Stem Cells Used To Grow Miniature Human Livers In Mice 59
ananyo writes "Transplanting tiny 'liver buds' constructed from human stem cells restores liver function in mice, researchers have found. Although preliminary, the results offer a potential path towards developing treatments for the thousands of patients awaiting liver transplants every year. The liver buds, approximately 4 mm across, staved off death in mice with liver failure, the researchers report this week in Nature (abstract.). The transplanted structures also took on a range of liver functions — secreting liver-specific proteins and producing human-specific metabolites. But perhaps most notably, these buds quickly hooked up with nearby blood vessels and continued to grow after transplantation."
I for one (Score:1)
Welcome our new mice overlords
Say hello to Algernon for me. (Score:2)
Welcome our new mice overlords
Can't wait for the human neural stem cells to be transplanted into mice.
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A BBC show on "what makes us human" identified genetic differences between human and chimps that coded for increased brain complexity (connections). When this gene was put into mice, they had more complex neurons. (Not Algernon moment yet however).
Show (for UK only) is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b036mrrj/Horizon_20122013_What_Makes_us_Human/ [bbc.co.uk].
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Unfortunately, any animal we turn as intelligent as a human will, when it learns of how its fellow species members have been treated, probably descend into psychotic violence.
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Then it's a good thing mice are tiny.
Let's not try it with hippos.
Re:I for one (Score:5, Informative)
Welcome our new rodent overlords
FTFY. Adjectives are always funnier.
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Welcome our new rodent overlords
FTFY. Adjectives are always funnier.
Well, they'll be able to drink us under the table, that's for sure...
Re: I for one (Score:2)
What are these; livers for ants? They'll have to beâ" at least two times bigger!
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There's a BBC show about that: Rastamouse. I'm not even joking!
http://www.rastamouse.com/ [rastamouse.com]
Not that I would try it (Score:2)
but would it be cannibalism to eat them?
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but would it be cannibalism to eat them?
Let me know when they grow calf's liver, with onions and bacon, with a side of mashers and gravy.
Re:Not that I would try it (Score:5, Interesting)
Well... You eat your own cells all the time, and in practice you probably get a serving of other peoples' sloughed-off cells with every meal you have. I guess it's really more a matter of intent: If you're not getting the stuff from a human body (or arrange for the human to become "body" in the first place) then you may well decide this is not really cannibalism no matter what DNA the cells happen to contain. It comes from a mouse, so it's basically a mouse liver.
Why you'd want to eat mouse livers is another question of course, though chicken liver is delicious, so why not?
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I'd give my left arm to find out. If it isn't I'll eat my head, I mean hat.
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would said hot-self encased meat be kosher?
Considering that human meat is called long pig, I doubt it.
Miniature Human in Mice??? (Score:1)
I guess it's 4th of July, but first time I read is as "Stem Cells Used To Grow Miniature Human Live In Mice".
Yeah, but... (Score:3)
I'm sure they'd love to try it in a dying human (Score:5, Insightful)
As usual, any kind of clinical use of this stem cell stuff is "ten years away". These guys are as bad as fusion researchers.
I'm sure they'd love to try it in a human dying of liver disease. But between the FDA regs, the self-appointed Medical Ethics czars, and the malpractice ambulance-chasers there's a lot of hurdles to jump before they MIGHT be allowed to try it (let alone deploy it as a regular procedure).
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By the way, with Obamacare (or any other single-government-payer system)
Bahahahaha! Obamacare? Single payer? Please. That program is nothing more than insurance company welfare. It doesn't have jack-shit to do with healthcare.
Re:By the way: With Obamacare... (Score:5, Insightful)
One of our ministers had the right idea (he's a socialist but a clever fellow nonetheless, and smarter than many of his colleagues). Insurance is this: you collect premiums, and if someone stubs a toe, you pay their medical bill. If (like in NL) everyone is insured for basic healthcare at the same rates and under the same terms... why then do we still need insurance companies? What are they going to compete on? Simpler to let the gov't self insure and cut out these horribly expensive middlemen who add no value, leave the insurers to offer us packages for additional coverage.
Re:By the way: With Obamacare... (Score:4, Interesting)
What a load of bullshit.
I AM from Germany, we DO have a "socialized" system, and the solution to your bullshit scenario IS *regulation*.
So eat your heart out, you bumbling idiot!
Our government simply told the all statutory health insurance fund (is that the right term?) companies:
"This is how much money you can get. Period."
So to maximize profits, they *had* to drive down costs. And they did. It was so effective that we now also have to add regulation to prevent healthcare workers / doctors to earn too *little*.
And every big company has its own insurer / fund, which has no interests in profits, but in keeping the employees healthy and well. So they offer a load of non-required services like sports programs and other preventative things, but even pseudo-scientific things like acupuncture. Hell, I even get 200€ a year to waste on whatever shit I please. (I chose to replace the old dental fillings with a more modern material. Yes, 200â is enough for at least four such procedures!)
Now what, idiot?
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There's a budget for QALYs Quality Adjusted Life Years. That is, a treatment that costs twice as much but gives patients on average ten years more life instead of six months, is a huge win in QALYs terms. A treatment that costs $350 000 but only buys you an extra three weeks? Not worth the money.
The "Quality Adjusted" part is because living six months in your own home having a fairly normal life until the end, is better than six months in a hospital bed, sleeping 22 hours per day and barely able to recognis
Re:By the way: With Obamacare... (Score:5, Funny)
He's right you know. Here in Europe we're so backward that we still marvel at the germ theory of disease. Only last week I had to miss work due to the Black Death. Luckily for me it was only a mild case and I'm up and running again. well hopping really, what with the gangrenous leg and all.
Past habitual (Score:2)
"USED TO"??
So, what are they doing now?
It was inevitable. (Score:1)
They just posted this a few months ago.
Agent Smith-Oracle: Wait ... I've seen this. This is it, this is the liver bud one. Yes, you were laying right there, like that, I ... I ... I stand here, right here, the OP says something about drinking college students...I'm supposed to say something. I say ... 'This Bud's for you!'
What ? What did I just say ? No... No, this isn't right, this can't be right. Get away from me!
At last! (Score:2)
Bring forth the Fava Beans and Chiante!
Mrs. Garrison! (Score:2)
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They are in charge you know. Well, them and the porpoises until the new road goes through.
Next step... (Score:2)
It seems obvious that the next step is to grow giant mice livers in humans!