FDA Approves First Brain Stem Cell Transplant
Posted by Zonk on Saturday October 22, @10:50PM
from the hope-it-works dept.
no reason to be here writes "An article at CNN.com is reporting on the FDA
granting approval to the first ever transplant of fetal stem cells into human
brains. The stem cells will be transplanted into six children suffering from
Batten disease, a rare, always fatal, genetic neurological illness, which
renders its victims blind and speechless before finally paralyzing them and
killing them." From the article: "The stem cells to be transplanted in the brain
aren't human embryonic stem cells, which are derived from days-old embryos.
Instead, the cells are immature neural cells that are destined to turn into the
mature cells that makeup a fully formed brain. Parkinson's disease patients and
stroke victims have received transplants of fully formed brain cells before, but
the malleable brain cells involved here have never before been implanted."
http://science.slashdot.org/science/05/10/22/232243.shtml?tid=191&tid=14http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/10/21/brain.stem.cells.ap/index.html
