Word: fetal
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Implanting fetal cells in rats...
...repair the brain damage, Stein's team waited a week to allow for the natural accumulation of healing proteins called nerve growth factors. Then they implanted a pinhead-size lump of tissue that had been taken from the frontal cortex of normal rat embryos. The researchers used fetal cells because they are rich in growth factors and adapt easily to a new environment. Result of the operation: the brain-damaged rats were able to learn the maze in just 8½ days. While this is still slower than normal, says Stein, "the transplant was clearly producing some degree...
...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...
...National Institutes of Health's Clinical Hematology Branch. The scientists speculate that, basically, the drug works by stripping genes of chemicals that have repressed their activity, allowing them to switch on again. The genes affected are those that produce hemoglobin for the developing fetus. These fetal genes turn off around birth as other genes take over to produce hemoglobin for human life outside the womb. Scientists still do not know why there are two sets of genes for making hemoglobin...