Cape Argus: Horses lead race for viable stem-cell therapy: "Professor Roger Smith examines a small vial of straw-coloured liquid containing millions of stem cells before filling his syringe.
His 'patient' - a nine-year-old thoroughbred bay gelding - stands sedated but still conscious while Smith guides the needle into a damaged tendon on its foreleg.
An ultrasound monitor tracks the stem cells bubbling through the tissue and in a few minutes it is all over. The leg is bandaged and the horse led back to stables.
Stem cell therapy may be controversial in human medicine, but in the world of horse racing it is becoming the odds-on favourite for tackling tendon damage, which accounts for one in three race-course injuries.
Soon the same technology could be applied to humans."
