Posted by
michael
on from the if-only-it-were-that-easy dept.
roman_mir writes "Wired reports that a 16 year old teenager had a hole in his heart (a nail gun accident,) which was repaired by injecting stem cells directly into his heart. What is interesting is that the stem cells were taken from the boy's own blood."
Just really cool biology
by
foniksonik
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
This is really cool biology. I look forward to hearing more stem cell success stories. Using your own bodies natural healing capabilities in a more focused and concentrated process... one word, elegant.
Now if those guys in florida will finish their testing on oral bacteria replacement therapy I will look to old age with much less anxiety.
-- A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Own Stem Cells
by
LordLucless
·
· Score: 4, Informative
This is really not interesting at all - nobody ever considered using other peoples stem cells to heal people - it'd be just the same as trying to transplant an organ, they'd get rejected.
The reason scientists want to use embryonic stem cells is that they are easier to study, not to use. There is no ethical/moral consideration about using stem cells - it's using embryonic stem cells that everyone kicks up a fuss about - and they are being used for study, they are not practical to be used for actual treatment.
-- Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
Re:Own Stem Cells
by
foniksonik
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I guess it's not interesting if by 'interesting' you mean provocative... if so you are correct.
I think it's very interesting to see good medicine being advanced.
-- A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Re:Own Stem Cells
by
Ioldanach
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
The reason scientists want to use embryonic stem cells is that they are easier to study, not to use.
From what I've seen, embryonic stem cells were what we started working with because we couldn't isolate stem cells in adults. Since we had the opportunity to work with pure concentrations of them from embryos, we've managed to figure out how to isolate them.
Thus, embryonic stem cell research was essential and is probably waning in necessity as we can now isolate quantities of stem cells from adults and children.
Re:Own Stem Cells
by
dbrutus
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Abortions don't just 'happen'. People are kept ignorant of alternatives, caregivers have more control over aspirin intake than over this particular elective surgury, and abortion providers fight tooth and nail against laws that provide for fully informing the mother of the reality of the situation. Abortion rates can come down via education.
In *every* industry, lower costs and you get higher demand. Secondary revenue sources like selling fetal tissue for experimentation (no, I know that's not technically what happens, it's just effectively so) and harvesting stem cells allows for subsidized abortion costs as a significant source of profit is the scientific community, not just the fee paid by the mother. Lower the cost and like clockwork abortion demand will go up at the margin.
Pro-abortion forces are trying to shift scientific funding so that embryonic stem cells get more money than adult stem cell research. They have bogus FUD campaigns about how stem cell research has more promise when all the practical stem cell treatments discovered to date are from adult stem cells.
the pro-abortion side cloaks itself in the mantle of science but what they're really after is protecting their lifestyle choice and making sure their enablers at the clinic stay in business. That's just wrong.
Re:Own Stem Cells
by
melee
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Abortion isn't about population control. It's about correcting the mistakes of stupid people. You want to lower the birth rate you do it through education and building a middle class. (Which is, not coincidentally, the same way to improve standard of living.)
Or, if you don't care about civil society, by trying to legislate your way out of it. (This is my not-so-subtle dig at China.)
While we're at it, that's not a fact. It's a naive supposition. And not a very well formulated one at that.
Quake related accident?
by
JimR
·
· Score: 3, Funny
...a 16 year old teenager had a hole in his heart (a nail gun accident)...
Wow - I broke my thumb once and tried to convince
people I'd sustained it during a particularly
mouse intensive game of Quake II, but this is
just going too far.
-- #exclude <ms/windows.h>
Not a substitute for embryonic stem cells
by
upper
·
· Score: 2, Informative
The success of this procedure says very little about the need for embryonic stem cells, because the stem cells used in this experiment were fundamentally different from embryonic stem cells.
Embryonic stem cells -- the ones from embryos a few days old, also called pluripotent stem cells -- can develop into any kind of cell in the body. The ones used in this experiment must have been multipotent stem cells, because the other kinds disappear long before birth. Multipotent stem cells come in may variations, some more specialized than others. Each kind can turn into a limited number of tissue types. See this for more info.
BTW, the embryos from which embryonic stem cells are taken were not aborted. They couldn't be -- to get pluripotent stem cells, you need embryos only a few days old. The source of those is fertility clinics, which created them as part of in vitro fertilization. For various reasons, fertility clinics sometimes have leftovers. It's quite a stretch to associate them with abortion in any way, and I fail a consistent line of reasoning that could allow these leftover embryos to be destroyed but discourage using them in medicine or science.
Re:Appears to be non-invasive
by
feed_me_cereal
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Compare a small 1/4" long 3 inch deep incision to a 4-5" cut + chest spreader that most operations require and compare which method causes more trauma to the body, I think this stem cell/cathador technique wins hands down.
My friend is a nurse in training. He said he recently observed open-heart surgery. He described to me how they had to yank staples out of this guys chest, like, bracing their feet against the bed and YANKING! And then came the saw... He told me blood and other junk was flying out of the guy, and that the smell of burning flesh from constantly coterizing the wounds was nearly unbearable... People say they feel like they've been hit by a truck after waking up... I deliver drugs in the hospital and it always creeps me out to go to open-heart recovery... everyone looks like a zombie.
Wheras this catheter business is practically out-patient surgery. My friend's dad just had a simmilar operation (minus the stem cells:) and was out of the hospital in 2 days. Definately a step in the right direction!
-- "Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson
Slashdot Mirror
This is really cool biology. I look forward to hearing more stem cell success stories. Using your own bodies natural healing capabilities in a more focused and concentrated process... one word, elegant.
Now if those guys in florida will finish their testing on oral bacteria replacement therapy I will look to old age with much less anxiety.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
This is really not interesting at all - nobody ever considered using other peoples stem cells to heal people - it'd be just the same as trying to transplant an organ, they'd get rejected.
The reason scientists want to use embryonic stem cells is that they are easier to study, not to use. There is no ethical/moral consideration about using stem cells - it's using embryonic stem cells that everyone kicks up a fuss about - and they are being used for study, they are not practical to be used for actual treatment.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
Wow - I broke my thumb once and tried to convince people I'd sustained it during a particularly mouse intensive game of Quake II, but this is just going too far.
#exclude <ms/windows.h>
Embryonic stem cells -- the ones from embryos a few days old, also called pluripotent stem cells -- can develop into any kind of cell in the body. The ones used in this experiment must have been multipotent stem cells, because the other kinds disappear long before birth. Multipotent stem cells come in may variations, some more specialized than others. Each kind can turn into a limited number of tissue types. See this for more info.
BTW, the embryos from which embryonic stem cells are taken were not aborted. They couldn't be -- to get pluripotent stem cells, you need embryos only a few days old. The source of those is fertility clinics, which created them as part of in vitro fertilization. For various reasons, fertility clinics sometimes have leftovers. It's quite a stretch to associate them with abortion in any way, and I fail a consistent line of reasoning that could allow these leftover embryos to be destroyed but discourage using them in medicine or science.
Compare a small 1/4" long 3 inch deep incision to a 4-5" cut + chest spreader that most operations require and compare which method causes more trauma to the body, I think this stem cell/cathador technique wins hands down.
:) and was out of the hospital in 2 days. Definately a step in the right direction!
My friend is a nurse in training. He said he recently observed open-heart surgery. He described to me how they had to yank staples out of this guys chest, like, bracing their feet against the bed and YANKING! And then came the saw... He told me blood and other junk was flying out of the guy, and that the smell of burning flesh from constantly coterizing the wounds was nearly unbearable... People say they feel like they've been hit by a truck after waking up... I deliver drugs in the hospital and it always creeps me out to go to open-heart recovery... everyone looks like a zombie.
Wheras this catheter business is practically out-patient surgery. My friend's dad just had a simmilar operation (minus the stem cells
"Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson