Stem Cells a Fountain of Youth?

[koshergrl]

The techniques may not be the usual, but YOUNG stem cells currently still come from babies/embryos/umbilical cords.

 

[JimBowie1958]

The techniques may not be the usual, but YOUNG stem cells currently still come from babies/embryos/umbilical cords.

But the NEW methods that are coming out can use adult stem cells and turn them into young pluripotent stem cells without the need to raid an embryo.

Stem cell breakthrough may transform future of medicine | Science | The Guardian

Scientists showed they could make stem cells from adult cells more than a year ago, but the cells could never be used in patients because the procedure involved injecting viruses that could cause cancer. Overcoming the problem has been a major stumbling block in efforts to make stem cells fulfil their promise of transforming the future of medicine.

Now, scientists at the universities of Edinburgh and Toronto have found a way to achieve the same feat without using viruses, making so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell therapies a realistic prospect for the first time.

In 2007, researchers in Japan and America announced they had turned adult skin cells into stem cells by injecting them with a virus carrying four extra genes. Because the virus could accidentally switch on cancer genes, the cells would not be safe enough to use in patients.

In two papers published in the journal Nature, Keisuke Kaji in Edinburgh and Andras Nagy in Toronto, describe how they reprogrammed cells using a safer technique called electroporation. This allowed the scientists to do away with viruses and ferry genes into the cells through pores. Once the genes had done their job, the scientists removed them, leaving the cells healthy and intact.

No embryos were harmed in the making of these stem cells.

Great news, aint it?

 

[koshergrl]

Not there yet. The OP is talking about embryonic stem cells.

 

[JimBowie1958]

Not there yet. The OP is talking about embryonic stem cells.

I dont know that that is true. The article on how scientists can make pluripotent stem cells states that it makes it far easier for scientists to get these type of cells rather than from embryos.

So by the time this technology rolls out and is available to the public, the cheaper induced pluripotent cells will be the ones used, not embryonic.

Researchers have had all kinds of problems using embryonic stem cells. The only limitation to their use were restrictions on federal funding, but that left open any and all private funding and anything done outside the US. And even so, adult stem cells have been the thing used in just about every case that breakthroughs have been made with stem cells. Embronic stem cells are too unpredictable especially compared to adult stem cells that can now be grown from one type of tissue to another as well as reversed back to pluripotent stem cells.

Dont take an entirely negative view of a promising technology due to periphrial debates that will soon be no longer relevant in the very near future if it isnt already.

 

[waltky]

Skin cells become eggs cells to create life...

Life created from eggs made from skin cells
4 October 2012 - Stem cells made from skin have become "grandparents" after generations of life were created in experiments by scientists in Japan.

The cells were used to create eggs, which were fertilised to produce baby mice. These later had their own babies. If the technique could be adapted for people, it could help infertile couples have children and even allow women to overcome the menopause. But experts say many scientific and ethical hurdles must be overcome.

Healthy and fertile

Stem cells are able to become any other type of cell in the body from blood to bone, nerves to skin. Last year the team at Kyoto University managed to make viable sperm from stem cells. Now they have performed a similar feat with eggs. They used stem cells from two sources: those collected from an embryo and skin-like cells which were reprogrammed into becoming stem cells.

The first step, reported in the journal Science, was to turn the stem cells into early versions of eggs. A "reconstituted ovary" was then built by surrounding the early eggs with other types of supporting cells which are normally found in an ovary. This was transplanted into female mice.

Surrounding the eggs in this environment helped them to mature. IVF techniques were used to collect the eggs, fertilise them with sperm from a male mouse and implant the fertilised egg into a surrogate mother. Dr Katsuhiko Hayashi, from Kyoto University, told the BBC: "They develop to be healthy and fertile offspring." Those babies then had babies of their own, whose "grandmother" was a cell in a laboratory dish.

Devastating blow

 

[koshergrl]

No, they are "skin-like" cells.

These are embryonic cells. Including the ovary cells...they're the ovary cells of EMBRYOS.

 

[Katzndogz]

If an embryo is not a human being and is neither male nor female, how can it have ovary cells.

 

[koshergrl]

STEM cells. The cells are differentiated. An embryo is a human.

 

[koshergrl]

At least that's what I got from what I read.

 

[Politico]

I can see it being a benefit. If I am old and need an extra couple of weeks to tie up my affairs I could get a stem cell shot.

 

[koshergrl]

Plus it creates a market for dead babies.

Win/win for progressives. A reason to kill them, and a way to make more money off it. Plus it can extend their own lives!