Grow Your Own Heart Valves 180
A user writes "Medical researchers in Britain have succeeded in growing a heart valve from adult stem cells taken from bone marrow. The research is being reported in the journal of the Royal Society today. Growing a heart value from your own cells means that tissue rejection isn't an issue."
Whole heart next? (Score:5, Interesting)
At some point, transplants from donors will be for emergencies only, and the shortages and wait lists will be a thing of the past.
Yeah! (Score:4, Interesting)
Silly question, but... (Score:4, Interesting)
IANanMD, but I would think this would pose problems with usability, wouldn't it?
The Religious Right Extremists... (Score:1, Interesting)
On the other hand, the extremist anti-genetic manipulation folks will say, "This goes against nature. We do so many things that violate the rules of nature which is why the Earth is at such a treacherous tipping point. There are too many people alive at this moment because of the artificial system's we've put in place to help them survive. This contradicts the survival of the fittest and provides us with nothing but an oversurplus of people who just shouldn't be alive right now. This means we're going to exceed the Earth's ability to support life (carrying capacity). By being able to grant people with faulty heart valves longer lives, we're only making the problem worse. Do NOT support the this research. It is an anti-Earth stance and is unsound science".
Meanwhile more people continue to die for oil in Iraq in a war founded on lies. No, the terrorists of 9/11 were not Iraqis. Get over the fact that you were lied to.
Re:Whole heart next? (Score:3, Interesting)
However, left to his own devices in his native environment, a human embryo will develop into an autonomous human. You are taking a life and converting it into property without giving that life a chance to decide.How does harvesting an embryo not equate to slavery? We Americans fought a war over this 150 years ago, and I find it amazing that, by changing the perception of "when life begins," some Americans think it's okay. I would have less problem with embryonic stem cells _if_ the embryo were not destroyed.
The promise of adult stem cells has yet to be fully explored, and I'm glad research is bearing fruit and receiving media attention. As you say, embryonic cells are potentially easier to deal with. Managing slaves is easier than working with a union; but which is more moral?
Re:Whole heart next? (Score:3, Interesting)
Yup:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbilical_cord [wikipedia.org] (warning: some not-so-pretty pictures)
Check out the section on cord blood.
Yay heart valves (Score:2, Interesting)
Praise science!