Two new published studies provide further evidence for the effectiveness of adult stem cells in repairing heart damage, and suggest possible mechanisms for how the cells work.

A Brazil-Florida collaboration found that adult stem cells injected directly into the heart could relieve angina. The researchers used injection directly into the heart based on previous results showing higher uptake of cells administered in this way. All eight of the angina patients in the study benefitted. Lead author Dr. Nelson Americo Hossne, Jr. said:

“For our patients, angina symptom relief began as early as three months post-procedure with continuing improvement through the twelfth month and sustained improvement past 18 months. Symptom relief improved in all patients, suggesting that the effect is sustained, not transitory.”

The authors conclude that their results show the procedure to be safe and effective, and suggest neoangiogenesis, the stimulation of new blood vessel growth, as the main stem cell mechanism of action in these patients.

A separate published study by Chinese scientists suggests that a small protein called apelin, which affects the strength of muscle contraction, may play a role in adult stem cell repair of heart. Twenty patients experiencing severe heart failure were treated with their own bone marrow adult stem cells, while another twenty heart failure patients were treated with standard medications; both groups were compared against twenty healthy adults. All twenty of the heart failure patients treated with adult stem cells showed significant improvement in cardiac function within 21 days of treatment, while the standard medication patients showed no improvement. Interestingly, the adult stem cell-treated patients showed a large increase in levels of apelin, correlated with the improvement in cardiac function. They postulate that the secretion of apelin is induced by the grafted adult stem cells.

Both studies were published in the journal Cell Transplantation. Dr. Amit Patel of the University of Utah School of Medicine and an Editor of the journal said:

“Both studies demonstrate a possible mechanistic approach in a clinical trial either. These important findings further enhance the understanding of the use of bone marrow derived cell therapy for the treatment of cardiovascular disease.”

Comments: 2 |

An international team of scientists has used modified adult stem cells to repair the spinal cord in rats, restoring function. In spinal cord injury, the protective insulating sheath around the spinal cord is destroyed, a process called demyelination. Without the normal insulation, spinal cord nerves can’t send electrical impulses. The scientists isolated adult spinal cord stem cells, then modified them to produce the protein ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), a growth factor that stimulates cell survival and nerve growth. The results, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, showed recovered signaling in spinal cords of the treated rats and enhanced recovery of hindlimb movement. The authors conclude that using modified adult stem cells can enhance remyelination and facilitate functional recovery after traumatic spinal cord injury. Patients have already been treated with similar nasal adult stem cells. The authors of this current study note that besides confirming previous results with adult stem cells, these results indicate that optimal recovery will include grafts with additional stimulation such as the added growth factor they used.

Comments: - |

UCLA scientists have shown that they can engineer adult blood stem cells so that they lack a molecule necessary for HIV infection. The CCR5 receptor is a protein molecule on the surface of cells that is bound by HIV when the virus infects certain immune cells, acting as a receptor for the virus. The scientists used “short hairpin RNA” to knock down the expression of the CCR5 molecule in the human adult stem cells, effectively preventing the protein from being produced. These cells could reconstitute the immune system in a mouse model, indicating that the function of the immune cells was not inhibited. But the human cells, now without the CCR5 protein receptor, resisted HIV infection. The study, published in the journal Blood, provides a potential method for controlling HIV infection in patients.

The study follows a previous report of successful adult stem cell treatment for leukemia that also appears to have controlled HIV infection in the patient. The doctors specifically used an adult stem cell donor whose cells lacked the CCR5 molecule.

Comments: - |

Compared to the questionable success of embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells have been achieving some real successes in retinal repair studies, without the complication issues of tumors, etc. and without the ethical problems associated with embryonic stem cells.

A couple of examples of recently published studies.

In a paper published February 15, 2010, Oregon scientists showed that they could use bone marrow-derived adult stem cells to treat a rat model of retinitis pigmentosa. Visual function was significantly preserved in this study. An added benefit was that the cells could be easily grown in culture and administered intravenously; once injected, they traveled to the retina where they exerted their protective effect. The study highlights the possibility of using a patient’s own adult stem cells for treatment of retinitis, diabetic retinopathy, and macular degeneration.

A study by Canadian and Japanese researchers used human retinal stem cells that had been modified to increase their differentiation potential. When injected into the eyes of mice, the adult stem cells survived and differentiated into photoreceptors. Injected into a mutant mouse strain that lacks functional photoreceptors, the adult stem cells significantly improved visual function. The study was published online in the journal Stem Cells December 11, 2009.

In Louisville, they are close to initiating a clinical trial using adult stem cells for treatment of macular degeneration.

Looking at a different part of the eye, adult stem cells have already been used successfully in patients to treat corneal blindness.

There are other examples of real adult stem cell successes for visual repair if we want to go back further. And unlike “potential” embryonic stem cell experiments which rely on sacrificing some human beings, adult stem cell research doesn’t require destroying the cell donor, instead often using the patient’s own adult stem cells for the treatment. Real success and real science.

Comments: 3 |

The ACLU is at it again. This time, they are demanding an apology from a Montgomery County, Maryland, public school teacher. Behind this demand is, as always with this federally-funded outfit, the bludgeon-like threat of a huge lawsuit.

What was the teacher’s offense? Apparently, the teacher threatened a student with detention if she refused—as she repeatedly did—to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. The teacher sent the student to the counselor’s office for her refusal to stand.

The ACLU immediately invoked the Supreme Court’s ruling in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943). That case is often cited as a hallmark of American civil liberties, especially remarkable because it was handed down while the United States was engaged in a world war to defend democracy.

But the Court in 1943 said that students cannot be required to salute the flag or recite the Pledge. That was quite right.

Continue reading »

Comments: 16 |

A news story out yesterday exemplifies the “successes” of embryonic stem cells. The story proclaimed that scientists had “successfully used mouse embryonic stem cells to replace diseased retinal cells and restore sight in a mouse model of retinitis pigmentosa.” Sounds pretty good? Later there is the requisite hyperbole about treatments, that “Once the complication issues are addressed” and a list of retinal diseases that will be treated with embryonic stem cells.

Wait a minute. Complication issues?

However, complications of benign tumors and retinal detachments were seen in some of the mice, so Dr. Tsang and colleagues will optimize techniques to decrease the incidence of these complications in human embryonic stem cells before testing in human patients can begin.

I would hope that they’d eliminate the complications first, not just decrease the incidence. And just how many of the mice are represented by “some”?

The abstract in the journal Transplantation gives a bit more detail:

Although more than half of the mice were complicated with retinal detachments or tumor development, one fourth of the mice showed increased electroretinogram responses in the transplanted eyes.

So, a quarter of the mice showed improvement, but more than half showed complications including tumors…

So much for an embryonic success.

Comments: 4 |

When she was 30, Jennifer Osman was diagnosed with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), a neurological disorder that attacks the peripheral nervous system, progressively weakening and numbing its victim. She began the usual treatment of immunosuppressant therapy. As the disease progressed, Jennifer was at the hospital three or four times a week. As things progressed, she became weaker and nearly paralyzed. Her husband Rick said that she had become so bad that she had no strength in her arms & legs, and he had to carry her to bed and sometimes even had to feed her. They were told that the disease could eventually attack the nerves supporting her lungs and stop her from breathing, killing her by the time she was 40.

Then Jennifer signed up for an adult stem cell study run by Dr. Richard Burt, chief of the Division of Immunotherapy at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Her adult stem cells were collected and she received chemotherapy to knock out the rogue immune cells attacking her nervous system. Shortly after, on April 1, 2005, Jennifer received a transplant of her own adult stem cells and her immune system, now rebooted, began to rebuild itself. The process was slow and grueling, but she has taken no medication for the disease since 2008. Today, almost five years since her transplant, she is nearly symptom-free.

“This is my life, a healthy life. Back to normal.”

Rick points out:

“It’s really important to us that people know (about the stem cell procedure), because we found out about this from watching TV. If we hadn’t seen that broadcast, she probably wouldn’t be here today.”

The Osmans have a website to tell Jennifer’s story and communicate with other CIDP patients. Jennifer is looking forward to updating the site on April 1, five years to the day that she received her adult stem cell transplant.

You can see a video of Amy Daniels (another of Burt’s patients) and her story of treatment for scleroderma, as well as other patient stories, at Stem Cell Research Facts.

Dr. Burt has performed the first adult stem cell transplants in the country, and sometimes in the world, for patients with many autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, Type I (juvenile) diabetes, and of course CIDP. Burt said Northwestern has done about 350 of these transplants so far. A number of his clinical trials are currently ongoing, including one for CIDP. Dr. Burt says:

“When I first came up with this idea … people said, ‘Why are you wasting your time?’ I ended up following my passion, and it’s been fabulous. The amazing thing is, traditional medicine has just kind of come to a stop with these patients. What we’ve done is we’ve changed that.”

According to Burt, the treatment has come a long way, as Medicare and several insurance companies will now cover it.

Comments: 1 |

I am currently following the blog of a young woman who has chosen to abort her second child via medical abortion, or, RU-486. My heart aches for this woman (and for her unborn baby), who, by her own account is the victim of abuse and has suffered depression and suicidal thoughts.

“Angie,” a single mother of a four-year-old son, is documenting her second child’s termination via Twitter and blog. She also appeared on YouTube to discuss her decision and experience. Angie is getting cheered on for her “brave” decision by fellow bloggers posting on her site.

Anyone following this story or watching her on youtube will feel sorry for Angie and want to do whatever they can to help her. Those responding on her blog think the helpful response is to support her “choice” and encourage Angie’s termination of her baby.

I, however, disagree with Angie’s cheerleaders. Supporting her decision to abort her baby unintentionally does a grave injustice to Angie, her unborn child, her son and even her boyfriend.

Abortion kills one person and wounds at least one additional person.

For any woman who might think that abortion could ever be the “best” option, I would encourage visiting this site, which includes testimony from women who underwent abortions.

I would also encourage reading the pamphlet on the psychological effects of abortion, co-authored by a formerly pro-choice psychiatrist who continually counseled women struggling emotionally and psychologically after having an abortion.

The following link shows studies with the physical consequences of abortion.

For boyfriends, husbands and men who are struggling with the decision or aftermath of abortion, see this link.

And for any woman who has chosen abortion and is struggling with her choice, please visit the following link.

To Angie, or anyone who has been in her position — may you find the necessary peace and healing that can only come by accepting that abortion is never the best choice for a mother or baby.

Comments: 2 |

Yesterday, as I was digesting my second cup of coffee, my friend sent me a link to something she deemed really off the charts.  I clicked on the link only to be disturbed by the accounts on a blog, in addition to watching a YouTube video that brought tears to my eyes listening to the accounts of a woman describing her abortion.  The woman had no guilt or remorse for the harm she was placing on the baby she conceived, and this was hard to contemplate.

I said a prayer for this woman, but I began to ponder whether this is the first of many videos covering senseless acts of tragedy against an unborn life.  Abortion is the loss of a life with much potential, and the fact that this was broadcast online for the world to see only provides the opportunity for bringing an alternative to abortion into the limelight.

With the help of a Pregnancy Resource Center, this woman could have received assistance and sound medical advice to bring her child into the world.  Even if she did not want the child, there is the option of adoption.  Adoption would allow this child to be loved and cared for by a family, in addition to allowing that child to pursue dreams and opportunities.

FRC recently published a report about the difference Pregnancy Resource Centers are making in the lives of women contemplating abortion.  Take for example, Megan, who was considering using RU-486 (the same drug the woman in the video used) to abort her baby.  However, after a change of heart and receiving support from her local Pregnancy Resource Center, she gave birth to her daughter, Ava.

Megan’s decision saved a beautiful life with much potential.  The tragedy is that the woman in the video will never know her terminated child’s potential.

Comments: - |

Previous stories focused on the science of treating peripheral artery disease with adult stem cells. Often overlooked are the people whose lives have been changed or even saved by adult stem cell treatments.

Helen Thomas, 80, of Hastings, Michigan is one of those people. Helen’s painful circulatory problem in her leg meant she had trouble walking, rarely left home, and was facing amputation of her leg. But her physician, Kenneth Merriman of Hastings, asked around at a medical conference and found Dr. Randall Franz, who was doing a clinical trial at Grant Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio. Franz injected Helen’s own adult stem cells into her leg, causing new blood vessels to grow. Helen is now up and about, back to normal.

“It was a miracle. I’m walking, and I wouldn’t be walking without the stem cells. I have my leg. They saved my life. I told them they saved my life.”

Helen’s daughter Mary said:

“It’s just life-changing”

Initial patient results have been published in the Journal of Vascular Surgery.

HT: Andy McDonald

Comments: 1 |

In the latest Mapping America, adults in always-intact marriages who attend religious services at least weekly are the least likely to believe that most people try to take advantage of others.

Comments: - |

Last Friday the National Institutes of Health announced that they were proposing a “technical change” in their Guidelines for destruction of human embryos, a.k.a. Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research.

The change would allow use of younger human embryos in experiments. As published today in the Federal Register, the change in definition for embryonic stem cells would be:

For the purpose of these Guidelines, “human embryonic stem cells (hESCs)” are cells that are derived from the inner cell mass of blastocyst stage human embryos pluripotent cells that are derived from early stage human embryos, up to and including the blastocyst stage, are capable of dividing without differentiating for a prolonged period in culture, and are known to develop into cells and tissues of the three primary germ layers.

You can submit comments on this proposed change. Note that the deadline for comments is 11:59pm EST on March 24, 2010 (a 30-day comment period.) Apparently NIH doesn’t want to read a lot of critiques–comments are limited to 6,000 characters, including spaces. It remains to be seen whether NIH will ignore the majority of comments as it did for the initial guidelines.

Continue reading »

Comments: 6 |

Last week I posted a blog on President Obama’s decision to aggressively use executive power to implement his agenda in areas where his legislative agenda seems unlikely to succeed.  Today’s Washington Times editorializes on this topic (“Obama the Philosopher King: The O Force Uses Executive Power to Get around the Pesky Congress,” p. B2). In it, the paper’s editorial board notes among other things:

Exploiting executive power is nothing new for Mr. Obama. He has appointed more executive-branch policy “czars” than any of his predecessors…. But last fall, Mr. Obama pressured Democrats in the Senate to kill legislation that would have brought his czars under congressional oversight.

Mr. Obama claimed emergency powers to reshape two of the Big Three auto manufacturers. He has sought the authority to assume extraordinary powers to deal with cyber threats and purported climate change. He has used executive orders to pursue pet causes, such as EO 13502, which effectively banned nonunion labor from federal construction projects, and EO 13509, which established the Soviet-sounding Council on Automotive Communities and Workers. Even Mr. Obama’s liberal supporters have blanched at his claims of power regarding extraordinary rendition, surveillance, state secrets, signing statements and executive privilege.

So, we at FRC are not alone in noticing this alarming trend in the administration’s behavior.  Stay tuned for further developments.

Comments: - |

Having survived the 45+ inches of snow in Washington, D.C. over the last few weeks, I enjoyed Melissa Bell’s recent Washington Post article on medical cabinet “must-haves” during a snow storm. However, when I reached the bottom of her list which included Neosporin, Band-aids, and aspirin, among other items for minor illnesses, I was reminded of the Sesame Street tune and game: “One of These Things is Not Like the Other.”

Bell’s last “must-have” was “Plan B,” also known as the morning-after pill. “The morning-after pill may not be a must-have for every family,” she writes, “but for women who are sexually active, even if they’re married, it probably wouldn’t hurt to have Plan B.”

What she neglects to mention is that Plan B — unlike other birth control methods — can act as an abortifacient. It begs the question: Why, on a list of “necessities,” would Bell include a drug that could potentially end a human life? By substituting Plan B for traditional contraception, the Post is feeding into the propaganda that these pills are nothing more than birth control, when in fact they can have lethal implications.

Moreover, I am compelled to ask: why is a woman’s fertility (or perhaps an unwanted pregnancy) characterized in such a way that it is included in a list of common ailments?

Comments: 2 |

Continue reading »

Comments: 4 |

Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) made the following statement during an interview this week, “Investing in family planning is the smartest investment the federal government can make. I think they should be dropping birth control out of airplanes and it should be free for every woman.”

While Ms. Richards was speaking in hyperbole, her organization’s anti-natalist policies and practices is no laughing matter. Planned Parenthood’s commitment to everything from abortifacient contraceptives to abortion-on-demand is demonstrated most clearly in its bottom line. The most recent report shows that Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit organization, profited $85 million in fiscal year 2007, and received approximately $350 million in government funding during that same time.

Oddly, Planned Parenthood is partnering with the U.S. Government in a program for pregnant mothers called “text4baby.” Here’s my question: By association with this program, Planned Parenthood is acknowledging that the unborn are, in fact babies. So, why want to destroy them? Maybe the next time she’s in a parachute dropping birth control pills, Ms. Richards will want to ponder that question.

Comments: 1 |

Ronald Reagan’s 99^th birthday would have been on February 6, 2011, had he lived.  Thus, it was refreshing to hear an excellent radio interview with one of America’s best economic journalists, Robert Samuelson, discussing Reagan’s greatest accomplishment – defeating the inflation that had crippled the American economy in the 1970s.  The interview on John Batchelor’s radio show (found here, 2/13/2010, 9pm-10pm) is roughly coincidental with the paperback release of Samuelson’s The Great Inflation and Its Aftermath.

Reagan allowed the Federal Reserve chief, Paul Volcker, to throw the country into a brutal recession in which unemployment reached 10.8%.  Samuelson notes that Volcker could never have achieved the defeat of inflation without the support of the sitting president.  Reagan’s approval ratings went down to 39% in 1982, but he never wavered.  Reagan realized that Jimmy Carter’s inflation had destroyed the faith of the American people in the economic-political system.  He also understood economics well enough to know that the country could not flourish with systemic inflation, so he resolved to end it even if it destroyed him politically.  This is great statesmanship, and it sets Reagan apart in a manner matched by only a few presidents.

I agree with Samuelson that this was Ronald Reagan’s signal achievement.  Had he not solved the economic crisis – there would not have been a second term and no victory in the Cold War.  Conservatism would have been completely discredited.  All those victories rested on Reagan’s economic victory and that paved the way for decades of low interest rates and low inflation.  Samuelson is absolutely correct that Reagan’s tremendous political courage and economic insight have been overlooked and trivialized.  Thus, Samuelson wrote his book, to refresh our memories lest we forget what Reagan and Volcker accomplished and lest we forget the poisonous effects of Keynesian inflation.

Comments: - |

Earlier this week, British TV personality Ray Goslin made the shocking admission on a documentary that years ago he killed his lover, a man who was suffering from AIDS, by smothering him with a pillow while the doctor was out of the room.

In Goslin’s own words, “When you love someone, it is difficult to see them suffer.” Yesterday Ray Goslin was arrested.

We are created by God, from the moment of conception. God, the Creator, is the Author of life and determines the time and place and means of our (creatures’) deaths. There is no such thing as a “mercy” killing, in that removing His creature from His superintending care is an act of pretense. Such an act defies human dignity.

If Mr. Goslin’s story is true, he might well have acted out of his personal anguish. But he murdered someone – and that’s not an act of love.

For more on this issue, see FRC’s InFocus Paper: “Should We Legalize Voluntary Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide?“

Comments: - |

In the latest Mapping America, always-intact married adults are less likely than married, previously divorced adults and unmarried adults to believe that most people would try to take advantage of others.

Comments: - |

In the past few months, we have witnessed an intense legislative attack in many states against pregnancy resource centers. It is hard to comprehend why these centers, which have absolutely no monetary gain and exist solely to assist and support pregnant mothers in need, could be the target of such negativity.

To see what pregnancy centers are really like, view the video below — made by Focus on the Family Action — which shows the true story of a young pregnant woman who decided to choose life and received support for her decision through a pregnancy resource center in Colorado:

See also A Passion To Serve, a report compiling the history, vision, initiatives, etc., of pregnancy resource centers throughout the United States.

Comments: 1 |