Medical Advances

On August 6 ,2008, the Australian reported that patients with broken bones which weren't healing have been successfully treated with stem cells from their bone marrow.

On August 1, 2008, numerous media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times ran stories about how researchers from Harvard were able to create induced pluripotent stem cells from elderly patients with ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease). They were then able to change these cells into the type of cells that cause the symptoms of ALS. Induced pluripotent stem cells are stem cells which have the some properties as embryonic stem cells but can be obtained without killinghuman embryos.

On July 28, 2008, FOX News reported that a 2-year-old girl with cerebral palsy named Chloe Levine has made remarkable improvements after being treated with stem cells from her own umbilical cord blood.

On June 13, 2008, the Telegraph reported that 6 blind patients in Great Britain have dramatically improved eyesight after receiving transplants of adult stem cells.

On June 3, 2008, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported how a 2-year-old boy with a "devastating genetic skin disease" was cured after receiving a transplant of stem cells from his brother. More information about his disease and treatment can be found from a previous story from the University of Minnesota News.

On May 12, 2008, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram featured a story on how a young man's adult stem cells were used to treat his tissue decay, which he was suffering due to meningitis. Doctors believe this treatment saved his arms and legs and they're hoping it will also save his hands and feet.

On May 1, 2008, Fox News reported that a new Defense Department program called the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine will spend $250 million over 5 years to help wounded soldiers by using the "soldiers' own stem cells to grow skin, muscles, tendons and even bone. "

On March 3, 2008, the ABC News station in Denver, Colorado reported on how doctors from the University of Minnesota treated a young boy suffering from the skin disease epidermolysis bullosa with stem cells they extracted from his brother. Epidermolysis bullosa is "characterized by incredibly fragile skin tissue and recurrent blister formation from minor friction or trauma."

On February 27, 2008, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a clinical review of various studies using adult stem cells to treat patients. The review concludes by saying that adult stem cells from blood and bone marrow "provide disease-ameliorating effects in some autoimmune diseases and cardiovascular disorders."

On February 13, 2008, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that a clinical trial involving patients who had leg fractures which wouldn't heal was having good results using adult stem cells to repair the fractures. Seven of the ten patients' fractures were healed completely within 6 months.

On February 1, 2008, Reuters reported on how researchers from Finland used stem cells taken from a patient's own fat to help create a bone transplant to replace his upper jaw. The 65-year-old patient, whose upper jaw was removed because of a tumor, was unable to eat or speak without a prosthesis before the transplant.

On January 24, 2008, the Chicago Tribune reported that scientists were able to use adult stem cells from a kidney donor's bone marrow to help kidney recipients live without taking drugs that suppress their immune system. The scientists discovered the transplanted stem cells multiplied and protected the transplanted organ from the patients' immune systems.

On January 23, 2008, the Guardian reported that scientists in Britain are going to begin using stem cells from the bone marrow of patients in the hopes of treating patients with severe scarring on their hearts and who have been referred for a coronary bypass operation.

On January 7, 2008, the Dallas Morning News featured a story on Caden Ledbetter, a two-year-old from Texas, who received a transplant of stem cells from his own umbilical cord blood. Doctors hope these stem cells will help in the treatment of Caden's neuroblastoma, a deadly childhood cancer which can form tumors in various parts of the nervous system and accounts for approximately 15% of cancer deaths in children.

On December 15, 2007, the Tuscon Citizen reported that a teenager from Arizona had his sciolisis treated with adult stem cells from his bone marrow. Doctors hope the stem cells will help prevent his spine from curving in the future.

On December 13, 2007, United Press International reported that Italian scientists were able to successfully use modified stem cells from children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy to treat mice with muscular dystrophy. Researchers hope they will eventually be able to treat the children with their own stem cells.

On November 20, 2007, numerous media outlets reported on breakthrough research by two groups of researchers. Researchers from Kyoto University and the University of Wisconsin reprogrammed human skin cells to make them act like embryonic stem cells. These new cells are called induced pluripotent stem cells. This research was done without killing or cloning human embryos.

On October 16, 2007, the Telegraph reported on how British researchers are working on using adult stem cells to help grow the bone chips of patients to better prepare them for a second artificial hip replacement.

On September 24, 2007, PrimeCell Therapeutics LLC released a press release regarding their success treating spinal cord injury patients with adult stem cells at Luis Vernaza Hospital in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The press release noted, "Of the 25 patients who provided more than three months and up to 14 months follow up: 15 gained the ability to stand up, 10 could walk on the parallels with braces, seven could walk without braces and five could walk with crutches. Three patients recovered full bladder control, and 10 patients regained some form of sexual function. No adverse events or abnormal reactions to implantation were observed."

On August 30, 2007, the Bangkok Post reported that researchers from Thailand announced they successfully treated diabetes patients suffering from chronic feet injuries using stem cells from patients' own blood.

On August 28, 2007, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on stem cell research from Australia's Hunter Medical Research Institute. Researchers treated the damaged hearts of patients with their own stem cells.

On August 16, 2007, the Vancouver Sun reported on a discover by a team of Canadian researchers. This team discovered there were multiple types of blood stem cells and they hope this discovery will help researchers find different types of blood stem cells suited for different ailments.

On August 9, 2007, Science Daily reported that researchers from Boston University Medical Center have found that high doses of chemotherapy along with a transplant of stem cells from a patient's own blood can result in long term survival for patients with light chain amyloidosis. Amyloidosis is a group of conditions in which proteins aren't deposited correctly in organs and tissues.

On July 28, 2007, Medical News Today reported on a retrospective studies by researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine. The researchers found that patients with testicular cancer who aren't treated successfully using traditional methods can be cured using high doses of chemotherapy and a transplant of their own stem cells.

On July 27, 2007, Medical News Today reported that an international biotechnology company called Theravitae claims to have successfully treated a man suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy using his own stem cells.

On June 26, 2007, United Press International reported that scientists at Northwestern University were able to reduce the pain of patients with angina by injecting their own stem cells into their hearts.

On June 25, 2007, Reuters reported that researchers from the University of Florida have found that children with juvenile diabetes can be treated with blood from their own umbilical cords. Children given infusions of their own cord blood had less severe symptoms. Researchers suspect the stem cells in the umbilical cord blood played a role in helping these children.

On June 6, 2007, numerous media outlets reported on research recently published in the prestigious science journal Nature which found that normal skin cells in mice can be transformed into cells which were “indistinguishable” from embryonic stem cells. This research is completely uncontroversial since it is done without killing any embryos. Scientists transferred genes into mouse skin cells, then different proteins were used to help those genes make the cells become pluripotent, meaning they can become any of the body’s cell types. Leading scientists were amazed by these results.

On April 11, 2007, the Associated Press reported on a study to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association which showed juvenile diabetes had been successfully treated in 13 of 15 patients. In the study, which took place in Brazil, patients were given transplants of their own adult stem cells after chemotherapy was used to stop the patient's immune system from attacking cells which produce insulin. The adult stem cells then rebuilt their immune systems so the immune systems would no longer kill the body's insulin producing cells.

On April 2, 2007, the United Kingdom's The Telegraph reported on the work of British researchers who used adult stem cells from bone marrow to create heart valves. Researchers now hope to test valves like this in animals before using them in humans.

On March 27, 2007, the United Kingdom's Daily Mail shared the story of how researchers have used adult stem cells from the hip bones of patient and then injected those cells into the liver of patients with liver cancer. This allowed the patients' livers to grow so they could remove the cancerous part of their livers.

On March 26, 2007, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported on a study where heart attack patients who received transplants of adult stem cells from donors recovered better than patients who did not receive the transplants.

On March 20, 2007, the Australian Broadcasting Company discussed the research of Australian scientists who used one stem cell from a patient's healthy eye to grow a group of stem cells which replaced the damaged cornea of his other eye.

On January 23, 2007, the United Kingdom's Daily Telegraph reported that researchers from the University of Bristol and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center discovered that stem cells from pregnant women are passed onto their unborn children if their children have diabetes and some of these cells migrated to the child's pancreas to help them create insulin long after birth. Scientists hope in the future they will be able to use a mother's stem cells to help treat children with type 1 diabetes.

On January 7, 2007, Newsweek reported researchers from Wake Forest University have found that stem cells found in amniotic fluid can be turned into a variety of cell types, survive for long periods of time and don't cause tumors.

On November 14, 2006, the Minnesota Daily reported that researchers from the University of Minnesota have turned umbilical cord blood stem cells into a type of lung cell. The researcher hope these cells could eventually be used to treat diseases like cystic fibrosis.

On October 31, 2006, the BBC news reported that researchers from Newcastle University in the United Kingdom have used stem cells from umbilical cord blood to create "mini-livers." They hope these "mini-livers" could be used to test drugs and think they could be used to treat patients in possibly 10-15 years.

On September 21, 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported on research by German scientists who found that adult stem cells could improve the function of patients' hearts who experienced heart attacks in the past. Researchers were also optimistic that repeated treatments could continue to improve the function of damaged hearts.

On July 29, 2006, the London Daily Telegraph reported on research at a British hospital which used adult stem cells to help mend broken bones which weren't healing.

On May 22, 2006, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shared the story of researchers using the muscle tissue of patients to treat urinary incontinence. Some patients who received treatment four years ago are still continent. Of the 186 people who were treated, 153 no longer needed to wear pads.

On April 19, 2006, the Medical Procedure News reported that a hospital in Australia "performed the world's first implant of cultured specialist stem cells into an orthopaedic patient who suffered a broken femur nine months ago which failed to heal." The procedure was part of a trial at the Royal Melbourne Hospital to see if adult stem cells can be used effectively to treat patients with bone fractures which haven't healed.

On April 10, 2006, the Baptist Press contained a story on a young woman who received a transfer of olfactory stem cells from her nose to help with her paralysis. Jacki Rabon was paralyzed after being thrown from a car in August of 2003. In October of 2005, she traveled to Portugal to receive the surgery and then later went to Detroit for rehabilitation. She is now walking with the help of braces and a parallel bar.

On January 31, 2006, the Associated Press carried a story on 33 people with lupus who haven't had lupus symptoms since they received a transplant of stem cells from their own bone marrow. The study of these patients appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In November of 2005, an NBC news affiliate in the Washington, D.C. area shared the story of two young siblings who were afflicted with the autoimmune disease SCIDs and were treated with stem cells from umbilical cord blood.

The May 19, 2005, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine published the results of a study which found transplants of stem cells from umbilical cord blood could treat infants with a deadly degenerative disorder called Krabbe's disease.

On July 14, 2004, Susan Fajt and Laura Dominguez testified before Congress about how transplants of stem cells from their olfactory sinus areas have helped them walk with braces after they were paralyzed in car accidents. As of June 2004, Dr. Carlos Lima of Portugal had 34 patients with spinal cord injuries who showed some after a transplant of stem cells from their noses.

In July of 2004, the Lancet reported on the work of German scientists who found that stem cells from bone marrow helped patients who suffered from severe heart attacks.

In May of 2003, British researchers reported in Nature Medicine they had improved the motor function of five patients with Parkinson's by injecting a protein which activated the patients' neural stem cells.

On April 22, 2003, the Guardian reported that 14 people with severe heart failure were treated with their own stem cells and seem to be improving. The research, which took place in Brazil, included stem cells being removed from their bone marrow and then injected into the damaged parts of their hearts. "After two months, they had significantly less heart failure and less angina, and their hearts were able to pump more blood.

On April 9, 2002, the Washington Post reported on a story on a man whose hand tremors and other symptoms of Parkinson's disease have largely stopped after stem cells were removed from his brain, cultivated, and then reinjected.

On November 28, 2001, CBS reported that a boy who suffered from sickle cell was cured when he received a injection of stem cells from umbilical cord blood. These stem cells not only cured his sickle cell but completely changed his blood type from type O to type B.

On August 13, 2001, Reuter's Health reported initial success for 2 patients with Crohn's disease, a potentially disabling inflammatory bowel disease, after they were treated with stem cells from their blood.

On August 17, 2001, Reuters Health reported that a man with scleromyxedema, a rare and potentially fatal skin disease was treated with stem cells from his own bone marrow. He now reports none of the symptoms that formerly prevented him from closing his eyes completely and eating.

On July 10, 2001, the Detroit Free Press reported a story of a man who was diagnosed with leukemia in 1998 but received a cord blood transplant and has been living without leukemia. The June 14, 2001, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine published these results and the results of 17 other adults living without leukemia or lymphoma due to stem cells from umbilical cord blood.

According to the July 13, 2000, edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, Taiwanese surgeons restored vision to patients' severe eye damage using stem cells from their own eyes. Their vision improved from 20/112 to 20/45.

See a long li st of medical advances using adult stem cells and stem cells from umbilical cord blood.