University of Manchester researchers have transformed fat tissue stem cells into nerve cells -- and now plan to develop an artificial nerve that will bring damaged limbs and organs back to life. In a study published in October's Experimental Neurology, Dr Paul Kingham and his team at the UK Centre for Tissue Regeneration (UKCTR) isolated the stem cells from the fat tissue of adult animals and differentiated them into nerve cells to be used for repair and regeneration of injured nerves. They are now about to start a trial extracting stem cells from fat tissue of volunteer adult patients, in order to compare in the laboratory human and animal stem cells.
Source: Slashdot
Maybe soon they'll be able call root canals an "outdated" practice and people parallelized in accidents will be able to walk again. I hate to say it kids, but seriously, stem cells are cool. Anybody that is afraid of stem cell research is silly. I don't want to sound calloused, but when doctors today artificially inseminate a woman by in vitro fertilization, they take several eggs and fertilize many and then throw away the rest (full of stem cells). If people really are so opposed to killing a living being, then this should also be outlawed in the U.S... And according to that article, you can harvest stem cells out of adult animals, maybe that means that you won't even have to "kill" anybody at all. So next time you decide to get on your high horse and preach about how stem cell research is evil, do some real research. I'm just saying. *climbs off high horse*
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