Stem Cells Cure Another. Well, Not Those Stem Cells…But Others

Wired News has an interesting article today on stem cells that have been used to cure diabetic ulcers.

Those ulcers are caused by a lack of blood flow to the limbs of diabetics and often result in amuptations. It’s a serious thing that in 2002, according to the article, cost 82,000 Americans a limb.

If the process that cured this single patient can be refined and reproduced, it would be a tremendous boon to diabetics worldwide.

And it wouldn’t kill a single embryo either.

That’s the interesting thing about this article, at least to me. The patient was cured thanks to adult stem cells, one of the three major categories with which I’m familiar (the others being umbilical cord stem cells and embryonic stem cells). This story is yet another success story for stem cells that aren’t embryonic stem cells (which aren’t being used to cure any medical conditions right now and are, so far as I know, not even close to being used). Unfortunately, embryonic stem cells, because of both their potential utility and their controversial nature, get all the news.

But adult stem cells and cord stem cells are being used right now to cure sick people and those successes should not only be reported on, but rewarded with better funding and more research.

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Category: Hey, Mr. Science Guy!