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Human Astrocytes Developed From Stem Cells
RogerRoast writes "Astrocytes are the most ubiquitous cells in the brain. They perform critical support function to the neurons. These cells are also implicated in several human brain disorders. The U of Wisconsin researchers developed a method to create these cells from stem cells. According to the lead author Dr Zhang, 'not a lot of attention has been paid to these cells because human astrocytes have been hard to get, but we can make billions or trillions of them from a single stem cell.' The technology developed by the Wisconsin group lays a foundation to make all the different species of astrocytes. It may be possible to genetically engineer them to mimic disease so that previously inaccessible neurological conditions can be studied in the lab."
is News for Nerds.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
If God wanted man to fly, he'd have given him wings. If God wanted man to travel outside the planet, he'd have given him the ability to breath in space. If God wanted man to live through a heart attack, he'd have given him an internal defibrillator. If God wanted man to travel the oceans, he'd have given him flippers.
Here's another one for the list, but with opposite implication:
"If God wanted us to go around naked, we'd be born that way" - Oscar Wilde.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
You're missing the tie-breaker: Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve. This loops from your 10th vertebrae down into the chest cavity, under the aorta, and back up to the larynx.
The only answers to this from religion are either "bad design" implying that God is fallible and can make mistakes, or "God works in mysterious ways / is testing our faith" which are thought-terminating cliches.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
Astrocytes are linked with the repair of spinal cord injuries. And as of 2008 stem cells can be made from pretty much any normal adult cell http://www.nature.com/stemcells/2008/0810/081030/full/stemcells.2008.142.html .
The possibilities for the rehab of spinal cord injury patients is enough to make this an easy application of stem cell research, which might just earn the stem cell researchers some much needed good publicity from Washington.
Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
There has been a lot of discussion lately about the importance of astrocytes. I didn't know that they are linked to certain neurological diseases. But at least for information processing they seem to be quite unimportant. There is a study that was published in Science where the researchers basically knocked out the signaling of all astrocytes in mice and the behaviour of the animals changed only marginally. A summary of this debate was published last year in an open access article in Nature: http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101110/full/468160a.html
I read it Astrocycles Like exercycles on the space station
Hectice, baby, Mercator says hello to you
The article linked to says both. Shame on slashdot not being more specific as there's a world of difference between adult stem cells and embryonic in behavior post creation and transformation. Anybody know what the percentages were and the success of each type as far as remaining "safe" after the creation?
Hm, I'm curious to exactly what in your brain causes you be such a sociopath. Perhaps you should go first?
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Are you an idiot? Of couse God had to move the fucking nerve so it wouldn't get hit when Reagan was shot. If he can't speak, how can he be the Great Communicator?
If I can just reach out with my words and touch a butthole, just one, it will all be worth it.