Our son Mike asked what I meant about the 2 million stem cells, vs 25K or 700K. I don't understand it all myself. But the theory is that stem cells do the repair and rebuilding of damaged areas in the body. Bone marrow contains a load of stem cells, I understand that's where they are manufactured by the body. So that's why they extract those. Now remember, that I'm a CPA, no medical training, so I'll tell you how I understand it. And you medical folks out there can enjoy a good laugh on me if I'm wrong.
Eddie asked Dr. John what he knew about stem cell therapy (done in Costa Rica) using stem cells extracted from fat tissue. Dr. John (remember his English is not my English, so some is lost in my understanding) said that, in his opinion, fat stem cells would not work because they are already "turned on" as fat cells ... kind of like having their assignment and it's only for fat (think union labor... it's not my job kind of thing). Bone marrow hasn't been turned on yet, not assigned to a specific tissue or organ ...so supposedly they would home in on the damaged area and take on the assignment to repair or regenerate nerves (actually the covering around the nerves...like insulation on electrical wires).
ALS is a demylinating disease (boy, did I butcher that spelling), where the protective covering of the nerves is attacked. Causing a short circuit, so to speak. So Eddie looks like he has a muscle disorder, but it's not. Instead, the message from the brain is getting short circuited and not giving the proper signals for the muscles to work correctly. Dr B said it's like being in your car, standing on the brake, and floor boarding the gas ... it's just not effective.
So, back to the question about the count. If one wanted to build a brick wall and you had one worker, no matter how talented he/she was, it would take a long time. But if you had 10 guys working on it they'd make better progress...even though some of those guys might not show up for work. ALS is like the Great Wall of China, it's going to take lots and lots of talented guys (stem cells) showing up for work to get it done. Tomorrow they want to see the maximum number of stem cells in the count (appx 2 million), but they'll use all the guys that show up to work.
Hope that helps. If I get corrected by the medical profession, I'll do a retraction/correction.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment