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Scientists Grow Human Thymus From Stem Cells
knight_23 writes: "The Herald
Sun reports
that Australian researchers have grown a functioning thymus from stem cells. The
thymus is a small organ that is critical to the immune system. Human trials could
begin within two years."
Some of you might be interested in a related study (published in Nature ) which made headlines last summer.
Summary: Dr Freda Miller and colleagues at the Centre for Neuronal Survival and the Brain Tumour Research Centre at the Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, have isolated stem cells from the dermis of adult rodents that will proliferate and differentiate in culture to produce very different cell types- neurons, glia, smooth muscle cells, and fat cells. These novel stem cells, SKPs, were isolated from the skin of juvenile and adult rodents -- an accessible on-embryonic source. Human studies have indicated that similar cells are present inadult human skin. "We believe our discovery is important as we have identified an exciting new stem cell from a non-controversial source that holds considerable promise for scientific and therapeutic research," says Dr Freda Miller.
Conservatives are just fine with stem cell research from adult stem cells. In terms of real, measurable progress, adult stem cells seem to be providing more practical benefits (people staying alive longer through treatment today) than embryonic stem cell treatments which seem to court an awful big risk of rejection and are likely to stick you with large immunosuppression drug bills for the rest of your life. Embryonic stem cells do seem to have the advantage of making abortion and pharmeceutical companies more profitable but I don't see how that leads to a superior moral position but the liberals sure seem to think so which is why they make up lies like conservatives are against all stem cell research when the reality is they just like the better kind.
Unfortunately, the article doesn't seem to say which kind of stem cells (adult or embryonic) were used in the experiment so the political jihad will have to take a small time out for the facts to catch up.
Darn.
I'm counting on science like this to replace most of my organs as they fail over time. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work either, this type of thing is advancing all the time. My plan is to live to be at least 120 so I can see the year 2100 but the dream is to live to 200. I'm pretty sure I'm going to need at least a couple of replacements through the years.