The following submission statement was provided by /u/YWAK98alum:

I hope that this post is allowed. I somehow saw this post before it was removed by the AutoMod because the OP's account, /u/superduperman6, has an account less than 5 days old. I searched the sub to see if anyone reposted it, and it doesn't look like anyone has. It's clearly Futurology material and belongs here.

Spina bifida is a terrible fetal abnormality, and while the progress of medical science is such that 90% of children with this condition live to age 20, it's still often a very rough life involving limited mobility and impaired bowel and bladder control. It affects about 1 in 1,000 live births, and sight unseen, I would wager that a substantial number of parents who receive an early diagnosis of spina bifida choose abortion and the 1 in 1,000 live birth figure would be higher without that.

We already have surgical options that would have seemed impossibly futuristic a generation ago that allow doctors to perform spinal surgery on the baby in the womb, while the mother is under general anaesthesia, put the child back in the womb, and sew it up. That can correct some of the spinal deformities but has not helped much, if at all, with the motor control and digestive issues.

So now we get to the Futurology bit.

From the OP's submission:

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But in a groundbreaking trial they decided to combine surgery with stem cells (placenta derived "mesenchymal stem cells" to be exact) to see if this would do any better than just surgery alone, and according to the lead scientist running the trial the early results are very encouraging. 3 babies have been treated so far and the babies are coming out of the womb kicking and wiggling their little baby toes, which is unusual for babies with spina bifida, the babies shouldn't be able to kick their legs at all.

What they did exactly was they took a dural patch which is already FDA approved, a dural patch will be absorbed by the body over time I understand this much, but a dural patch is used a lot in brain surgeries to patch up the brain and stop the bleeding, anyhow, they took a dural patch and infused it with placenta derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and placed it on the babies spine. The dural patch acts as scaffolding for the stem cells, it just holds them in place. From what I understand they were using the dural patch before when they were treating babies for spina bifida, the only thing they did differently this time was they added stem cells to it, this trial was set up to see if the stem cells made a difference or not.

It looks like we may have a cure for spina bifida. They will treat a total of 35 babies for this clinical trial and they'll be watched for 6 years to see if they hit all of their goals such as walking and talking, the scientists hope that this may even cure the bowel problems associated with spina bifida.

Hey in the article you'll see a youtube video, watch it for more info. In the future they are going to perform this surgery w/ stem cells on babies that have already been born but suffer from spina bifida, as the the scientists think these placenta derived stem cells can possibly help regenerate the spinal cord damage. And they are looking to possibly use these placenta stem cells on people with spinal cord injury (paralyzed people).

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can either be isolated from the placenta or the umbilical cord, MSCs are found all throughout the body, every human has MSCs all throughout their body (in fact all mammals), in fact I could take MSCs from your bone marrow or your belly fat, isolate the MSCs, multiply them in a bioreactor, and then inject them into my body, MSCs don't have to be donor matched, MSCs are quite magical actually. As we age we lose a lot of our MSCs and they become old and decrepit. But scientists have found that MSCs taken from the placenta or umbilical cord are super young and vibrant, which makes sense, you want young and youthful stem cells not old and decrepit stem cells. Stem cells from the placenta/umbilical cord are super young and supercharged.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) don't go into the body and turn into new tissue, in fact they secrete growth factors, they secrete molecules that stimulate the body to heal itself, these molecules have been called exosomes. So MSCs secrete exosomes, but guess what, all cells in the body secrete exosomes it's how they communicate with each other. I bet this is new information for many of you, but you can google exosomes if you don't believe me.

Mesenchymal stem cells are not yet approved by the FDA but I think within several years that will hopefully change.

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So we're at the front end of a 6-year study to see whether these in vitrio stem cell treatments work durably. But the early results are encouraging, and honestly, by the standards of what used to be the expectation for the duration and quality of life of patients of spinal bifida, practically a minor miracle.

Anyway, superduperman6, thanks for posting. Happy to give this a boost with my slightly older account and hope some other people get some value and hope out of it like I did.

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/y89eav/a_cure_for_spina_bifida_in_a_groundbreaking/isypudx/