Adult stem cells

Boston Globe reports Although embryonic stem cells dominate public discussion, a number of companies are building treatments, and businesses, around adult stem cells. As Congress spent hours passionately debating the merits and ethics of embryonic stem cell research, nearly 50 Osiris Therapeutics Inc. employees here continued their quiet work on less controversial adult stem cells. Thanks to Food and Drug Administration fast-track designation, Osiris expects to have an adult stem cell-based therapy on the market by late 2007 to combat potentially fatal tissue rejection among leukemia patients undergoing bone marrow transplants. That's one of three adult stem cell-based therapies Osiris currently has in human trials, to the delight of investors who muscled their way into the company's latest funding round to raise $50 million, more than double the expected amount. Another human clinical trial squirts adult stem cells into damaged knees after surgery to regrow meniscus, restoring the tissue that acts as a shock absorber and preventing onset of arthritis. The third experimental therapy being tested in humans -- including patients here at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine -- uses adult stem cells to help replace tissue damaged by heart attacks. Meanwhile, a University of Pittsburgh researcher is tapping adult stem cells in an FDA-approved, university-financed safety trial to rally these cellular repairmen to help fix failing hearts. ''When you inject these cells in, they act like a homing beacon to the heart," said Dr. Amit Patel, director of the university medical center's cardiac cell therapy center. ''The heart's just sending out an SOS signal saying 'Here! Come help me,' " Patel said. The adult stem cells then enlist other cells that deliver building blocks needed to partially restore heart function. Because the patients in the trial are awaiting heart transplants, Patel and others will be able to study their original heart after transplant to determine the impact of stem cell therapy.

TheAnchoress blogged Interesting article in the Boston Globe, in which we finally get to read about the effectiveness and promise in Adult Stem Cell research, information which has been all but suffocated in the shrill (and often intellectually dishonest) debate on Embryonic Stem Cell research. Fascinating stuff. Read the whole thing.

K. J. Lopez blogged The relative silence may be breaking (?); in the Boston Globe today: "Although embryonic stem cells dominate public discussion, a number of companies are building treatments, and businesses, around adult stem cells"

I am very happy to see that companies are pursuing, and getting results, from Adult Stem Cells.