On the frontier of medicine today is research involving stem cells, thought to have the potential to treat afflictions from baldness to diabetes and age-related macular degeneration. With the capacity to develop into specialized functions, such as blood, bone or muscle, the cells serve as a natural repair system for a part of the body harmed by disease or injury. They also can be reprogrammed genetically and induced to grow to provide various therapies.
But stem cell use is largely obscured, surfacing only occasionally, such as when Dez Bryant of the Dallas Cowboys gets an injection to speed healing of his broken foot, or there's a controversy like the one embroiling Planned Parenthood. The anti-abortion activist who infiltrated that organization and video-recorded conversations about use of castoff tissues has said he was politicized at a stem cell conference where a researcher's work derived from brains of aborted fetuses.
The lower profile is primarily because the only treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is for blood and immunological illnesses. Yet other uses — to regenerate cartilage, repair muscle or replace skin — are available, if experimental and not covered by insurance. Some are offered as part of a formal process — a clinical trial — that is mandated before new products are deemed safe by the FDA, while others are available through clinics operating under exceptions to federal regulations that allow use on patients under certain conditions.
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