Iran’s stem cell research may lead to a vitiligo treatment

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Iran’s stem cell research may lead to a vitiligo treatment

13 December 2009 4 Comments

adult-stem-cell,vitiligo-research Researchers at the Tehran Royan Institute are taking advantage of Iran’s open embryonic research programs. A team lead by Dr Baharvand claims to have pioneered a procedure that uses the patient’s own stem cells to cure vitiligo.

Their research focuses on induced pluripotent stem (IPS), adult stem cells which are made to act like embryonic ones – they gain the ability to become any cell in the human body. Because the patient’s own stem cells were used and not embryonic stem cells, this is another example of how adult stem cells are made to act like embryonic stem cells that can grow into any kind of tissue.

Not only does this sidestep the ethical and moral questions raised by embryonic stem cell research, it opens the door to the possibility of creating new tissue and organs to replace our own damaged ones without fear that the new tissue will be rejected by our immune systems, as is the case in transplant surgery. This means that treatment for previously believed incurable disease such as Parkinsons, multiple sclerosis and even spinal cord injuries are possible.

For those interested in knowing more, there’s a great article from the BBC that explains how adult stem cells are made to act like embryonic cells.

The Washington Post published an informative article about Iran’s stem cell research: Iran at forefront of stem cell research

The Iran’s stem cell research may lead to a vitiligo treatment by Nathalie Pelletier, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

4 Comments »

Mary said:

i haven’t seen any responses to the Iranian Stem cell research development. I may have missed them.
The man in the video was cured!! we can hear and see the results.
This is unbelievable.
Now, there more hope that there will be a cure soon.
If you haven’t seen the link (video) please look at it.
Happy New year to all of you.

# 30 December 2009 at 10:58 am

Nathalie Pelletier (author) said:

Hi Mary,
There haven’t been any responses to the stem cell research for vitiligo…it surprised me too. But perhaps it’s because stem cell research is taboo. I support it, not just because i want a cure for vitiligo, but because of the myriad of diseases that could be eradicated. Can you imagine a day when hearing that you have cancer is no longer a death sentence? or how many ppl would be saved from a fate of living in a wheel chair?

happy new year, mary!

# 31 December 2009 at 10:46 am

Atul said:

Hi Mary/Nathalie,

I believe it should be shown immediately on international news channel so that people across the world would be aware of this technology and other doctors would also share this technology among themselves…..

# 17 February 2010 at 11:52 pm

Atul said:

Hi,
can anybody share number of cases gone for treatment of stem cell research and how many of them successfully treated. it will be great if shared their % of sucess.

Regards
Atul

# 5 March 2010 at 11:21 am