Quadriplegic donkey cured by stem cell therapy

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shokkyy

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Anyone seen this? It's amazing stuff. A donkey in the US picked up a spinal cord injury in his paddock and within a couple of days became quadriplegic. The vet hospital tried experimental treatment with stem cell therapy and he's now running around and apparently completely cured. The sad thing is it'll be decades before they attempt that kind of treatment on people, and how many paralysed people could it help?
 
http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/na...e-health-quadriplegic-donkey-walks-again.aspx

It wasn't a true - or permanent - quadriplegia. There was severe trauma to the spine resulting in severe swelling and pressure on the spinal cord. Humans make a complete recovery from this sort of condition in most cases - they are rather easy to treat with the neck (much shorter in a human) immobilised and total bed rest!!

Not to say it's not interesting - and a valuable indication that stem cell therapy is helpful in this sort of injury - but with horses/donkeys etc the biggest problem will always be keeping the animal alive while the treatment has time to work!
 
JanetGeorge said:
http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/na...e-health-quadriplegic-donkey-walks-again.aspx

It wasn't a true - or permanent - quadriplegia. There was severe trauma to the spine resulting in severe swelling and pressure on the spinal cord. Humans make a complete recovery from this sort of condition in most cases - they are rather easy to treat with the neck (much shorter in a human) immobilised and total bed rest!!

Not to say it's not interesting - and a valuable indication that stem cell therapy is helpful in this sort of injury - but with horses/donkeys etc the biggest problem will always be keeping the animal alive while the treatment has time to work!
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I was going to say something along those lines. Probably not entirely down to stem cells. My mother fractured three vertabrae in her neck and was paralysed until the swelling went down but she is fine now. As she did it in the 70s I don't suppose many stem cells were involved!

I personally wouldn't touch with a barge pole until further research is done. I read a paper that seemed to indicate a link between stem cell use and certain types of tumour when used in people and the evidence that they work is rather patchy to begin with. Just MO though. Glad that the donk is better anyway :)
 
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