Bone marrow stem cells have apparently been helping to repair injuries in horses for some time. They are about to be tried in humans now. From the Reuters story in the Washington Post (good for it):
Stem cell therapy may be controversial in human medicine but in the world of horse racing it is becoming the odds-on favorite for tackling tendon damage, which accounts for one in three race course injuries.
An odd sentence for a story about adult stem cells, which are not at all controversial. But rather than go into conspiracy theory mode, let’s continue:
In contrast to the controversial field of embryonic stem cell research, which involves the destruction of days-old embryos, the focus in the orthopaedic area is on adult mesenchymal stem cells that are found in bone marrow. These immature versions of normal cells can morph into different forms of tissue, such as bone, cartilage and tendon.
In the case of horses, Smith has developed a technique to extract stem cells from the animal’s own sternum and then purify and multiply them in a laboratory. After two or three weeks they are injected back into the horse’s tendon, where they regenerate new tissue that fills up ruptures caused by excessive exercise.
Amazing, those adult stem cells. Simply amazing.
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