Embryonic, Adult, and Umbilical Cord Stem Cells … WTF Is The Difference?

In light of President George Bush’s virginal veto last week, I thought Lucy might need some ‘splainin’.

I hope Ann Coulter doesn’t sue me for quoting from her new book but here is a major difference.

A short list of successful treatments achieved by adult stem cells are these:

• Rebuilding livers wracked by otherwise irreversible cirrhosis
• Repairing spinal cord injuries by using stem cells from nasal and sinus regions
• Completely reversing Type I diabetes in mice using adult spleen cells
• Putting Crohn’s disease into remission with the patient’s own blood stem cells
• Putting lupus into remission using stem cells from the patient’s bloodstream
• Treating sickle-cell anemia using stem cells from Umbilical Cord blood
• Repairing the heart muscles in patients with congestive heart failure using adult stem cells from bone marrow
• Repairing heart attack damage with the patient’s own blood stem cells
• Restoring bone marrow in cancer patients using stem cells from umbilical cord blood
• Restoring weak heart muscles using immature skeletal muscle cells
• Putting leukemia into remission using umbilical cord blood
• healing bone fractures with bone marrow cells
• Restoring sight in blind people using ocular surface stem cell transplant and a cornea transplant
• Treating urinary incontinence using stem cells from underarm muscle
• Reversing severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) with genetically modified adult stem cells
• Restoring blood circulation in legs with bone marrow stem cells

Meanwhile, embryonic stem cells have never cured anything in any living creature.

(bolded emphasis above is mine)

It is obvious that embryonic stem cells have done Bo Diddley (not to mention Christopher Reeves) squat.