Stem Cells for Treating Brain Disorders

Contributed by: Dennis Fortier, President, Medical Care Corporation

Stem cell research has a controversial past, a murky present, and a bright future.

While there has been heated debate about the ethics of harvesting stem cells for research, all but the most ardent critics seem to be acceptig that there are morally sound approaches to such work.  Furthermore, a strong case can be made that, to ignore the great promise of life changing benefits that stem cell research might yield, would give rise to equally profound moral questions.

A great overview of the issue, and how stem cell research is marching steadily toward better treatments for Alzheimer's disease was published last week by Northwestern University.  In a Q&A session with Dr. John Kessler, this article succinctly explains his work, the current challenges, and the bright future of stem cell-based therapy for a host of daunting medical conditions.

Alzheimer's Disease and Stem Cells

Contributed by: Dennis Fortier, President, Medical Care Corporation
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The scientific process can be long and slow. In fact, the very nature of science is to be deliberate, comprehensive, and redundant as a means of objectively elevating hypotheses into facts.

You may have seen headlines this week about a potentially important discovery from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia. The researcher's (Bryce Vissel and Andrea Abdipranoto) findings published in the journal Stem Cells suggest that excessive inflammation can prevent the brain from repairing itself properly. They also have hypothesized that a certain brain chemical, activin A, can suppress inflammation and allow the brain's stem cells to stimulate repair.

This is early stage research performed in mice and, as noted, the scientific process is generally long and arduous. But this is a new finding that may shed some important light on the disease process in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. I suspect we will be hearing more about this.