Previous month:
August 2011
Next month:
December 2011

Stem cells taken from the patient: now rejuvenating hearts, soon repairing knees

"For the first time, stem cells from patients' own hearts have been shown to battle heart failure." That's the lead on ABC's story last night on a new experimental regenerative medicine treatment that uses cardiac stem cells collected from the hearts of patients while they were on the operating table for heart surgery.  

What's especially  important is that in regenerating the hearts, these stem cells came from the patient himself (him, in this case reported), not from embryos. That opens new pathways to the use of stem cells in regenerative medical procedures.

Here's the link to that ABC report of November 14, 2011

NBC and CBS also reported it, same date.

--------------------------------------

In another regenerative medicine study just out, this in England, a patient's own stem cells will be used to treat torn knee cartilege. That same researcher has already used a patient's own stem cells to tissue-engineer a new windpipe.

Given the reality that a lot of over-60 tennis players have knee problems, the market for that slice of regenerative medicine seems vast! Imagine that: no more tennis knees, eternal youth on the court!

That's in an article in the Independent, by Steve Connor

Stem-cell doctors to trial "bandage" for torn knees