IT NEVER FAILS. If an embryonic stem cell researcher issues a press release touting a purported research advance, the media trip over each other to give the story full dramatic fanfare. But if an even better adult or umbilical cord blood stem cell advance comes to light--even when the experiments involve humans--you can usually hear the crickets chirping.

The latest examples of this phenomenon involve contrasting coverage about experimental embryonic and adult stem cell therapies to treat paralysis. Last week, a purported breakthrough in embryonic stem cell research for spinal cord injury shot across the media firmament like lightning through an Iowa summer sky. Embryonic stem cell researcher Hans Keirstead claimed to have transformed embryonic stem cells into a cell that "help the brain's signals traverse the spinal cord." He then injected these cells into paralyzed rodents and reported that they appear to have "repaired damaged rat spines several weeks after they were injured."

If this research pans out, it would indeed be an important breakthrough. But one wonders why this particular story was written at this specific time and received so much play, given that Keirstead didn't actually make any news. As noted in the story, Keirstead has been playing videos of formerly paralyzed rats walking to various audiences for two years. Moreover, the only apparent news hook for the current story is that he hopes to begin human trials using this technique in about two years.

This is cause for headlines? If human trials were actually beginning, that would be a story worth touting. But until then, it is more hype than fact. Indeed, it is worth noting that Keirstead has made similar statements before--and they didn't pan out. For example, in a March 18, 2002 story reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, the researcher was quoted as planning to begin human trials with his technique "in about a year."

Now contrast this much-hyped, mostly non-news event with actual recent news involving adult and umbilical cord blood stem cells that received muted or no coverage in the mainstream media. For example, most readers probably don't know that paralyzed human patients are apparently being successfully treated with their own adult stem cells by Dr. Carlos Lima in Lisbon, Portugal. The experimental therapy uses a paralyzed patient's own olfactory (nasal) stem cells and nerves, which are extracted from the patients and then injected into their injured spinal cords. So far, more than 20 patients have received this therapy with most receiving measurable benefit.

On July 14, 2004, two of Dr. Lima's American spinal cord injury patients testified before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space. Their reports about their individual improvement after receiving Dr. Lima's experimental treatments were breathtaking. For example, Susan R. Fajt testified:

I have recovered some functional improvement through Dr. Lima's procedure, such as the ability to hold my bladder and at times even void on my own. Sensation has been restored, though it is not completely normal. When concentrating, I am now able to contract my thighs slightly . . . this was impossible before my surgery in Portugal. But most important on my way to recover is that I can now walk with the aid of braces. I am now preparing to shed the shell of this wheelchair . . . to more and more use my braces and walker for mobility. This is something my doctors in America told me would never be possible with my level of injury and to accept my fate. [emphasis added]