Re: Digest Number 4000

[Guest guest]

Doctors Fight Liver Disease With Body's Own Stem Cells

By Martyn Halle

The Telegraph - UK

5-28-5

British doctors have made a " significant " breakthrough using

patients' own stem cells to regrow their livers, raising the

possibility of it replacing organ transplants in future.

Last year The Sunday Telegraph revealed that specialists had

perfected a technique that could cure people with liver disease.

Importantly it used the patients' own stem cells, rather than the

controversial practice of cells harvested from aborted embryos.

Six weeks ago stem cells were extracted from the blood of the first

five human volunteers, and injected into their livers. Early results

show that inside the patients' livers, the cells have already started

to grow.

Nagy Habib, the professor of liver services at Hammersmith Hospital,

who is overseeing the project, said: " The treatment is still

experimental, but we hope that we have made a significant

breakthrough. "

The initial experiment was to prove the technique worked using just a

few stem cells, but already, there are signs of some liver function

being restored.

The new treatment involves injecting the cells into the hepatic

artery in the liver under local anaesthetic. Karl Hodgson, a 42-year-

old reformed alcoholic and drug taker from Bournemouth, was one of

the five patients treated by Prof Habib. He was given a place on the

trial after his mother saw this newspaper's original article on the

internet.

Stem cells retain the potential to turn into many different types of

tissue. They can be obtained from blood, bone marrow, or more

controversially from aborted embryos. But Prof Habib has proved that

stem cell treatments can work without having to resort to foetal stem

cells.

He is now planning a second phase of the trial this summer, which is

designed to test the treatment's ability actually to reverse the

disease.

Alison , the chief executive of the British Liver Trust,

said: " Like many new technologies they take time, but stem cell

technology represents a huge leap forward in treating many diseases. "

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.

[Guest guest]

>>If you're using a lot of olive oil (a questionable proposition to begin

with)

Oh, come on! Okay. Enlighten me. Why? I always get this pervasive and

persistent sense of wellbeing from mega olive oil consumption.