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technofuture8 OP t1_iwhfjwj wrote

Spina bifida is a horrible birth defect of the spine that leaves babies born paralyzed and have bowel problems. In the past ten years they started performing surgery on the baby, while still in the womb, while this helped the babies' outcome it didn't help a whole lot, many were still paralyzed with bowel problems.

So in California they decided to try surgery with stem cells. They performed the standard surgery but added stem cells to the baby's spine. And according to the scientist running the clinical trial the early results are highly encouraging!!! The first baby to be treated with stem cells had a really bad case of spina bifida and was expected to be born paralyzed but it seems the stem cells did the trick, the baby came out of the womb kicking it's legs and wiggling it's toes.

So what kind of stem cells did they use? They used placenta derived mesenchymal stem cells. The placenta comes out of the mothers womb, the placenta actually comes from the developing fetus not the mother, the placenta is typically thrown away but it turns out there are mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that can be harvested from the placenta, that can be used as medicine.

So what are mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)? MSCs are found all throughout everyone's body actually, in fact all mammals have MSC's in their bodies. MSCs aren't just taken from the placenta they're also frequently harvested from belly fat, bone marrow, and the umbilical cord. MSCs act as a quarterback that directs other cells what to do when the body suffers an injury, they can even control the immune system. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) don't turn into any new tissue, they don't replace damaged tissue, what they do is they home to areas of inflammation and start secreting microscopic molecules (about the size of a virus) that stimulate the body to heal itself. These molecules that MSCs secrete are called exosomes. Every cell in your body is secreting exosomes into the bloodstream, it's one of the ways cells communicate with each other. Even cancer cells secrete exosomes.

If you go on PubMed and enter "mesenchymal stem cell" you'll get back over 80,000 science papers, so research into MSCs is booming right now. Also if you go on PubMed and enter "exosomes" you'll get back tens of thousands of science papers, research into exosomes is booming too.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) don't have to be donor matched believe it or not. There are over 200 clinical trials in the USA that are using MSCs and over 1,000 worldwide currently. MSCs are not yet approved by the FDA but I think that will change in the coming years. MSCs can treat a bunch of different diseases actually. Umbilical cord/placenta derived MSCs tend to give the best results according to scientists, MSCs taken from the umbilical cord/placenta are super young and are supercharged basically.

p.s. Listen I know Joe Rogan ain't too popular on Reddit but I thought some of you might find this interesting. I first learned about mesenchymal stem cells thanks to Joe Rogan. Joe interviewed Mel Gibson back in 2018 because apparently Mel flew his dying 92yo father down to Panama where it's legal to get umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells. According to Mel Gibson his father's recovery was miraculous!!! And I've been obsessed with MSCs ever since, I think it will revolutionize modern medicine as we know it (if only the FDA would approve it). Mel Gibson's father died at 101 but the umbilical cord MSCs are probably the reason he didn't die at 92. This is just the first ten minutes the whole interview is on Spotify

https://youtu.be/uUCJo1j0S9s

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FuturologyBot t1_iwhh02i wrote

The following submission statement was provided by /u/technofuture8:


Spina bifida is a horrible birth defect of the spine that leaves babies born paralyzed and have bowel problems. In the past ten years they started performing surgery on the baby, while still in the womb, while this helped the babies' outcome it didn't help a whole lot, many were still paralyzed with bowel problems.

So in California they decided to try surgery with stem cells. They performed the standard surgery but added stem cells to the baby's spine. And according to the scientist running the clinical trial the early results are highly encouraging!!! The first baby to be treated with stem cells had a really bad case of spina bifida and was expected to be born paralyzed but it seems the stem cells did the trick, the baby came out of the womb kicking it's legs and wiggling it's toes.

So what kind of stem cells did they use? They used placenta derived mesenchymal stem cells. The placenta comes out of the mothers womb, the placenta actually comes from the developing fetus not the mother, the placenta is typically thrown away but it turns out there are mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that can be harvested from the placenta, that can be used as medicine.

So what are mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)? MSCs are found all throughout everyone's body actually, in fact all mammals have MSC's in their bodies. MSCs aren't just taken from the placenta they're also frequently harvested from belly fat, bone marrow, and the umbilical cord. MSCs act as a quarterback that directs other cells what to do when the body suffers an injury, they can even control the immune system. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) don't turn into any new tissue, they don't replace damaged tissue, what they do is they home to areas of inflammation and start secreting microscopic molecules (about the size of a virus) that stimulate the body to heal itself. These molecules that MSCs secrete are called exosomes. Every cell in your body is secreting exosomes into the bloodstream, it's one of the ways cells communicate with each other. Even cancer cells secrete exosomes.

If you go on PubMed and enter "mesenchymal stem cell" you'll get back over 80,000 science papers, so research into MSCs is booming right now. Also if you go on PubMed and enter "exosomes" you'll get back tens of thousands of science papers, research into exosomes is booming too.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) don't have to be donor matched believe it or not. There are over 200 clinical trials in the USA that are using MSCs and over 1,000 worldwide currently. MSCs are not yet approved by the FDA but I think that will change in the coming years. MSCs can treat a bunch of different diseases actually. Umbilical cord/placenta derived MSCs tend to give the best results according to scientists, MSCs taken from the umbilical cord/placenta are super young and are supercharged basically.

p.s. Listen I know Joe Rogan ain't too popular on Reddit but I thought some of you might find this interesting. I first learned about mesenchymal stem cells thanks to Joe Rogan. Joe interviewed Mel Gibson back in 2018 because apparently Mel flew his dying 92yo father down to Panama where it's legal to get umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells. According to Mel Gibson his father's recovery was miraculous!!! And I've been obsessed with MSCs ever since, I think it will revolutionize modern medicine as we know it (if only the FDA would approve it). Mel Gibson's father died at 101 but the umbilical cord MSCs are probably the reason he didn't die at 92. This is just the first ten minutes the whole interview is on Spotify

https://youtu.be/uUCJo1j0S9s


Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/yw3iqh/worlds_first_stem_cell_treatment_for_spina_bifida/iwhfjwj/

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technofuture8 OP t1_iwhlr7u wrote

If you read my first comment you might be left wondering what are exosomes exactly? Scientific American did an excellent article on exosomes check it out? For those who are curious https://www.scientificamerican.com/custom-media/nature-outlook-extracellular-rna/inside-the-stem-cell-pharmaceutical-factory/

And in this podcast they interviewed the scientist who treated these spina bifida babies with placenta derived mesenchymal stem cells, according to the scientist in the future they intend to try this same surgery with stem cells on babies with spina bifida that have already been born, they think these stem cells can possibly help a baby with spina bifida that's already been born, and they might even try these stem cells on people with spinal cord injury, you know paralyzed people. It seems these placenta derived stem cells are pretty dang revolutionary.

https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/podcasts-and-shows/unfold/hope-spina-bifida-cure-part-2

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A_VeryUniqueUsername t1_iwhmtma wrote

My uncle has this condition, so glad to see they are making progress with treatment in the womb!

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technofuture8 OP t1_iwhn979 wrote

I guess I thought I'd just throw this out there, but I know of a company that's currently going through a phase 3 trial for severe covid-19 using umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). And if the trial is successful they might be the first company to get approval from the FDA for umbilical cord MSCs. Keep in mind mesenchymal stem cells aren't yet approved by the FDA so whoever can cross that finish line first stands to make a lot of money!!!

https://therapeuticsolutionsint.com/therapeutic-solutions-international-announces-launching-of-phase-iii-clinical-trial-for-treating-covid-19-lung-damage-using-its-jadicell-universal-donor-stem-cell-drug/

Check out the results of the phase 2 trial, which were f*cking amazing. 91% of the severely ill covid-19 patients who were treated with umbilical cord MSCs survived vs. only 42% survived in the placebo group.

https://physician-news.umiamihealth.org/miller-school-leads-groundbreaking-trial-treating-severe-covid-19-with-mesenchymal-stem-cells/

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technofuture8 OP t1_iwho4uu wrote

They used a placenta for the mesenchymal stem cells from a donor. MSCs don't have to be donor matched actually. In fact I could take mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from out of your bone marrow or belly fat and multiply the MSCs in a bio-reactor and then inject them into my body and there would be no immune rejection, I'd be fine.

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technofuture8 OP t1_iwhonwt wrote

I think umbilical cord/placenta derived mesenchymal stem cells will revolutionize modern medicine, if only we could get these mesenchymal stem cells into every hospital in the USA, we gotta get the FDA to approve these stem cells!!! Exosomes are pretty revolutionary too.

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Captain-Stunning t1_iwi0kxu wrote

My sister died very young, most likely due to her spina bifida. I'm glad there's progress on treatment.

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RedditMayne t1_iwi1wzy wrote

Oh jeez, I hope it ends up being 100% successful in all three patients through the rest of their lives.

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love_me_some_reddit t1_iwi84z8 wrote

I have spina bifida. I wish There was more they could do for me at 44. One day this terrible defect will be gone for good! Thank you science!

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healthychad t1_iwia6xm wrote

GOOD we must keep working to cure and fix and cure and fix. There are so many diseases that need attention and solutions. This should be a primary focus of all.

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malokevi t1_iwibm91 wrote

I knew a girl with this condition when I was growing up. Great student, smart, but clearly extremely impared by it. I'm glad to see this article.

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GeorgieWashington t1_iwic2vc wrote

I hope I live long enough to see stuff like this get mundane.

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FairPumpkin5604 t1_iwigj3f wrote

Fascinating… does the donor placenta have to be a certain “age”? Like, does it matter how developed the fetus is? Could MSCs be collected from placentas from miscarriages or abortions, for example? Or only from birthed babies? (PS- I am NOT trying to start ANY sort of ethical debate here. I am honestly just curious about the “requirements” for viability/ harvesting.)

*edit- for clarification

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AM_Kylearan t1_iwihgm2 wrote

Wonderful! Another treatment option using stem cells that aren't derived from embryos. No one had to die for another to live - truly a win-win.

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MobiusOne55 t1_iwio833 wrote

Did anyone else think that was Facehugger on the babies head at first glance?

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widget1321 t1_iwiogvr wrote

I want to push back a little bit on some of this. Note that I think this stem cell trial is great and any hopeful about the outcomes, but I really didn't feel everything you said was completely correct (or, at the very least, misrepresented some things).

>Spina bifida is a horrible birth defect of the spine that leaves babies born paralyzed and have bowel problems. In the past ten years they started performing surgery on the baby, while still in the womb,

While it's been a lot more common in the last 10 years, the first of the fetal repairs was 20 years ago, not 10.

> while this helped the babies' outcome it didn't help a whole lot, many were still paralyzed with bowel problems.

This is one I have a real issue with. It absolutely helps a whole lot. For multiple reasons. One, paralysis, bladder, and bowel function are definitely much improved on average from what is expected (because of the details of the defect, there is a wide range of outcomes for kids with spina bifida myelomeningocele who have the same "level" of defect, characterized by where the defect is on the spine, so it's not like you can differently say before birth how a child will be, but after surgery has much better outcomes). Two, to many, that's not even the most important part. Hydrocephalus (caused in no small part by what is called a Chiari malformation type 2) is a big issue that affects most SB kids. This surgery helps prevent that from getting worse after the surgery and I know a number of kids who definitely would have needed a shunt in their brain at birth who either haven't needed surgery at all or were able to delay surgery until a safer surgery that didn't require something being put into the brain was able to be done. So, it's absolutely been very effective. It just isn't perfect and this technique with the stem cells has the potential to have even better results.

>The first baby to be treated with stem cells had a really bad case of spina bifida and was expected to be born paralyzed but it seems the stem cells did the trick, the baby came out of the womb kicking it's legs and wiggling it's toes.

Where did you see she had "a really bad" case of spina bifida? All I've seen hasn't indicated exactly what her case looked like, just that they expected some level paralysis, which is absolutely the norm for SB. If you can find something indicating details, I'd love to see it. If not, maybe don't make it seem like what sounds normal for SB is particularly bad.

Not trying to be harsh, my guess is you just aren't as familiar with SB (you seem to be attracted to this because of the stem cell angle, which is fair), so trying to clear things up. I've learned a lot about SB over the last 3 or so years. My daughter had the fetal surgery. She was not a particularly bad case, but her surgery stopped her hydrocephalus from getting worse (which it was every day until the surgery when it stopped growing at all until she was a few months old) and we were initially told to expect paralysis up above the knees or higher, but hers starts around her ankles after the surgery.

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Straxicus2 t1_iwiq4bw wrote

This is fascinating and exciting. Thanks so much for sharing!

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Bellamac007 t1_iwitbxs wrote

Finally, I blame the qanon crackpots for the delays in this and other groundbreaking treatments in medicine. This actually brought tears to me eyes. Thank you op for sharing this.

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Rorasaurus_Prime t1_iwiu7ln wrote

What an odd day for me to read this. My daughter was just born with this. I hope this helps others.

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Nostradamaus_2000 t1_iwiuniq wrote

Would love to get stem cell treatment, hope it works on Spina Bifida

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hangliger t1_iwiv9n3 wrote

So if I'm understanding this correctly, we have stem cells that exist anyway at the time of birth that we can probably use right away to fix defects?

Seems like a no-brainer unless there just isn't enough quantity and you need to go collecting hundreds to make this viable. But even then, could be promising.

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DMCinDet t1_iwixnut wrote

Good friends of mine had this surgery around 12 years ago and it was definitely cutting edge at the time. I'm not so sure about 20. She had to travel across states and was their third patient there.

Overall, glad to hear there is progress being made to prevent this for the future. Or provide a better outcome.

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Sawses t1_iwj1ngz wrote

My childhood best friend has this condition. He wanted to be a marine biologist...but biology and marine biology in particular is not friendly to people with limited mobility. You just can't do most of the things that make you a biologist if you can't use both hands and both legs.

So he ended up working a help desk job and living with his parents. It's a condition that took so much away from him, and I'm so pleased that it looks like we might have a feasible treatment finally.

I've done work in embryology and genetic disorders, and if you'd asked me 10 years ago about spina bifida, I'd never have imagined we'd see something like this in my lifetime.

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widget1321 t1_iwj6fg1 wrote

The very, very first one was done at CHOP in 1998. The MOMS trial (the first systematic, randomized trial to look at outcomes of the surgery, there were 3 or 4 surgical centers in the trial) started in 2003 (there were something like 200 surgeries before MOMS, but they weren't systematically compared to other children with postnatal repairs at the same time). The MOMS trial ended early in 2010 or 2011, because it was so successful and at that point the surgery started branching out into other places beyond the trial. That would be around the time your friends had it done, so it would still be considered very cutting edge at the time (since so few surgeons actually could do it), but there were surgeons who had been doing it for over a decade at that point.

It's right at the point now where many places think of it as the standard of care of the mom/child qualify, but a lot of places (especially if not near one of the centers that does it) still recommend postnatal surgery. Lots still think of it as cutting edge these days.

Complicated surgeries that are tricky and take a lot of time to learn take a while to get away from the cutting edge because there just simply aren't enough surgeons at first. It's been amazing to watch the rates that people do this increase (particularly at the center we did it at, which was new at the time).

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TheNextFallen t1_iwj7ud5 wrote

My only brother was terminated followong specialist recommendation at ~25weeks because of spina biffida and hydrocephalus in 2009 when I was 10. Nice to see such strides being made in eliminating this defect.

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fawn-the-annihilator t1_iwj9882 wrote

Thank you for this. My 9 year old has SB and a lot of this didn't sit right with me either. What you said is spot on. Fetal surgery is doing incredible things for those who are able to have it done. Unfortunately we weren't eligible, but it is absolutely life changing for those who are. I'm looking forward to further advancements with stem cell technology!

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Ipleadedthefifth t1_iwja7g2 wrote

I was diagnosed with spina bifida as a teenager. It wasn't so severe to be considered a disability. But it has given me back problems for my entire adult life. It has robbed me of many experiences. I was told there was nothing that could be done. I would die a happy man, if on my last day on earth, I learned they found a cure, or a treatment.

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technofuture8 OP t1_iwjcqiq wrote

There's a youtube video in the article did you watch it, watch all 4 of them now? Also go through and read through all the comments here because I made other comments, I posted a link to an interview of the scientist who ran the trial in one of my other comments, I suggest you listen to the interview because you'll find the answers you seek.

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technofuture8 OP t1_iwjd20r wrote

I want you to read through the other comments here because I posted a link to an interview of the scientist who ran the clinical trial. The hope is these stem cells will literally cure spina bifida and the bowel and bladder problems. They are going to treat 35 babies in total and they'll be watched for 6 years.

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widget1321 t1_iwjfm4p wrote

I read your other comments and looked at the interview and the videos. And, no, it didn't answer my question. I only really had the one question, which was why you thought she had a "really bad" case of spina bifida. The rest of my posts were statements correcting parts of your post that really didn't sit well with me.

The only thing I saw that indicated anything that could be interpreted as a "really bad case" of spina bifida, was that the kid had spina bifida myelomeningocele. Which, of course, they would only do the prenatal surgery at all on someone with SB myelomeningocele (unless you want to count SB myeloschisis as a separate thing, but that's really just a worse version of MMC where there is no sac covering the defect) because SB occulta wouldn't even show up that early. When you hear people talk about "spina bifida" they are almost invariably talking about SB myelomeningocele. Representing it as "a bad case" just because of that is misrepresenting things.

And I don't doubt this is likely to do great things. Again, I'm all on board with this procedure and with potentially doing related procedures on people who have SB and are already born (I'd sign my daughter up for a trial of that in a second). I didn't have any issues with what you said about its potential or that it's a great thing. I just had issue with how you represented the fetal surgery and the severity of the first child's SB (only because I can't seem to find anything that tells, for example, what part of the spine the defect was on, how big the ventricles in the brain were, or what other comorbidities there might be, which are the things used to diagnose the severity of SB MMC in the womb, so we don't KNOW the severity of the SB at this point other than it is MMC). That was my problem. You don't have to sell me on the treatment's possibilities, I'm bought in already. It's wonderful. But you didn't have to denigrate the amazing treatments (did you know there are multiple types of in utero repair for spina bifida? and variations on the two main types, even? it's not all the same surgery, though we lump them together, and they all have different advantages and disadvantages) that already exist. And you didn't have to oversell how bad the damage was to the child (again, unless you can point me to where they actually talk to the severity, in which case I'd retract that part), just having SB and qualifying for in utero surgery at all means the child was almost definitely going to have hydrocephalus and some level of paralysis, so the fact that they didn't is wonderful news, even without upselling how much damage there was.

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technofuture8 OP t1_iwjhe5o wrote

The scientist in either the youtube vids or the podcast said that the baby was expected to be born paralyzed but it came out kicking it's legs and wiggling it's toes. Anyhow they're going to treat 35 babies so we'll see how they turn out. Hopefully it's world changing.

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widget1321 t1_iwjlpqa wrote

>The scientist in either the youtube vids or the podcast said that the baby was expected to be born paralyzed

Yes, the baby has SB, the average person with SB is paralyzed to some extent.

>but it came out kicking it's legs and wiggling it's toes.

And that is wonderful. Hopefully they can see that with kids with high defects, but we will see how the study goes.

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BabaYagaInYoFace t1_iwjlrrl wrote

We didn’t let them down. We pay our taxes in hopes that it goes towards something worth paying towards.

But no it goes towards more yachts for the assholes “running” the show and keeping us poor and paying out the ass for insurance.

Our greedy government let them down.

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visualtim t1_iwjltzr wrote

I've worked with placentas and umbilical cord MSCs.

Typically they're from C-sections, as that's the most clean way of procuring. Before the scheduled procedure, they'll ask the mom if she'll donate the placenta and cord. There's a huge consent form and they take "no" very seriously.

Anyways, the tissue will be sent in for pathogen testing. Cord is already used for cord blood banking. And parts of the placenta are being tested as healing patches for burns and stuff, in which case it's dried and sterilized.

No on the miscarriages and abortions.

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love_me_some_reddit t1_iwjmbjg wrote

I hope so as well. I don't hold out much hope though. The best way I can help right now is to talk to parents of children with spina bifida. Help them prepare for their child getting older and what comes along with it. Man, I wish I could make that a job!

Take me for example. I played basketball with my friends growing up, I walked stairs, and I did most things everyone did. Albeit with a lot of challenges. As I aged my body was taken away from me. I was not prepared for that. So many others will not be as well. They need help understanding the progression. I wish I could reach them all, or get the ones I reach the ability to look beyond 10 years.

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widget1321 t1_iwjpf9r wrote

It usually doesn't, no. I'm not exactly sure of the details, but because the nerves that control the bladder and bowels are so low on the spine, almost every SB kid will have issues with that. I don't know if it's because that location makes them easily damaged, if it's just because they are usually the first damaged, if it's that any damage above that point causes the issues, or something else (and the good that the current surgeries do for the paralysis is by preventing further damage to the nerves that would normally occur between surgery date and birth).

If this actually repairs the nerves, I wonder if that's true in reverse (so bladder/bowel would be least likely/last to be fixed) or if they might have cases where bladder/bowel issues don't occur, but you still get paralysis. I don't know enough to predict it at all, just wildly speculating and curious there.

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Batman_MD t1_iwjpl45 wrote

It sounds like you’re doing a pretty amazing effort to help people that are going to go through what you have. Who says it isn’t a job? Look into SB outreach programs and if there isn’t anything…maybe that’s your calling? Its definitely not easy, but it sounds like you have a passion for it and the drive to do it.

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followmeinblue t1_iwjqreu wrote

This was literally a plot point in the show Years and Years.

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mumsteady24 t1_iwjusan wrote

My daughter has SB, 3 now, would she be able to get treatment or is this specifically done in the womb? She has a mild form.

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Willow-girl t1_iwjz7t3 wrote

I thank God that precious little girl was allowed to live.

0

Kurushiiyo t1_iwkxp36 wrote

Sorry to do this, but it is sicknesses like this that prove to me that there is either no god or in the event he exists, he does not care about humans in the least and is a malevolent entity underserving of any recognition or respect.

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n3rdchik t1_iwlcsxa wrote

I was surprised they didn’t mention the hydrocephalus component as well. I can’t wait until the journal articles hit and we see some quantitative data. Also what the tethered cord surgery rate is.

My son has SB and this is kind of a nice bit of sunshine as I am dealing with some school issues caused by people’s unkindness and ignorance over his SB issues

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TheAngryApologist t1_iwluq1v wrote

In what way has “qanon crackpots” delayed this research?

We’re talking about placenta sourced stem cells saving a human by performing surgery before they’re born.

If anything, I would think leftists crackpots would have an issue with people performing surgery on a “parasite”.

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NoelAngeline t1_iwm7klq wrote

My brother has this. I wonder what kind of person he would be if he didn’t have Spina Bifida.

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AM_Kylearan t1_iwn47p0 wrote

So what you're saying is you can't tell the difference between someone dying of natural causes and being murdered? Did you say that comment out loud and listen to it before you hit "reply?"

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technofuture8 OP t1_ixv9prn wrote

Did you know that mesenchymal stem cells are currently going through clinical trials for graft vs host disease? MSCs can literally modulate the immune system. This company right here is pioneering MSCs created from induced pluripotent stem cells and they've already conducted a phase 1 trial for graft vs host disease using their IPSC derived MSCs, and the results were amazing. At the two year mark 60% of the patients who received the MSCs were still alive, compared to, usually only 17% would be still be alive when treated with the standard of care.

https://www.cynata.com/graftversushostdisease

​

What I said was correct. MSCs don't have to be donor matched. Allogeneic MSCs have been administered to thousands of people at this point. For those who are wondering allogeneic means "not from self".

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