US Research Reveals Downside of IVF
11th Mar 10
US researchers are studying the reasons why a small fraction of children conceived using in vitro fertilisation and other assisted reproductive technologies (ART) are more likely to have health problems in later life. Some are more prone to high blood pressure, type II diabetes and obesity, a scientific meeting has heard.
These technologies have let otherwise infertile couples have children, which would have been impossible in the past. But this in turn might produce offspring who are themselves infertile, a session of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting in San Diego heard.
Louise Brown, the world’s first baby conceived via ART, was born in 1978. Researchers have wondered since then whether unforeseen long-term health issues...
Stem Cells Used on Irish Patients “Were Not for Human Use”
25th Feb 10
Stem cells supplied to a Dutch clinic where Irish multiple sclerosis (MS) patients went for treatment were not “intended for human use”, a General Medical Council (GMC) hearing in London has heard. Dr Robert Trossel said he did not discover that a batch of vials sent to him in Rotterdam in 2006 carried the warning till he took part in a BBC Newsnight programme.
Dr Trossel also came...
Adult Stem Cell Therapy Now Helping People with Heart Trouble
18th Feb 10
Les Nachman had battled severe heart disease for more than 10 years by the time he met Dr Zannos Grekos, a Florida-based pioneer in the field of adult stem cell therapy, which uses the patient’s own stem cells to treat heart disease and other disorders.
Six months after the...