The monthly discomfort women see as a curse
could pay off someday as Japanese researchers say menstrual blood can be
used to repair heart damage.
Scientists cultivated menstrual blood for a month, focusing on a kind
of cell that can act like stem cells.
Experiments showed that the condition of rats who had suffered heart
attacks improved after they received the cells derived from menstrual
blood.
The success rate is 100 times higher than the 0.2 to 0.3 percent for
stem cells taken from human bone marrow, according to Keio University
scientists.
They said women may eventually use their own menstrual blood. This,
they added, could be used to build stockpiles of cells to help people with
matching human leukocyte antigens, a key part of the immune system.
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