The AP in Japan reports that a man who was waiting for a heart transplant was treated with his own stem cells and has now returned to a normal life. One case doesn't make a therapy, but it is good news.
If this was an embryonic stem cell success, it would be on the front page of every paper in the world. Bioethicist Wesley Smith believes that the new stem cell technique, which regresses/reverts ordinary skin cells back to a pluripotent state (embryonic stem cells are believed to be pluripotent and can become any kind of cell) has popped the balloon on embryonic stem cell research. He believes there's been an embargo on stories like this to promote the need for embryonic stem cell research. Now that scientists have the same kinds of cells, he thinks we'll see more of this. I don't know. But, if he's right this is good news because there is more going on than the public could ever know.
Do No Harm notes that there are over 70 applications using non-embryonic stem cell research and there are over 1000 trials. Anyway, this story out of Japan is good news and hopefully we'll see more.
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