sicca cell treatment


sicca cell treatment

Pseudomedicine
A therapy introduced consisting of injections of freeze-dried cells from various organs of foetal cattle and sheep, first used in the 1950s for treating children with mental retardation (e.g., with Down syndrome).
Proponents of the therapy believed that the injected foetal cells migrated to target organs where they unloaded biochemical substrate, enzymes and various other elements thought to revitalise the end organs and tissues. Peer-reviewed studies in the 1960s dismissed the efficacy of sicca cell treatment; the treatment also carries the potential for anaphylactic and allergic reaction.