Posted on 03/24/2002 2:11:32 PM PST by vannrox
  
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Story Filed: Sunday, March 24, 2002 12:05 PM EST
TOKYO (AP) -- Professor Makoto Asashima is surrounded in his tiny laboratory by shelves cluttered with bottles of chemicals. Test tubes whirl in centrifuges while technicians pore over data at their desks.
The scene is a typical one, but what goes on here isn't. Immersed in water at the bottom of a petri dish are about a dozen frog embryos the size of a pinhead that Asashima uses to create the animal's eyes, ears and other organs.
Technology that Asashima is developing could eventually help doctors use stem cells from humans to regenerate or replace damaged or destroyed human organs, like the way a lizard reproduces a severed tail. It would eliminate the need for donor transplants.
``If we keep going in this direction, it'll be possible for people who have lost their sight to see again,'' said Asashima, professor of developmental biology at Tokyo University.
About two decades after starting research on organ regeneration, Asashima in 1989 discovered that a protein called activin induces genes in a frog's embryonic stem cells -- which produce the tissues and organs of the body -- to form kidneys, livers and other organs.
In 1998, he became one of the first scientists to create a sensory organ -- a frog eye -- in vitro from a stem cell. Last year, he successfully transplanted an eye formed in a test tube, restoring the sight of a blinded tadpole.
So far, Asashima and his team have given new eyes to some 60 tadpoles, about 70 percent of which are able to see.
``It's a good example of his type of pioneering work. He's really on the forefront,'' said Carl Pfeiffer, emeritus professor of biomedical sciences at Virginia Polytechnic and State University.
Asashima generates organs by slicing off the part of the embryo responsible for tissue development and immersing it in a solution containing activin. The activin-soaked embryo piece is sandwiched between two untreated embryo slices and set aside until the untreated parts are induced to yield an organ.
The process takes about five days. Varying the concentration of activin and combining it with other agents such as retinoic acid brings forth different genetic instructions in the cells.
For example, a lower concentration produces blood cells and muscle tissue. Higher doses yield hearts, livers and pancreas. But Asashima concedes it's a big step from regenerating frog organs to doing the same for humans.
For one thing, frogs produce many more embryos than humans, meaning the number of stem cells available for research on humans would be more limited.
Then there are also political concerns about research with human stem cells.
Anti-abortion activists and the Vatican say that human stem cell research constitutes the taking of life because embryos are destroyed to extract the cells. And President Bush decided last year to withhold federal money for research that involves the destruction of embryos not already in the research pipeline.
In Europe, four countries -- Austria, Germany, France and Ireland -- ban all embryo research, while others allow it to varying degrees.
Japan falls somewhere in between, approving guidelines last year stipulating that embryonic cells used in experiments could be taken only from those earmarked for fertility treatment that would otherwise be discarded.
Politics aside, some experts anticipate that Asashima's research will eventually help scientists to cure debilitating diseases such as Alzheimer's, which is caused by the degeneration of brain cells.
``The principles he develops in lower animals will be applicable to humans,'' Pfeiffer said.
Despite the obvious differences, Pfeiffer said humans and frogs have much in common, including similar heart and skeletal muscles.
Others, however, are somewhat less sanguine.
``They (human stem cells) will form various tissues, but not intact organs, and even if they could be formed, the organs would have to be grown for months to become big enough for transplantation,'' said professor Jonathan Slack, who is in charge of the department of biology and biochemistry at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom.
``This is interesting science but it would be a very long haul before it leads to a new source of transplantable organs,'' he said.
Asashima's work is funded by Tokyo University and a government-linked science promotion group. His research has appeared in major international publications in his field, including The International Journal of Developmental Biology.
Asashima plans to expand his research to mice, whose characteristics are more similar to humans, as soon as he perfects his work with frogs.
It looks very hopeful to me. Life is change. Change is just happening a little faster than some people are comfortable with.
Gee, this scientist make an eyeball and somehow it's a big deal. God makes them and nobody wants to give Him credit.
He gave you two to start out with, when you really needed them.
The fact that some define those with concerns as Luddites is already a red flag of jurisdictional disrespect of the cloning advocacy group. Make no mistake, man is already Frankenstein enough, it was the whole point of Blade Runner. The super clones were violent and killing people, but then they realized they were not the Frankensteins, their inventors were when they thought they could violate their own jurisdictions by creating super humans and pre-programming them to die as a race bound for genocide.
Bottom line is that from abortion to mind doctors and drugs that destroy the patient's jurisdiction arbitrarily without justice and due process, we have a natural ground for the horrors of the 21st century to come. As a Luddite, I am ready for it, the question is are you ready to live with the consequences of what you advocate? Many scientists proponent of abortion, psychiatry and cloning certainly are charlatans who do not want to live with the consequences. Fall pray to them if you want.
Don't tell that to me. Tell that to the scientists who may have another mean of manipulating your jurisdiction without due process of law. After all, the real evil in blade runner were scientists who had vowed the super humans by geneticaly programming them to quick genocidal extinction.
Since when doctors had a say in jurisdictional problems. They are suppose to treat innert matter, not jurisdiction of human life, that is a job for juries, judges and due process.
These are scientific inquiries, not felonies. And after
seeing the OJ trial in the company of rampant jury
nullfication and insane settlements against tobacco
companies, McDonald's, et al, I have no confidence
whatever in the wisdom of juries. By the way,
vigilante legislation looks like a contradiction in
terms, to me.
Yes. What the hell is it you what goes on
between me and my doctor?
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