Stem Cell Research Breakthrough

Praise the Lord!!!! There has been a breakthrough in stem cell research. Scientists in Japan and scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have reported that they have turned human skin cells into cells that appear to have the same ability as embryonic cells to produce the 220 cell types found in the human body -- heart, brain, bone, blood etc, etc. The discovery involved adding four genes to human skin cells. By adding these genes, they were able to reprogram the chromosomes of the skin cells and turn them into blank slates that act like embryonic stem cells. These cells are promising and will not have the draw backs of embryonic stem cells:

1. When you extract cells from an embryo, you kill the embryo, a living child, albeit, a small living child.
2. Adult skin cells have had the influence of chemical and electrical stimulation from other cells in the body, something embryonic cells lack. Therefore, adult stem cells have been programed by proximity to other cells and will not produce the tumors and extra tissue that embryonic stem cells produce because they lack that programming.

Prior to this discovery, embryonic stem cells had to be harvested from human embryos. The process destroyed the embryo. Now it will no longer be necessary to destroy human embryos in order to get omnipotent stem cells -- cells that can produce every type of body cell. This is a marvelous discovery.

This is a discovery that is worthy of much praise. Hopefully this discovery and future research will eliminate the need to destroy human life in a vain attempt to make embryonic stem cells work.

The Minneapolis StarTribune reported on this breakthrough the day before Thanksgiving.

Praise the Lord and Happy Thanksgiving!!!