Stem cell grapevine gone wild: Did football star get an iPS cell transplant and has the first human been cloned?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nWsanSmAxw

The stem cell field is exciting and the technology powerful. Not surprisingly there is a great deal of intense behind the scenes rumors about various hard to believe developments and news stories that also seem incredible.

One such line of gossip was that the FBI was poised to crack down much more severely on dubious stem cell clinics in the U.S.

Now more recently we have two more amazing stories that are percolating through the field.

First, there is the report that football star Peyton Manning had in fact received not an autologous stem cell transplant, but rather stunningly the first human transplant of iPS cells.  While the Fox News Reporter who is seen in the video above seems to imply that the fat stem cells from Manning were reprogrammed, what really happened?

The New American reported that Popsci was indicating that Manning had received not an embryonic stem cell-based treatment nor an adult stem cell treatment, but rather an iPS cell-based treatment in Europe.

There is no source for the idea that the transplant was definitely based on iPS cells, but rather it seems most likely this report is totally wrong and that in fact Manning received an autologous transplant of mesenchymal stem cells. It is amazing how fast rumors travel, but I think we can be safe in assuming these reports of what would be the first iPS cell-based transplant are completely wrong.

Second, we have the rumor from multiple sources that a story is brewing that has something to do with human reproductive cloning. It seems like every few years someone claims to have cloned the first human and it turns out to be hogwash, but this time it seems there may be more substance to what the grapevine is saying. Maybe this is just a pig in a poke as the expression goes, but stay tuned.