Word: fetal
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Early fetal checkup...
...16th or 17th week of pregnancy, when there is enough amniotic fluid to obtain a sample safely via a needle through the abdomen. Results are not available for another four weeks. Eager to avoid five months of anxious waiting, the two women volunteered for a new, early test of fetal health, under study at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. Fisher had the procedure in her ninth week "and found out the next day that my baby did not have Tay-Sachs." Roehl also got good news, fast...
...brain injury than previously thought." The same conclusion has been reached by researchers who have regenerated nerve fibers in other parts of animals' brains as well as in their spinal cords. At Saint Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., for instance, Neuroscientist William Freed has treated rats with fetal cell implants to relieve symptoms resembling Parkinson's disease in humans. The implanted cells are capable of producing dopamine, a vital brain chemical lacking in the afflicted rats and in Parkinson's patients. Such techniques used with humans, some researchers believe, may lead to a cure for Parkinson...
...Republican William Dannemeyer plans to offer an amendment that would drastically increase the already stringent restrictions on the use of human fetuses for research purposes. A similar measure was passed by the House last year but defeated in the Senate. Congressman Henry Waxman, who opposes the amendment, argues that "fetal research saves lives, prevents or cures chronic diseases and makes pregnancy safer. As a result of such work, reductions in infant mortality and treatments for diabetes, as well as for brain disorders, are on the horizon...
Researchers, hoping to avoid controversy, are looking for alternatives to fetal tissues. In the case of Parkinson's disease, says Freed, it may be possible to transplant dopamine-secreting cells taken from the patient's own adrenal gland. Other approaches were discussed at a conference on fetal cell research last month in Brookline, Mass. Among them: the possibility of altering monkey fetal cells for use in humans. Ultimately, as researchers become able to identify the chemicals that give fetal cells their regenerative powers, they may find ways to synthesize these substances or to develop cell cultures that produce...