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Doctors hope pig-cell injection will repair quadriplegic's spine ALBANY, N.Y. (April 24, 2001 1:02 p.m. EDT) - Fetal pig cells were injected into the spine of a 50-year-old quadriplegic man in an experimental procedure that doctors say is the first of its kind. If it works, the cells will grow as they would in a developing pig and create a new connection in Charles Dederick's spine, damaged in a 1997 motorcycle accident. If electric impulses can again flow from his brain, they could send signals to the muscles and possibly allow him to walk again. "I was willing to try anything," Dederick told the Times-Union of Albany for a story in Tuesday's editions. Dederick, of Schenectady, said he feels no difference yet from the surgery performed on April 13 at Albany Medical Center Hospital. Dederick was scheduled to speak at a news conference later Tuesday. It was the first of a dozen similar human experiments approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Washington University in St. Louis will also perform the procedure. Scientists have previously used pig cells in humans to search for treatments of Parkinson's disease. Hospital officials said this was the first time pig cells were used in a spinal treatment. The Associated Press Copyright 2001 Nando Media http://www.nandotimes.com/noframes/story/0,2107,500476098-500731223-50417006 5-0,00.html . janet paterson, an akinetic rigid subtype, albeit perky, parky PD: 54/41/37 CD: 54/44/43 TEL: 613 256 8340 EMAIL: [log in to unmask] "a new voice" home page: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/ . "new voice news" latest posts: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nvnNET/ . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn