Author Archives: shrwell1

Nov
26
2012

Muscular Dystrophy Blog

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Since we have been learning about muscles, I decided to write about muscular dystrophy. Muscular dystrophy is an inherited disorder. It involves degeneration of musculature that can get worse over time.  There are many different types of muscular dystrophy but they all have the obvious in common, the affect the muscles. However, some affect the upper body, some the lower body, and some the entire body. Also, in the different types, some muscles can be affected slowly and some quickly. Something not as obvious is that in some types of muscular dystrophy a symptom is mental retardation.

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is the branch of muscular dystrophy which mental retardation is common. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is from a defect on the X chromosome and is more common in boys than girls. Mental retardation occurs in about thirty percent of the boys in which it affects. Along, with mental retardation DMD symptoms still include muscle weakness.

Unfortunately, muscular dystrophy is not an uncommon disease. Treatment is to control the symptoms because there is no cure for any of the variations of this illness. However, making more and more people aware of the disease is a goal. The more people involved in helping find a cure are making steps in the right direction. Once we find a cure it could help many people both young and old.

references

1.Kaneshiro, Neil K. “Muscular dystrophy.” U.S. National Library of Medicine – The World’s Largest Medical Library. A.D.A.M., Inc., 1 February 2012. Web. 7 November 2012. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMT0002172/.

2. NARDES, Flávia; ARAUJO, Alexandra P. Q. C.  and  RIBEIRO, Márcia Gonçalves. Mental retardation in Duchenne muscular dystrophy. J. Pediatr. (Rio J.) [online]. 2012, vol.88, n.1 [cited  2012-11-23], pp. 6-16 . <http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0021-75572012000100003&lng=en&nrm=iso>.

Oct
09
2012

Blog #1

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I have chosen to research the uses and benefits of umbilical cord blood. This special blood has to be retrieved at the time of birth and is specific to each individual. The collecting of the umbilical cord blood is something that has not been around for a long period of time but is becoming more known as time goes on.

Recently, scientists conducted a study on the benefits of umbilical cord blood. However, umbilical blood can be disadvantageous compared to traditional transplants due to the large amount of time it requires to prepare the transplant and the small number of stem cells that can be extracted from one unit of the blood. However, the advantage of a perfect transplant match to a patient often outweighs the disadvantage of recovering the stem cells and preparing the transplant tissue.

If more people would recognize the benefits of umbilical cord blood it would help the world tremendously. First, the stem cells can replace cells that have been damaged by disease. Second, the stem cells can “give rise to white blood cells and other components of the blood system” (Fred).  This would be very beneficial to a person with a blood disorder such as the unfortunately common disease Leukemia.

1.Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. “First successful use of expanded umbilical-cord blood units to treat leukemia.” ScienceDaily. 18 Jan. 2010. Web. 6 Sep. 2012.

 Shelby Harwell