Stem Cells and Blood Supply
MikeR on Aug 20 2008 at 7:12 pm | Filed under: MikeR's Page, science
Next Big Future
“Human blood have been grown from embryonic stem cells for the first time during research that promises to provide an almost limitless supply suitable for transfusion into any patient.”
I’m left wondering why embryonic stem cells are uniquely suited to this process. Why not stem cells from cord blood? The article mentions the possibility of using “adult” stem cells but doesn’t mention why embryonic stem cells were chosen for the study or if any other attempts with other sorts have been made.
One commenter claimed that stem cells from cord blood *were* embryonic stem cells. It’s the first time I’ve heard that.
I hesitate to accept that this has anything at all to do with any sort of unique need to use embryonic stem cells that goes beyond the grant paperwork and arbitrary choice. And perhaps (in my paranoid moments) wonder if favor is given to confusing embryonic stem cells with stem cells in general… as if it’s all the same.
Is the real story, “OMG, we actually found something, at last!, where embryonic stem cells are useful?”
I want to know why stem cells from cord blood don’t work for this.
I wasn’t thinking much about the source of the stem cells. I thought the good news was that there was a possible solution to the blood supply problem. Or , at least, some hopeful research. I am also assuming that eventually “they” will be able to transfer technology among the various kinds of stem cells. I have no scientific basis for this, just that science will progress.
Yeah I’m guessing they used embryonic because it was easier? Maybe they’ll next try to use adult since adult stem cells are much easier to acquire.
Too bad the religious zealots with all their money and power will strangle the life out of this truly great advancement in medical science.
How will they do that?
Show me that it *needed* embryonic stem cells, Dan.
What the *non* crazy *ss religious fanatics do is constantly lie about stem cells and stem cell laws. They tell us that scary anti-progress religionists simply want people to die. They tell us that stem cell research is illegal in the US, which is an outright lie. No variety of stem cell research is illegal in the United States… if you want to pay for it. The only restriction at all is on using tax money, my money, to pay for embryonic stem cell research that uses new stem cell lines other than the existing lines grandfathered in. It is ALL about getting the government to pay for it. So “illegal” means, “can’t get funds from the public teat.”
Being able to grow blood cells is fabulous. I don’t know why it’s more efficient in a vat than growing it inside humans… but lets assume that it is. Wouldn’t the most logical thing to do be to grow blood for the person who needs it from their own stem cells? And if you can use someone else’s, why not from cord blood? Why? Because embryonic stem cells are sexy and there is a big push to show those benighted religionists what for.
But we are going to be facing ALL the consequences and permutations of our bio-medical advancement and we desperately need to work out sensible ethics that can be applied to genetic manipulation and experimentation with and on human beings. Not just simple and easy things like clones, but chimera and genetically modified humans. There has got to be a difference between cloning an organ (which researchers are doing with mice and such) and creating a unique combination of human or partially human DNA and then cutting it to pieces, or creating a viable clone and destroying it for science.
Refusing to take seriously the concerns of those opposed to creating and destroying embryos is likely to put other, even more valuable, research back who knows how far because there will be no way but banning all of it to differentiate between “not-human blob in a lab dish” and “treat like a human” experimental subjects. Define, strictly, NOW, who is a person and must be treated as one IN THE LABORATORY, and we can go on. Try to insist that only stupid people care about this and that it matters not at all what is created and destroyed in a lab dish and that anything in a lab isn’t really human; and the only thing that will keep us from the worst sorts of experimental abuses is going to be putting a choke hold on human research altogether.
Which would be a pity.