Curious ---Is the NYT for or against stem cell implants research??

Guys. Don't give up! We are all learning for this. Look out the window.
The world is still there.

I bet when Carbidopa -levodopa was being developed and tested there were
unusual results. Thank God they didn't give up.

sincerely,
nancy


Murray Charters wrote:
>
> Thursday, March 8, 2001
> Parkinson's study using fetal cell implants has disastrous results
> >From News Services
> A carefully controlled study that attempted to treat Parkinson's disease by
> implanting cells from aborted fetuses into patients' brains not only failed to
> show an overall benefit but also revealed a disastrous side effect, scientists
> report. In about 15 percent of patients, the cells apparently grew too well,
> churning out so much of a chemical that controls movement that the patients
> writhed uncontrollably.
>
> The researchers say there is no way to remove or deactivate the transplanted
> cells.
>
> The results, reported today in the New England Journal of Medicine, are a
> severe blow to what had been considered a highly promising avenue of research
> for treating Parkinson's, Alzheimer's disease and other neurological ailments.
> The study indicates that the simple solution of injecting fetal cells into a
> patient's brain may not be enough to treat complex diseases involving nerve
> cells and connections that are poorly understood.
>
> The findings also may fuel the debate over whether it is appropriate to use
> tissue from aborted fetuses to treat diseases. Despite their disappointment, some
> researchers said they hoped that the results would not halt fetal cell research.
> The research has been controversial because the fetal cells were obtained from
> abortion clinics.
>
> Parkinson's disease occurs when cells of the substantia nigra in the base of the
> brain die, for unknown reasons. The hope was that fetal substantia nigra cells
> might take over for them. But, the study showed that in older patients, the
> operation had no benefit and that in some younger patients, the transplants
> brought on nightmarish side effects.
>
> Dr. Paul Greene, a neurologist at Columbia University's College of Physicians
> and Surgeons and a researcher in the study, described the uncontrollable
> movements. "They chew constantly, their fingers go up and down, their wrists
> flex and distend," he said. And the patients writhe and twist, jerk their heads,
> fling their arms about.
>
> For now, Greene said, his position is clear: "No more fetal transplants. We are
> absolutely and adamantly convinced that this should be considered for research
> only. And whether it should be research in people is an open question."
>
> Dr. Gerald Fischbach -- who was director of the National Institute of
> Neurological Disorders and Stroke, which sponsored the study, and is now dean
> of the faculty of medicine at Columbia University's College of Physicians and
> Surgeons -- said that while the operation had been promoted by some
> neurosurgeons as miraculous, this was the first time it was rigorously evaluated,
> using sham surgery as a comparison.
>
> In the study, researchers, led by Dr. Curt Freed of the University of Colorado
> Health Sciences Center in Denver and Dr. Stanley Fahn of Columbia University's
> College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, recruited 40 patients, aged 34
> to 75, who had had Parkinson's disease for an average of 14 years. The patients
> were randomly assigned to have fetal substantia nigra cells implanted in their
> brains or to have sham surgery, for comparison.
>
> The uncontrollable movements first emerged a year after the implant, showing
> up in five of the 10 patients younger than 60 who had at first appeared to benefit
> from fetal cell surgery -- three who had the operation in the initial phase of the
> study and two who requested it a year later, when they learned that they had
> originally had a sham surgery.
>
> http://www2.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisStory=83725529
>
> ********