jennifer Hudson, for producing an appropriate, traditional Christmas special.  In an age where Christmas decorations are stripped from public buildings, and citizens are forced to take down nativity scenes displayed in their yards, I know I speak for many when I say, I appreciate you remembering Christ in Christmas.  And thank you ABC (did I actually say that?) for your bravery in broadcasting Hudson’s show.  And P.S., Miss Hudson, the note you struck in “Diiiiiiiiiivine”, was far more beautiful than Carrie Underwood’s ever could have been.

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