The media gave Christopher Reeve’s campaign for embryonic stem cell research significant coverage both before and after his death.  Now the cure for spinal cord injuries that he was seeking may have arrived.  This exciting step did not require embryonic stem cells but rather stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood in one case and stem cells from nasal passages in other cases.

A South Korean woman paralyzed for 20 years is walking again after scientists say they repaired her damaged spine using stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood.  Hwang Mi-Soon, 37, had been bedridden since damaging her back in an accident two decades ago.  Last week her eyes glistened with tears as she walked again with the help of a walking frame at a press conference where South Korea researchers went public for the first time with the results of their stem-cell therapy.

A young American woman, Erica Nader, injured in a car accident and paralyzed from the upper arms down, has been treated for a spinal cord injury using stem cells taken from her nose and implanted in the spinal cord at the site of the injury.  A team of surgeons in Portugal performed the procedure.  Nader is recovering slowly but steadily.  She can now do exercises on a floor mat and walk with leg braces on a treadmill.

As impressive as spinal cord treatments are, recent successes using ethical sources of stem cells are also overcoming leukemia and repairing damaged hearts.  Stem cells obtained from cord blood are being used to treat leukemia in young children and adults.  Stem cells obtained from the patients’ own bone marrow are repairing damaged hearts.

Beyond the actual successes with treatments of human patients, research for new sources of ethical stem cells is leading to new discoveries of their capabilities.  Research using umbilical cord blood has grown cells that produce insulin.  Dr. Bob Casper, a senior scientist focusing on cord blood stated, “Everything that people now talk about regarding stem cells, I think that cord blood can do.”

Beyond new discoveries from umbilical cord blood, stem cells with more potential have been found in spleen cells and bone marrow.  A type of adult stem cell has been isolated from bone marrow that shows all the characteristics of human embryonic stem cells.  A team of researchers at Boston’s Tufts University have found cells that come from adult donors that can change into many, if not all of the different types of tissue in the human body.  It was previously thought that only embryonic cells could produce this.  Tufts cardiologist Dr. Douglas W. Losordo said, “I think embryonic stem cells are going to fade in the rearview mirror of adult stem cells.”  He said that bone marrow “is like a repair kit. Nature provided us with these tools to repair organ damage.”

In contrast, clinical trials with embryonic stem cells are believed to be years away because of the risks and ethical problems involved in the production of embryos for scientific use.  Additionally, embryonic stem cells trigger an immune response in the recipient that is avoided with umbilical cord blood stem cells and with stem cells obtained from the patient’s own cells such as bone marrow.