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Scientists Turn Skin Cells Into Beating Heart Muscle
An anonymous reader writes "By taking skin cells and turning them into stem cells, a technique that is already well known, researchers at Technion Israel Institute of Technology were able to generate beating heart cells — a medical first. 'We have shown that it's possible to take skin cells from an elderly patient with advanced heart failure and end up with his own beating cells in a laboratory dish that are healthy and young — the equivalent to the stage of his heart cells when he was just born,' Lior Gepstein, study author and professor of medicine said."
By taking skin cells and turning them into stem cells as the precursor to other cell lines that match the patients genetic makeup. are you increasing the chances of cancer?
In my certainly uninformed view, skin cells are exposed to more radiation, thus more likely to have replication errors in their DNA, then adding the stress of modifying the cell to another form, I wonder what that does to it from a replication standpoint. It is nice to have fresh heat muscle I am sure, but to suddenly find yourself with melanoma in the heart would be a bummer.
Silence is a state of mime.
every advancement in medicine, and health is another step towards immortality.
Only problem is, you can replace everything in the body except the brain.
generations from now people will be living over 200 years of age, I can see new problems arising.
Over population is a problem and the average lifespan is under 70.
I see a future of hybrid human technology species
I'll be happy as long as modern medicine can keep me alive until we perfect mind uploading. Sometimes I get really sick of being a bag of meat.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
Personally, I'm hoping that we get back on track with space travel, and then I can upload myself into an interstellar space probe. If nano-tech gets good enough, you could maybe even reconstitute a physical body if you find someplace interesting to land. With an electronic mind, you could alter your perception of time so the boring parts of floating between stars for years would only last a few minutes subjectively.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
Amen. If they could use these cells to repair heart and vessels, I'd be second in line. And if this technique could be adapted to various eye parts, sign me up. Although my curiosity exceeds optimism I'd like to stick around a bit to see what happens.
My head is ugly. I want all new please.
slashdot troll = you make a compelling argument I do not like the implications of.
they cloned him as Mitt Romney and he is on the way, patience.
slashdot troll = you make a compelling argument I do not like the implications of.
I'll be happy as long as modern medicine can keep me alive until we perfect mind uploading. Sometimes I get really sick of being a bag of meat.
What if someone illegally downloads you? That could really hurt!
The toggle for the host computer's perception speed had better resemble a 386SX-16 turbo button or I wouldn't even bother.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
Slashdot should reduce the font size of the Troll/Flamebait postings. It will cut down on the disk space used.
$sig not found
If they could clone and replace "certain" organs with, oh, say, perhaps, LARGER versions, they could pay for all future research with the proceeds of this technique.
Of course *I* don't need this, but I'm sure *others* might...
This work hs been going on in an adacent lab for a while now.... very promising to hear results like that.
http://m.circres.ahajournals.org/content/107/9/1042.full
Oh, I get it! You mean the Liver!
The toggle for the host computer's perception speed had better resemble a 386SX-16 turbo button or I wouldn't even bother.
Yes, but if you're already inside the computer, how do you press the button?
Ezekiel 23:20
In a heart attack, the heart muscle is deprived of oxygen and begins to die, and later becomes scar tissue, which leaves your heart with a reduced capacity to pump blood round your body.
This could potentially be the chance to regenerate the Heart Muscle repairing the damage.
The 50% rate after an initial heart attack is around 6 to 8 years (30% die from an initial heart attack) with a 25% chance of death in the first year. Quite depressing, although after year 1 its 3% compared to 1.5% for normal folk. Obviously the greater the damage caused by the blockage the more likely it is to kill you sooner rather than later. In the case of severe damage maybe stem cells might be an effective treatment and well worth the risk of cancer later in life.
It is worth remembering that it takes 20 - 30 minutes before the heart muscle begins to die so if you think you may be having a heart attack go for treatment and proper diagnosis fast. Leaving it for a few hours might not kill you but it will reduce your long term chances and quality of life.
For me it just felt like i couldn't catch my breath, for a friend of mine his pulse was 43 I forget his BP but 43 is very low for a fat old bloke, I got him to a Dr against his wishes (he had an appointment 3 hours later he wanted to wait for that) and he now has a triple bypass and a pacemaker. 2 years on he is still ok but waiting would have killed him.
My health is pretty good because i had minimal damage i have 2 stents fitted which work really well and a noticeable increase in energy levels immediately after. The stents are fitted from your groin and 3 days later i was out of hospital. A heart attack isn't necessarily painful some people will feel a pain in the left arm or pressure on their chest sometimes it might feel like indigestion or heart burn.
Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
We need a republican hero to block this effort!
No one opposes research involving stem cells that does not kill human embryos.
By resorting to straw man, you just show you have no real argument.
Finally a real use for Segways!