Texas Research Yields Ethical "Embryonic" Stem Cells

I'm from Texas, and I'm proud to say that our State has been a leader in medical research, including pioneering umbilical cord blood transplants since at least 2001 and this item, published in this month's Cell Proliferation.

These cells appear to have the characteristics of embryonic stem cells, but they are derived from cells harvested from cord blood and collected at Cesarean Section births. The research was conducted at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

You know, I've heard about the difficulties in getting enough umbilical cord blood for transplant in adults and larger children. The blood from one birth is enough for a baby or small child, but does not contain enough volume to provide the white and red blood cells for immediate needs and stem cells for long-term production needed for larger bodies. Last month there was an announcement about the use of two donor samples for transplant in adults being treated for some leukemias and lymphomas.

But, we never hear about the probable small volumes of embryonic stem cells from embryos produced by in vitro fertilization and cloning.