In more Tokyo news, an Associated Foreign Press report is revealing that scientists, using menstrual blood from nine women, cultivating it for a month and focusing on a kind of cell that can act like stem cells, were able to get heart cells to begin beating in 20 percent of tests. This success rate is much more successful than stem cells taken from bone marrow, which is about 0.2 to 0.3 percent successful.
Not only did 20% of the cells begin beating about three days later, they also formed sheet-like muscle tissue. Another test showed that rats that had suffered heart attacks improved after they received the cells from the menstrual blood.
Scientists are also reporting that women could soon be able to use their own menstrual blood to one day build stockpiles of cells and that storage of the blood could stay for 200 to 300 years waiting for the perfect match -- I guess in case there's a low supply of menstrual blood donors in the future.
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