Adult stem cell transplant fights lupus

Excellent news from Forbes.com:

Doctors say they have helped people with lupus, a disease in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissue and organs, by using stem cell transplants to give them a new, less harmful, immune system...

Lupus affects an estimated 1.5 million Americans, most of them young women. Symptoms range from mild fever and achy joints to severe kidney, heart, lung, liver and brain damage...

First, the physicians extracted immune stem cells originating in the participants' own bone marrow -- immune stem cells typically begin life in the marrow. These cells were taken from the blood, however, an easier procedure than going into the marrow, explained Burt, who is also chief of the division of immunotherapy for autoimmune disease at the hospital.

The participants were also given high doses of a drug that destroyed their existing immune system cells. The isolated stem cells then were returned to the patients' bone marrow to create a new immune system. "It's like rebooting a computer," Burt said.

Results so far have been impressive, with many patients continuing in what seems to be disease-free remission.

Kudos to Forbes for doing this story, but thumbs down on not clarifying that the "stem cells" in the headline are of the adult variety.