Fat's Full of True Stem Cells
Cells from human fat have proven to be true adult stem cells, promising a readily available source for treating disease.
It was once thought that adult stem cells, unlike their embryo counterparts, were extremely limited in their regenerative abilities.
In the past few years, however, evidence has been gathering that adult stem cells are far more versatile than previously thought.
"These results suggest that these cells are truly stem cells that could provide a source of undifferentiated cells for multiples uses," says Lott. "We're still a long way from using these cells as therapies in humans, but we're excited about the progress we've made so far."
Killing babies isn't the only way to get stem cells. It's always disturbed me how quick the scientific community was to argue that they needed to harvest stem cells from embryos, even though even I knew that there are alternate sources... such as the placenta, the umbilical cord, and as this article shows, we're increasingly finding other sources. It probably is easier for the time being to "grow" humans to harvest their flesh... but it's morally repugnant.
An anecdote, before I go eat ice cream: I saw a show once about a woman who had like a 300 pound tumor growing in her. She had some phobia where she was afraid of the outside world, and then once she got the tumor that didn't help with that at all, so she never sought help. It was the world's largest recorded tumor, and they were able to get it out in one piece. It turned out to have been benign (which was good for the lady), but when they cut it open to examine it there were all kinds of weird things inside it, like teeth and hair. That would seem to indicate that there was some stem cell specialization going on inside the tumor.
Tuesday, March 9, 2004
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Your sound-bite analysis comes across as flabby, Doc.