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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
 Posted - 11/20/2007 : 10:51:14
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Eureka! They've done it!
Apparently stem cells equivalent to embryonic stem cells have been created from human skin:
Stem cells without embryos: skin cells transformed
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two separate teams of researchers announced on Tuesday they had transformed ordinary skin cells into batches of cells that look and act like embryonic stem cells -- but without using cloning technology and without making embryos.
Their breakthroughs could make possible the long-sought goal of tailor-made medicine, but without the political, scientific and ethical roadblock of using human embryos.
Both teams call the new cells induced pluripotent stem cells and say they look and act like embryonic stem cells -- the master cells that give rise to every cell and tissue in the body.
"We can now envisage a time when a simple approach can be used to produce stem cells that are able to form any tissue from a small sample taken from any of us," Ian Wilmut of the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, said in a statement.
"This will have enormous implications for research and perhaps one day for therapy," added Wilmut, who helped clone the first mammal, Dolly the sheep, in 1997.
James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin in Madison and colleagues reported their finding in the journal Science while Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan and colleagues reported theirs in the journal Cell.
Both teams used just four genes to transform ordinary skin cells called fibroblasts into induced pluripotent stem cells -- iPS cells for short.
"We are now in a position to be able to generate patient- and disease- specific stem cells, without using human eggs or embryos," Yamanaka said in a statement.
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Oh, and here's the fly in the ointment for the religous fundies:
| "Our technology, however, create a new ethical concerns. It might be possible to generate sperm and eggs from skin cells, via iPS cells. This might help people with infertility problem, but it will be essential to have a proper regulation regarding the generation and usage of human iPS cells to avoid misusages of this technology," he said. |
That and these scientists are still taking on the mantle of God and creating embryonic stem cells. Embryonic means embryo which means probably little babies are dying or being tortured, if not here then maybe in heaven while they wait to be born. You never know. But God knows. 
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-Chaloobi
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Edited by - chaloobi on 11/20/2007 10:52:51
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JohnOAS
SFN Regular
Australia
800 Posts |
Posted - 11/20/2007 : 14:31:09 [Permalink]
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Very cool indeed. Here is a link to a Nature News article.
A couple of bits that caught my eye. First, an indicator of enthusiasm:
| The case for iPS-cell research and against using cloning was highlighted this weekend when the University of Edinburgh's Iam Wilmut, one of Dolly's creators, announced that he planned to turn his back on the field he pioneered in favour of research using Yamanaka's reprogramming technique. |
Second, a discussion of some potential issues:
Like the mouse iPS cells, Yamanaka's human iPS cells passed all the basic tests for embryonic stem cells, including the ability to form tumours expressing the three primary germ layers when injected under the skin of a mouse engineered to have no immune system.
“Until now, cloned embryonic stem cells had been created only in mice.”
But are they truly pluripotent? The most stringent tests, carried out in mice, are to see whether a whole individual can be created from iPS cells or whether iPS cells mixed with an embryo's are expressed in all of the resulting chimaeric mouse's tissues. Neither test can be done with human cells. "In humans, there's no answer to the question," says Yamanaka.
But, he adds, if the cells are for use in therapy or research on a disease affecting a particular tissue, it doesn't matter. Yamanaka's cells, for example, were able to form neurons, and cardiac muscle cells that — after differentiating for 12 days — started beating. But iPS cells do have drawbacks. Introduction of the four 'Yamanaka factors' requires genetic manipulation using viral vectors that health agencies would be unlikely to approve for clinical use. And one of the factors, c-myc, is thought to be responsible for tumours in mice. |
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John's just this guy, you know. |
| Edited by - JohnOAS on 11/20/2007 14:40:48 |
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 11/20/2007 : 15:35:48 [Permalink]
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This is great, now we can take all those thousands of frozen embryos produced in fertility clinics and just throw them away.
Michael Kinsley of the Washington Post wrote a great column on this in July of 06:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/06/AR2006070601554.html
if embryos are human beings with full human rights, fertility clinics are death camps -- with a side order of cold-blooded eugenics. No one who truly believes in the humanity of embryos could possibly think otherwise.
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The better point -- the killer point, if you'll pardon the expression -- is that if embryos are human beings, the routine practices of fertility clinics are far worse -- both in numbers and in criminal intent -- than stem cell research. And yet, no one objects, or objects very loudly. President Bush actually praised the work of fertility clinics in his first speech announcing restrictions on stem cells.
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Moral sincerity is not impressive if it depends on willful ignorance and indifference to logic. Not every opponent of stem cell research deserves to have his or her debater's license taken away. There are a few, no doubt, who are as horrified by fertility clinics as they are by stem cell research, and a subset of this subset may even be doing something about it. But these people, if they exist, are not a political force strong enough to stop a juggernaut of medical progress that so many other people are desperate to encourage. The vast majority of people who oppose stem cell research either haven't thought it through, or have thought it through and don't care. |
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"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 11/20/2007 : 17:43:12 [Permalink]
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I wonder about the feasability of using these cells for sexual reproduction.
I'm not really that read up on this subject, but if sperms and eggs are produced from an aged person's cells, what happens, and what problems could the advanced age cause.
It's said that Dolly didn't die of old age, but is it really settled that Dolly didn't suffer any pre-aging from her parents?
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2007 : 11:02:02 [Permalink]
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| I wonder what would happen if you created sperm and egg from the same individual via the stem cells and then used them to create an embryo? Would the resulting child be at higher risk for genetic problems as via inbreeding? Or would it be genetically identical to the parent? |
-Chaloobi
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2007 : 12:48:01 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by chaloobi
I wonder what would happen if you created sperm and egg from the same individual via the stem cells and then used them to create an embryo? Would the resulting child be at higher risk for genetic problems as via inbreeding? Or would it be genetically identical to the parent?
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Since I doubt you could get a Y-sperm and an egg from the same cell, you'd have to get get the chromosomes from different batches.
That would mean that half of all chromosome pairs would statistically consist of identical chromosomes. In those cases, any genetic defect would rear its ugly head, since there is no healthy gene that can take over. 
No backup for damaged genes, except what redundancy might be coded within the DNA of that specific chromosome.
You would have the worst possible case of inbreeding there could ever be. 
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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Stem Cell Breakthrough
