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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."
Will that new liver/lungs I wanted for christmas be plug and play compliant?
Linux is dead.
LU
The functions of the thymus were not well understood until the early 1960s, when its role in the development of the body's system of immunity was discovered. Beginning during fetal development, the thymus processes many of the body's lymphocytes, which migrate throughout the body via the bloodstream, seeding lymph nodes and other lymphatic tissue. The main cells undergoing this processing are the T cells, a heterogeneous groups of cells essential in protecting the body against invasions by foreign organisms. If the thymus fails to develop or is removed early in fetal life, the immune system cannot develop completely. Normally, by the time the infant is a few months old, the immune system has sufficiently formed so as to function throughout life. However, further growth and development of lymphoid tissue still depends on intervention by the thymic cells. After the initial seeding process, the thymus releases a hormonal substance that stimulates further growth of lymphoidal tissue, although such a substance has not yet been isolated.
dam()
Useless sig.
It is too bad that more hospitals aren't allowing the donation of umbilical stem cells (stem cells collected from cord blood). They are largely an untapped resource and are usually considered PC even in the most conservative camps.
Not that that's a bad thing, mind you. I just hope we don't end up with giant killer thymuses (thymi? nah) rampaging through downtown Cleveland. Again.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
Come back and tell me when they can grow a Shakey's Pizza
Help the scientists free the world from the evil curse of the dracula
It seems that the Herald Sun's article is focusing on how great the thymus is, and all the nifty things it can do -- when the real breakthrough is the fact that they GREW A FRICKIN' FUNCTIONING ORGAN FROM STEM CELLS. Jesus Christ! Move this tech over to the heart, liver, kidneys, whatever, and NOW you've got the "holy grail of immunology". Yeah, I realize it's a lot of work to do something like this, and requires specialized effort and development for different organs, but if the basic technology works... ay caramba.
Maybe I'm missing something, and this isn't as big a deal as I think it is... but if it is...
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
quote:
"The thymus produces, educates and distributes special white cells called T lymphocytes (T-cells) which help to control the immune system and fight infection.
But T-cells are destroyed when cancer patients undergo chemotherapy and also by the AIDS virus. The cells are also suppressed in people who have had organ transplants."
this is a significant problem that is one of the biggest factors leading to disease in immunocompromised patients. the reason why they're also suppressed in patients with organ transplants is that they require immunosuppresant therapy, so that they own body doesn't reject the donor organ.
in a nutshell, your body doesn't like non-self things. if there's a non-self thing in your system, say, someone else's liver, your immune system will flip out and demonstrate Real Ultimate Power.
what's needed is some sort of component that can be introduced into the body that can aid the immune system intelligently. something that resists destruction by chemotherapy, and something that is "smart" enough to know what to attack, and what to leave alone. T-cells don't do this.
nanotechnology offers this. i know it's going to be years from now, but i hope that scientists will be able to shrink Mr. T into an injectable form. These Mr. T-cells will seek out and berate questionable cells and foreign bodies and beat them down, if necessary.
some genetic work may be needed to strengthen its intelligence such that the Mr. T-cells don't kill everything in sight.
"what's all this jibba-jabba bout chemo?"
"i pity the immune system who ain't got no T."
The hell?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
No, but with a few of these in vitro-grown thymuses (thymii?) implanted in your body, you'll develop a Wolverine-like super immune system and live to be a bitter, violent 150-year old amnesiac super hero.
Freedom: "I won't!"
There's no reason it has to be. The beuaty of stem cell use is exactly that you can induce particular organs without having to grow the whole organism. That is, we decant a thymus from the vat instead of cloning and growing a whole new human (a la Parts: The Clonus Horror -- I shudder as much at the movie quality as the idea!).
So this is actually much less class-warfare-ish than straight cloning-and-harvesting. The real ethical hangup seems to lie in the source of stem cells... the best grade appears to be embryonic, which naturally raises red flags with a large number of people.
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
The world doesn't need a fountain of youth.
What we need is a fountain of SMART.
Beta sux! Join the Slashcott! http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4760465&cid=46173047
The thymus is a small organ that is critical to the immune system. Human trials could begin within two years.
Human trials of what? An immune system? So the un-authorized trials of billions of people over the last hundred thousand years are invalid (pun intended)?
In any case, I definitely agree; this "immune system" scientists have been proposing definitely needs more clinical research before we can allow one to be used on real people.
By the way, exactly who owns the patent on it?
A number of Larry Niven's stories in his future history "Known Space" cycle touch on this point, but arrived at a reverse conclusion in some cases: because people lived longer, they took fewer chances.
Even Hollywood will give you examples of this, although usually they look at it from the other end: "I've only got to live, so I'll go do something heroic which will probably result in my death, but big friggin' deal because I'm about to die."
The extension of that line of thought predicted by many SF authors is, "I've got three centuries of good livin' in front of me if I don't fuck it up, so why risk it all doing something possibly dangerous, like mountain climbing, deep-sea diving, or attempting to cross the street in downtown Chicago."
(The SF-aspect of the stories usually involves activities that we would think of as typical being perceived, in the brave new world, as "something possibly dangerous".)
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
and
and
This is not to say that the matter is cut-and-dried, but rather, to indicate that there is solid reason for suspecting that stem cells will need to be embryonic to be (fully) useful; and hence, the debate (which was my actual point).
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
Grow John Bobbitt a replacement penis?
Okay, I'll bite. (Actually, I don't bite.)
Forget about replacements. How about spares? Or extras? You know, redundancy. Or maybe just additional size?
Or maybe now all those SPAM messages will come true!
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
"Possible consequences: loss of your immune response memory. It seems like lymphocytes retire there and protect you from the stuff they were good at killing in their youth. If you replaced your thymus, you'd probably be susceptible to chicken pox (and worse) again if it wasn't done very carefully."
That could be a very good thing. Because in
auto-immune disease (MS, arthiritis and many
more), the immune system has learned to attack
the wrong things and busy causing you pain or is
even killing you.
There are at least three types of T cells: Th cells (helper T cells), Tc cells (cytotoxic T cells), and TDTH cells (delayed-type hypersensitivity T cells). The existence of Ts cells (suppressor T cells) has been postulated but is apparently still controversial. In addition, Th cells are further subdivided into Th1 cells necesary for cell-mediated immunity (primarily targeting viral infections and tumors) and Th2 cells necessary for antibody production. T cells and B cells are both lymphocytes, which are a different lineage of white blood cells than macrophages.