Stem Cell Lines Derived to Avoid Immune Rejection 41
stemceller brings us a story about an experiment that was published online in the journal Cloning & Stem Cells. The paper demonstrated that embryonic stem cells can be used to develop therapeutic cells which will not provoke an immune response from a significant portion of the population. This comes alongside news that UC Irvine researchers have found a method of sorting stem cells that should be "quicker, easier and more cost-effective than current methods." The Cloning & Stem Cells publication states:
"It is likely that treatment of large numbers of patients by cell therapy will only be possible if methods are found using any one cell line to treat very large numbers of patients. This very exciting paper represents a significant step forward towards the use of such cells in cell therapy."
Sperm's trick (Score:5, Interesting)
Personally I think I'd rather have my own personal cell line which matches my immune system exactly. The latest cloning news of adult cells shows it's quite likely in my lifetime.
engineered virus not rejected by immunity systems? (Score:2, Interesting)
that path the way to artificial virus that is also not killed by immune system
what a deadly weapon !
There are other paths (Score:5, Interesting)
I have just filed a provisional patent application on a process for isolating self-pristine partially differentiated stem cells which I believe can be brought within the realm of affordability. I don't know about others but I would be much more comfortable, particularly at the neuron level, being treated with my own stem cells rather than someone elses even if they are HLA matched. The only good reason in my mind to use foreign stem cells is to correct severe biochemical defects if no gene therapies are available.
The most important thing ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Adult stem cells for treatment can be harvested in a timely manner from your own body and hence negate the issue of possible rejection. (And nobodys kid cops it, either!)
Re:The most important thing ... (Score:1, Interesting)
Yet using Adult stem cells seems to have the same ethical problems as embryonic ones. Adult stem cells are only useful if they are modified to become Totipotent [wikipedia.org]. Which means -- like an embryo -- they have the ability to turn into a human.
I never understood why anti-abortion advocates like Adult stem cells so much; unless, of course, they are basing their argument on emotion instead of reason.
Re:The most important thing ... (Score:3, Interesting)
I guess it's the difference between killing poor people to harvest their organs and growing humans in a lab to harvest their organs.
Just playin' devil's advocate...