Medical Research in China
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| Sat, 06-12-2004 - 1:23pm |
China
Chinese doctor uses fetal cells to treat paralysis in controversial treatment. While the Bush administration sharply limits research into embryonic stem cell and fetal tissue, citing moral and ethical considerations, nations such as China are aggressively delving into such research.
By Tim Johnson
Jun 12, 2004, 10:48
BEIJING - Strolling briskly through the dim halls of Chaoyang Hospital, neurosurgeon Huang Hongyun says his pioneering medical work using fetal cells to treat paralysis and other nervous system ailments is swamping him with attention.
The cell phone jangles. Lecture invitations mount. E-mails pour in from around the world.
Huang is causing a stir in medical circles. Many U.S. scientists and researchers have qualms about what he's doing. But hundreds of families of paraplegics from the United States, Japan, Singapore and elsewhere are lining up to bring loved ones to Beijing for an experimental operation that may be able to help patients sit up by themselves. Or hold a cup. Or button a shirt. Or sweat below their necks.
Huang is one of a handful of researchers around the world shattering the centuries-old idea that paralysis is irreversible.
While the Bush administration sharply limits research into embryonic stem cell and fetal tissue, citing moral and ethical considerations, nations such as China are aggressively delving into such research.
Huang, a 48-year-old with an easy smile, is taking certain kinds of fetal nerve cells, culturing them and transplanting them into patients with spinal cord injuries or other nervous system disorders. In little more than two years, he's done the operation nearly 450 times. More than 1,000 people are on waiting lists.
"I was bowled over. They didn't have patients who were totally paralyzed and then get up and walk. But there were people who couldn't hold objects, and then they could after (the operation)," said Dr. Paul Cooper, a spinal surgery expert at NYU School of Medicine.
The search for treatment for paralysis is at a high-profile juncture, partly because of Christopher Reeve, the renowned actor who was paralyzed after being thrown from a horse in 1995. As a quadriplegic, the strapping portrayer of the titular character in the "Superman" movies has become a forceful and blunt advocate for daring research.
Reeve blames a sluggish U.S. research establishment, lack of funding and resistance from drug companies for failure to do more for spinal cord injuries. Listening to Reeve, many of the 250,000 or so paraplegics in the United States felt their anger catalyze over the medical view that little can be done.
"My surgeons made it a point to come in my room, after about 30 days of injury, to tell me I would never walk again. There was no encouragement. It was just flat: You will never walk again," said Don Debolt, of Stewardson, Ill., who came to Beijing to be operated on by Huang.
Debolt, who broke his neck when he rammed into a concrete wall at a water park in Missouri in 1994, said any improvement would make a huge difference.
Debolt, 52, said he wants to move his legs at night, open a can of soda, load a paper tray of a computer printer, "things most people take for granted."
Word of Huang's procedure has spread through the Internet, giving hope to paraplegics and those with other nervous system disorders, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a muscle-wasting disease. So far, Huang has operated on 28 non-Chinese patients.
"I get hundreds and hundreds of people ask me, `Should I go to Beijing now?' I say they should wait. But there is desperation. When you are a quadriplegic, a year is an eternity," said Dr. Wise Young, a neuroscientist at Rutgers University in New Jersey who's visited China repeatedly and observed Huang's work.
Even so, Young said in a telephone interview, Huang's technique is unusual, apparently not harmful and brings "modest" improvement in motor and sensory functions.
"There's no one else in the world doing this," Young said.
Complete article at
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/printer_8958.shtml

Very interesting & a huge step forward. Other countries will leave the US in the dust. I've read that some US researchers are doing their work in other countries because of the retrictions here.
I do have reservations about using >"fetuses aborted during the second trimester of pregnancy"<.