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Researchers Successfully Achieve Suspended Animation With Mouse Embryos (engadget.com)
"It was completely surprising. We were standing around in the tissue culture room, scratching our heads, and saying 'Wow, what do we make of this?'" An anonymous reader quotes Engadget's report on new research with "huge implications":
A team of scientists from the University of California, San Francisco only wanted to slow down mice embryos' cell growth in the lab. Instead, they managed to completely pause their development, putting the blastocysts (very early embryos) in suspended animation for a month. What's more, they found that the process can put stem cells derived from the blastocysts in suspended animation as well, [and] the researchers were able to prove that the embryos can develop normally even after a pause in their growth. Team member Ramalho-Santos from the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research said... "To put it in perspective, mouse pregnancies only last about 20 days, so the 30-day-old 'paused' embryos we were seeing would have been pups approaching weaning already if they'd been allowed to develop normally."
The new research could lead to better treatments for damaged organs and even aging, according to the article. (Besides, of course, its science fiction-y implications for long-distance space travel...)
The new research could lead to better treatments for damaged organs and even aging, according to the article. (Besides, of course, its science fiction-y implications for long-distance space travel...)
For that sort of thing, bacteria are a much better bet. Much more hardy than higher Earth-evolved species and proven to survive in suspended animation over the geological time-scales involved in interstellar travel.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
It also means that we can now inexpensively stockpile stemcells without appreciable loss. Freezing is expensive, and it is costly in time and other resources to store and retrieve tissues that way.
Since this is a chemical doping technique, this would allow us to store regenerative stemcells much the way we store whole blood, or perhaps even longer, using simple refrigeration techniques.
This could have wide reaching implications in stemcell based regenerative medicine, since humans could inexpensively bank the cultures now.
Depending on the length of 'viability' this could have lots of interesting implications.
The abortion debate, for instance could become a debate in many nations over who pays for the billions/trillions of suspended embyos.
Same for insurance companies in several nations, who will have to 'consult' with patients about if suspended animation for a cure, or even if treatment is too expensive, and they will be put under until a viable generic is available.
Basically, any time a group or company would find it cheaper to kill someone, but politically unpopular to actually kill them, this could be an option. Then, as time passes and pressure builds, change the debate to "should we dispose of all this material?"
The plot kind of writes itself for this kind of story.
Vivisectors don't care.
They're primarily obese (from eating meat) white males like Dick Cheney. Do you think a person link this has the ability to empathize with animals? I highly doubt it.
Depending on availability of water and food, mama roo (and mama wallaby) can suspend her regular four-week pregnancy by up to two years (see embyonic diapause — it is not unique to marsupials).
This suggests two things:
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
From the article "They used a drug that inhibited the activities of a protein called mTOR, which regulates different cellular processes. By inhibiting the protein, they also inhibit the cells' activities."
I wonder if this might prove useful for stopping runaway tumors.
Nice.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
They are just embryos - not real mice.
Trust me, if they were doing anything untoward with mice, Disney would step in, pronto!
Disney perfected this with their "vault" decades ago
We were standing around in the tissue culture room, scratching our heads
Well, I suppose that's one way to get samples.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Maybe your mother should have obtained consent from you before giving birth to you. No can do? Sorry, some births were a mistake.
"Fertility Researchers Successfully Achieved Suspended Animation With Human Embryos - Decades Ago"
Ageing is not the only problem of space travel. When outside of Earth magnetic field, the space traveler is hit by high energy cosmic particle that damage DNA.
And while you are in "animation suspension", things may get worse because cellular DNA repair mechanism are switched off.
So lets say the Dr. finds something wrong with pregnant woman that requires treatment, but the treatment has to be completed before the baby is born because the stress of pregnancy along with her ailment might kill her. This might be just what they needed. Put the baby in a suspended state until the treatment has finished. Perhaps this could also be used in a situation where they baby might die as a result of its own body processing the treatment. If it could be suspended, it may survive.
Why is Snark Required?
Frozen Embryos
"There are people who do not love their fellow human being, and I _hate_ people like that!" - Tom Lehrer