ESC and Skin

From Science Daily:

"For more than two decades, physicians have used cell culture techniques in order to obtain a sufficiently large area of skin to reconstruct the destroyed epidermis from a small sample harvested from the patients themselves."

So, we have existing solutions that work without ESC...

"Although this type of graft has been used with success, one of its limits is the time required (three weeks) to produce a sufficient amount of epidermis to cover the affected areas"

But we are impatient...

"the use of such grafts in animals with a weakened immune system to overcome potential graft rejection. Twelve weeks after transplantation, the mice presented localized areas of completely normal and functional adult human epidermis containing all the skin cell types"

Graft rejection? Oh yea, these are foreign cells, so the receiver will need to take immuno-suppressive drugs their whole life, or until they can receive a traditional graft.

Fanatics

It's interesting, the world's treatment of "fans" and "fanatics". Obviously the words are related, one being the shortened form of the other.

But one is accepted, encouraged really.

The other is only spoken of in hushed tones, or with derision.

Excellent treatment at Team Pyro.

ASC and Leukemia

Interesting article from Science Daily:

"Blood and marrow stem cell transplantation has been a mainstay treatment for patients with high risk leukemia and other hematological malignancies for the past 30 years. ... Now, UCB [umbilical cord blood] is routinely used throughout the world as an alternative to bone marrow transplantation."

As I've mentioned previously, embryonic stem cells are technically difficult to produce (in addition to the moral evil involved in production).

On the other hand, adult stem cells source are plentiful (liposuction mentioned in that link, and umbilical cord blood here).

ASC and Blood Disease

Pretty cool development from Science Daily.

A treatment tested on rats combining gene reprogramming with ASC.

"They successfully used what is called a viral vector (in this case a lentivirus) to insert a healthy version of the IDUA gene into early stage red blood cell cultures"

"Encouraged by the initial cell experiments, the research team next cultured hematopoietic stem cells"

"Dr. Pan said reprogramming a patient's own developing red blood cells by gene therapy would provide a viable option for patients who cannot find a donor and avoid potential complications caused by an immune response to donor cells."

Early Oceans

Interesting article at Science Daily.

"The scalding-hot sea that supposedly covered the early Earth may in fact never have existed"

Always a good start...

It is important to remember that a model is only a model. It is only as real as it is accurate and complete. A simple model will always break down, under certain circumstances. If you know the circumstances, the model can be useful. If you don't know, then you get bitten.

"Previous studies of similarly aged rocks had looked only at oxygen isotope ratios ... But isotope ratios recorded in rocks on the ocean floor are also dependent on the chemical composition of the seawater in which those rocks formed, and the past studies assumed the composition of the ancient ocean was essentially what it is today, which the [current] Stanford study did not."

This is postmodern science. We only know what science tells us, and science changes its story regularly. Their is no guarantee that today's "truth" will be tomorrow's "fantasy".

ESC and Nerve Damage

It was bound to happen eventually, from Science Daily:

"therapy utilizes human embryonic stem cells"

"A week after test rats with 100 percent walking ability suffered neck spinal cord injuries, some received the stem cell treatment. The walking ability of those that didn't degraded to 38 percent. Treated rats' ability, however, was restored to 97 percent."

This treatment has already been authorized to start human trials.

ESC and Brain Radiation

Interesting story from Science Daily.

Embryonic cells from rats are being used to treat rats undergoing radiation treatment for brain tumors (ironically, ESC treatments often cause tumors...).

It is unclear why they are using ESC rather than ASC...