Re: News story: A good reason for supporting stem cell research

[Guest guest]

I just read an article on MSNBC about this guy. Here's the link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5832265/

It has x-rays of the new jaw. Very interesting!!

~Jen

> This story is on Yahoo News today. It's pretty amazing, and another

> reason why I think stem cell research is important and should be

> permitted.

>

>

>

> Doctors Grow New Jaw Bone in Man's Back

> By EMMA ROSS, AP Medical Writer (Yahoo)

>

> LONDON - A German who had his lower jaw cut out because of cancer has

> enjoyed his first meal in nine years — a bratwurst sandwich — after

> surgeons grew a new jaw bone in his back muscle and transplanted it

> to his mouth in what experts call an " ambitious " experiment.

>

> According to this week's issue of The Lancet medical journal, the

> German doctors used a mesh cage, a growth chemical and the patient's

> own bone marrow, containing stem cells, to create a new jaw bone that

> fit exactly into the gap left by the cancer surgery.

>

> Tests have not been done yet to verify whether the bone was created

> by the blank-slate stem cells and it is too early to tell whether the

> jaw will function normally in the long term. But the operation is the

> first published report of a whole bone being engineered and incubated

> inside a patient's body and transplanted.

>

> Stem cells are the master cells of the body that go on to become

> every tissue in the body. They are a hot area of research with

> scientists trying to find ways to prompt them to make desired

> tissues, and perhaps organs.

>

> But while researchers debate whether the technique resulted in a

> scientific advance involving stem cells, the operation has achieved

> its purpose and changed a life, said Stan Gronthos, a stem cell

> expert at the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science in

> Adelaide, Australia.

>

> " A patient who had previously lost his mandible (lower jaw) through

> the result of a destructive tumor can now sit down and chew his first

> solid meals in nine years ... resulting in an improved quality of

> life, " said Gronthos, who was not connected with the experiment.

>

> The operation was done by Dr. Warnke, a reconstructive facial

> surgeon at the University of Kiel in Germany. The patient, a 56-year-

> old man, had his lower jaw and half his tongue cut out almost a

> decade ago after getting mouth cancer. Since then, he had only been

> able to slurp soft food or soup from a spoon.

>

> In similar cases, doctors can sometimes replace a lost jawbone by

> cutting out a piece of bone from the lower leg or from the hip and

> chiseling it to fit into the mouth.

>

> This patient could not have that procedure because he was taking a

> potent blood thinner for another condition and doctors considered it

> too dangerous to harvest bone from elsewhere in his body since

> extraction leaves a hole where the bone is taken, creating an extra

> risk of bleeding.

>

> Artificial jaws made from plastic or other materials are not used

> because they pose too much of a risk of infection.

>

> " He demanded reconstruction, " Warnke said. " This patient was really

> sick of living. "

>

> Warnke and his group began by creating a virtual jaw on a computer,

> after making a three-dimensional scan of the patient's mouth.

>

> The information was used to create a thin titanium micro-mesh cage.

> Several cow-derived pure bone mineral blocks the size of sugar lumps

> where then put inside the structure, along with a human growth factor

> that builds bone and a large squirt of blood extracted from the man's

> bone marrow, which contains stem cells.

>

> The surgeons then implanted the mesh cage and its contents into the

> muscle below the patient's right shoulder blade. He was given no

> drugs, other than routine antibiotics to prevent infection from the

> surgery.

>

> The implant was left in for seven weeks, when scans showed new bone

> formation. It was removed about eight weeks ago, along with some

> surrounding muscle and blood vessels, put in the man's mouth and

> connected to the blood vessels in his neck.

>

> Scans showed new bone continued to form after the transplant.

>

> Four weeks after the operation, the man ate a German sausage

> sandwich, his first real meal in nine years. He eats steak now, but

> complains to his doctor that because he has no teeth he has to cut it

> into such small pieces that by the time he gets to the end of the

> steak, it's cold.

>

> He has reported no pain or any other difficulties associated with the

> transplant, Warnke said, adding that he hopes to be able to remove

> the mesh and implant teeth in the new jaw about a year from now.

>

> Brown, head of the Center for Tissue Regeneration Science at

> University College in London, said it's not clear any major

> scientific ground has been broken, and tests may not be able to show

> whether the new bone came from stem cells, rather than from the

> growth factor alone.

>

> The operation put established techniques together, resembling a well-

> known experiment in which University of Massachusetts scientists grew

> a human ear using a mold on the back of a mouse in 1995, he said.

>

> " If you put loads of blocks of bone mineral into a hole and you

> induce cellular activity by putting in growth factors, it's a

> standard approach that people have used to induce the body's own

> response, " said Brown, who was not connected with the study. " Clearly

> some of them are going to work and it sounds like for this patient,

> this has worked. "

>

> Biopsies of the jaw bone could later provide some answers on the

> quality of the bone, experts said.

>

> " Just making the gross tissue shape right isn't really the problem, "

> Brown said. " It's what the shape of the tissue is at the microscopic

> and ultramicroscopic level. That's the architecture which is so

> tricky and which is what gives function. "

[Guest guest]

I just read an article on MSNBC about this guy. Here's the link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5832265/

It has x-rays of the new jaw. Very interesting!!

~Jen

> This story is on Yahoo News today. It's pretty amazing, and another

> reason why I think stem cell research is important and should be

> permitted.

>

>

>

> Doctors Grow New Jaw Bone in Man's Back

> By EMMA ROSS, AP Medical Writer (Yahoo)

>

> LONDON - A German who had his lower jaw cut out because of cancer has

> enjoyed his first meal in nine years — a bratwurst sandwich — after

> surgeons grew a new jaw bone in his back muscle and transplanted it

> to his mouth in what experts call an " ambitious " experiment.

>

> According to this week's issue of The Lancet medical journal, the

> German doctors used a mesh cage, a growth chemical and the patient's

> own bone marrow, containing stem cells, to create a new jaw bone that

> fit exactly into the gap left by the cancer surgery.

>

> Tests have not been done yet to verify whether the bone was created

> by the blank-slate stem cells and it is too early to tell whether the

> jaw will function normally in the long term. But the operation is the

> first published report of a whole bone being engineered and incubated

> inside a patient's body and transplanted.

>

> Stem cells are the master cells of the body that go on to become

> every tissue in the body. They are a hot area of research with

> scientists trying to find ways to prompt them to make desired

> tissues, and perhaps organs.

>

> But while researchers debate whether the technique resulted in a

> scientific advance involving stem cells, the operation has achieved

> its purpose and changed a life, said Stan Gronthos, a stem cell

> expert at the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science in

> Adelaide, Australia.

>

> " A patient who had previously lost his mandible (lower jaw) through

> the result of a destructive tumor can now sit down and chew his first

> solid meals in nine years ... resulting in an improved quality of

> life, " said Gronthos, who was not connected with the experiment.

>

> The operation was done by Dr. Warnke, a reconstructive facial

> surgeon at the University of Kiel in Germany. The patient, a 56-year-

> old man, had his lower jaw and half his tongue cut out almost a

> decade ago after getting mouth cancer. Since then, he had only been

> able to slurp soft food or soup from a spoon.

>

> In similar cases, doctors can sometimes replace a lost jawbone by

> cutting out a piece of bone from the lower leg or from the hip and

> chiseling it to fit into the mouth.

>

> This patient could not have that procedure because he was taking a

> potent blood thinner for another condition and doctors considered it

> too dangerous to harvest bone from elsewhere in his body since

> extraction leaves a hole where the bone is taken, creating an extra

> risk of bleeding.

>

> Artificial jaws made from plastic or other materials are not used

> because they pose too much of a risk of infection.

>

> " He demanded reconstruction, " Warnke said. " This patient was really

> sick of living. "

>

> Warnke and his group began by creating a virtual jaw on a computer,

> after making a three-dimensional scan of the patient's mouth.

>

> The information was used to create a thin titanium micro-mesh cage.

> Several cow-derived pure bone mineral blocks the size of sugar lumps

> where then put inside the structure, along with a human growth factor

> that builds bone and a large squirt of blood extracted from the man's

> bone marrow, which contains stem cells.

>

> The surgeons then implanted the mesh cage and its contents into the

> muscle below the patient's right shoulder blade. He was given no

> drugs, other than routine antibiotics to prevent infection from the

> surgery.

>

> The implant was left in for seven weeks, when scans showed new bone

> formation. It was removed about eight weeks ago, along with some

> surrounding muscle and blood vessels, put in the man's mouth and

> connected to the blood vessels in his neck.

>

> Scans showed new bone continued to form after the transplant.

>

> Four weeks after the operation, the man ate a German sausage

> sandwich, his first real meal in nine years. He eats steak now, but

> complains to his doctor that because he has no teeth he has to cut it

> into such small pieces that by the time he gets to the end of the

> steak, it's cold.

>

> He has reported no pain or any other difficulties associated with the

> transplant, Warnke said, adding that he hopes to be able to remove

> the mesh and implant teeth in the new jaw about a year from now.

>

> Brown, head of the Center for Tissue Regeneration Science at

> University College in London, said it's not clear any major

> scientific ground has been broken, and tests may not be able to show

> whether the new bone came from stem cells, rather than from the

> growth factor alone.

>

> The operation put established techniques together, resembling a well-

> known experiment in which University of Massachusetts scientists grew

> a human ear using a mold on the back of a mouse in 1995, he said.

>

> " If you put loads of blocks of bone mineral into a hole and you

> induce cellular activity by putting in growth factors, it's a

> standard approach that people have used to induce the body's own

> response, " said Brown, who was not connected with the study. " Clearly

> some of them are going to work and it sounds like for this patient,

> this has worked. "

>

> Biopsies of the jaw bone could later provide some answers on the

> quality of the bone, experts said.

>

> " Just making the gross tissue shape right isn't really the problem, "

> Brown said. " It's what the shape of the tissue is at the microscopic

> and ultramicroscopic level. That's the architecture which is so

> tricky and which is what gives function. "

[Guest guest]

That photo at the bottom looks pretty gruesome, but I feel so glad

for the patient who now has more stability and options for eating.

> I just read an article on MSNBC about this guy. Here's the link:

> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5832265/

>

> It has x-rays of the new jaw. Very interesting!!

>

> ~Jen

[Guest guest]

That photo at the bottom looks pretty gruesome, but I feel so glad

for the patient who now has more stability and options for eating.

> I just read an article on MSNBC about this guy. Here's the link:

> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5832265/

>

> It has x-rays of the new jaw. Very interesting!!

>

> ~Jen