WBL Journal Entry 2 In Science Dailys "Brittle-bone Babies Helped by Fetal Stem Cell Grafts", Karolinska Institutet in Sweden

has found research that backs to prevention to OI or Osteogeneis imperfecta. OI is a congenital bone disease that causes stunted growth and repeated, painful fracturing. This institution has found that injecting potential OI fetuses with mesenchymal stem cells has show significant improve to living in comparison to the children who were diagnosed with OI who were not treated with these stem cells. Ultrasound scans are the initial signs where the fractures of potential OI can be found. From the ultrasound, the stem cells can then be injected from a donor liver who may or may not even be genetically similar. The stem cells are injected because they help to grow bone marrow; this has been found to cause a reserve in the OI disease for children all over the world. This research was published in Stem Cells Translational Medicine. Stem cell research is such an incredible subject; it is one of the most fascinating subjects because it has led to the latest and greatest of science today. Stem cells are used to get grow a lot of things in effort to restore peoples lives back to normal. The impacts that stem cells research is international and will continue to affect more and more people throughout history. This study in particular has shown to restore the lives of multiple children from completely different parts of the world into being able to function in normal societal life. These children already had a better life once they entered the world because the doctors were able to spot the OI disease and follow up with the injections. Science continues to amaze me in the new discoveries that are made. This is one of the made reasons why I love the medical field: new cures and discovers are made every day. Every day is always new and there will always be something new to learn or new to find.

Brittle-Bone Babies Helped by Fetal Stem Cell Grafts

Dec. 16, 2013 Osteogeneis imperfecta (OI) is a congenital bone disease that causes stunted growth and repeated, painful fracturing. Ultrasound scans can reveal fractures already in the fetus, and now an international team of researchers from Sweden, Singapore and Taiwan have treated two babies in utero by injecting bone-forming stem cells. The longitudinal results of the treatment are published in the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine.
Share This: The babies were treated with mesenchymal stem cells, connective tissue cells that can form and improve bone tissue. The stem cells were extracted from the livers of donors and although they were completely unmatched genetically, there was no rejection and the transplanted cells were accepted as self. Back in 2005, a paper was published from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden describing how stem cells were given to a female fetus. The present study describes how the girl suffered a large number of fractures and developed scoliosis up to the age of eight, whereupon the researchers decided to give her a fresh stem cell graft from the same donor. For the next two years the girl suffered no new fractures and improved her growth rate. Today she takes dance lessons and participates more in PE at school. Another unborn baby with OI, a girl from Taiwan, was also given stem cell transplantation by the Karolinska Institutet team and their colleagues from Singapore. The girl subsequently followed a normal and fracture-free growth trajectory until the age of one, when it levelled off. She was given a fresh stem cell treatment and her growth resumed. The girl started to walk and has since not suffered any new fractures. Today she is four years old. "We believe that the stem cells have helped to relieve the disease since none of the children broke bones for a period following the grafts, and both increased their growth rate," says study leader Dr Cecilia Gtherstrm, researcher at Karolinska Institutet's Department of Clinical Sciences, Intervention and Technology. "Today, the children are doing much better than if the transplantations had not been given. OI is a very rare disease and lacks effective treatment, and a combined international effort is needed to examine whether stem cell grafts can alleviate the disease." The researchers have also identified a patient, a boy from Canada, who was born with OI caused by exactly the same mutation as the Swedish girl had. The boy was not given stem cell therapy and was born with severe and widespread bone damage, including numerous fractures and kyphosis of the thoracic vertebrae, which causes such over-curvature of the spine that it impairs breathing. The boy died of pneumonia within his first 5 months.

Works Cited

Karolinska Institutet. "Brittle-bone babies helped by fetal stem cell grafts." ScienceDaily, 16 Dec. 2013. Web. 16 Dec.
2013.