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Vein Grown From Her Own Stem Cells Saves 10-Year-Old
An anonymous reader writes in with a story about a milestone in stem cell medicine. "A ten year old girl became the first person in the world to get a major blood vessel replaced by one grown using her own stem cells. The 10-year-old from Sweden had a blockage of a vein from her liver. The doctors decided to give her a new vein instead of a liver transplant or giving her a vein from her own body, Associated Press reported. The team from University of Gothenburg first took 9 cm vein segment from a dead man and stripped all living cells from it, leaving behind only a protein structure. They later reconstructed the vein by using cells from the girl's own bone marrow. The new graft was then put in the girl's body two weeks later."
What does it matter? There are plenty of dead people around.
Agreed, but not all of them consent to donate.
Cattle don't get a say in the matter. If we start doing this in bulk we would be better off finding commonly slaughtered animals that can provide the structure rather than consenting humans to meet demand. Granted, even if we don't go the animal route the percentage of compatible donors just skyrocketed for those that can wait a while for an organ - such as my own cousin who is awaiting a heart.
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Then there will be ranchers who make money slaughtering the animal to recover the vein as well as sell the meat.
However, I think it would be more likely that Pigs would be genetically altered to have the correct kind of vein.
Eventually the protein structure will just be grown or printed on demand
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
another Slashdot article not about embryonic stem cells where the masses get confused and show their ignorance and anti-American prejudice...