Tidbits, Spinal Injury, and Race Horses

Tidbits, Spinal Injury, and Race Horses

A slow news day so far…. In Iowa, one of the Democratic candidates for governor, Patty Judge, has announced that if she is elected, she will try to repeal the state’s current ban on stem cell research and therapeutic cloning. One of the other Democratic contenders is pro-life, so this may be an important issue later on. Judge is currently the state’s secretary of agriculture, and she would like to establish an institute of regenerative medicine. The story is reported on the Des Moines Register, Radio Iowa, and WOI-TV.

Speaking of Iowa, the Des Moines Register also reported a few days ago on a 21 year old woman who has been paralyzed since 2002. Last January, she went to Portugal for experimental surgery transplanting stem cells from her nasal cavity to her injured spine. The treatment has not been approved by the FDA. Since the treatment, the injured woman, Amy Foels, has regained some of her mobility and feels that her body is more responsive.

And in Australia, tests have begun extracting stem cells from bone marrow in race horses and injecting them into damaged tendons. According to the Australian ABC News, about 150 horses have been treated world-wide, but it will take up to 2 years to know the results. Tendon injuries are common, and horses with them frequently re-injure themselves.