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/