I’m not a doctor. I don’t even play one on TV. So my knowledge on stem cells is based on what I can (a) read and (b) understand of what I read. Keep that in mind. Anyway, while I understood that stem cells had vast potential to change medicine, I found the method used to gain them was repulsive. Using harvested fetuses is, in my opinion, immoral.
I always thought that there would be a better solution and that abortion culled stem cells weren’t the only way to solve the problem.
Looks like I was right!
In a report which was published yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicates that it might be possible that human hair follicles can be a source for stem cells.Dr. Robert Hoffman, who is leading this study, and his team isolated stem cells from hair and manipulated them in such a way that they became brain cells. They removed mice whiskers and isolated cells from the follicle. These cells became neurons within one week. Over time, they then developed into other types of cells.
Now, like I said, I’m not a doctor, so there may be something about hair generated stem cells that just aren’t as good as dead baby stem cells, but it goes to show that there’s always another way to solve a problem.