Are there many people who would oppose taking tissues from their own boady to grow an organ (liver, heart,..etc) to help save his own life? I wonder what the poll % would be for and against.
It doesn't even matter anymore. Somewhere in the world, the research is going on. Whether it be in Europe or Asia, the research will be done somewhere and sometime.
Out of ignorance, I raised the question earlier in this thread of whether this was possible....looks like there might be progress: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3316931 Aug. 19, 2005, 12:27AM Growing hope over umbilical-cord stem cells A promising find could quiet the debate about the cutting-edge field By TODD ACKERMAN Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle A team of Texas and British researchers have produced embryonic-like stem cells from umbilical-cord blood, a breakthrough that could overcome the controversy holding back the cutting-edge field. The researchers reported Thursday that they've grown mass amounts of cord-blood stem cells that have the same ability to turn into any kind of tissue as stem cells taken from human embryos. That ability is considered a key to the future of medicine. "We're not sure why these stem cells exist in umbilical cord blood, or whether they circulate in everyone," said Dr. Randall Urban, an endocrinologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and a member of the team. "We just know this is the first time they've been shown to possess characteristics identical to embryonic stem cells." In recent years, research has shown unexpected promise by adult stem cells. They were nevertheless considered to have nowhere near the elasticity of embryonic stem cells, which can morph into virtually every kind of tissue, providing a potential source of replacement organs in disorders from diabetes to Parkinson's disease. But because the embryo is destroyed in the process, such research is controversial. Saying he wanted to balance science and ethics, President Bush limited federal funding to less than a dozen stem cell lines already in existence when he announced his policy in 2001. Opponents are pushing a bill in Congress that would expand the government's role. No shortage of babies The Texas-British team said umbilical-cord-blood stem cells are attractive because, with 100 million babies every year, there'd be no shortage of easily obtainable stem cells. The researchers used cord blood from the equivalent of just one birth to mass-produce the embryonic-like stem cells. In the new research, reported in the August issue of Cell Proliferation, the scientists describe techniques that enabled them to remove all the mature cells from umbilical-cord blood, which revealed a very small population of cells with qualities similar to those seen in embryonic stem cells. From a third of a cup of blood that provided 50,000 potential stem cells, they got a couple of embryonic-like cells. The team then used technology derived from NASA research to multiply the stem cells. A bioreactor, designed by a NASA spin-off company, was used to simulate the weightlessness of space and amplify the original stem cells 168-fold. From there, the researchers grew liver, brain and pancreatic cells. More answers needed A researcher in the field called the paper "interesting and intriguing," but said he's "not sure what to make of it." "If they've done what they say they've done, it's an advance," said Dr. James Willerson, a Texas Heart Institute administrator and researcher who has shown that adult stem cells can benefit heart patients. "But a lot more information is needed." Willerson said questions still to be answered involve whether such cells will function properly, what their life span will be and if the technique used to mass-produce them will cause uncontrolled growth. The Texas scientists also expressed caution in interpreting the results, saying it's not clear whether or not the stem cells are embryonic. But they said if they act like embryonic stem cells, it may not be necessary to prove they're identical. The team included scientists from UTMB and Kingston University in England. Synthecon Incorporated in Houston provided the bioreactors.
