Posted on 07/12/2014 8:51:48 PM PDT by Innovative
An hour's drive to the southeast, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Dr. Eduardo Marban has recently launched an experiment to help patients like Karpman.
Marban led one of the earlier stem cell trials, using cells taken by biopsy from the patient's own heart. The cells were multiplied in a laboratory for two to three weeks and then reinfused through a catheter. At the time, says Marban, it was thought that the stem cells themselves turned into new heart muscle and blood vessels.
"In fact, the more we learned, the more we realized that that's not what these cells do," he says. "They can make heart muscles and blood vessels in a dish very nicely. But in the living organism what they seem to do is secrete factors that wake up the surrounding heart muscle."
Like re-charging a battery, the infusion of new cells seems to trigger the body to produce new tissue: new muscle and blood cells.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Well, you know one place where they are doing it, there might be other medical centers around the country as well.
“An hour’s drive to the southeast, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Dr. Eduardo Marban has recently launched an experiment to help patients like Karpman. “
I read the article. It doesn’t give much detail regarding obtaining stem cells from the patient’s own heart. If that entailed invasive open-heart surgery It would seem to me to be a risky route. It also said stem cells could be obtained from donor organs. I thought there was an acute shortage of those; still, this might be a breakthrough.
” I thought there was an acute shortage of those; still, this might be a breakthrough.”
I think there is indeed a shortage of donor organs — as in transplanting entire organs, but the way I read it, they can save a lot of stem cells from one organ and you need only a small amount, so you can help a lot of people with the stem cells from one donor heart.
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Or someone else will vote for me after I croak.
Superficial conclusions made in that article.
Thanks for the clarification. I would think that would also be a safer alternative than harvesting the stem cells from the heart patient him/herself for obvious reasons.
Really ? The research to date has been very mixed with quite a number of investigations that haven’t found a protective effect for red wine or other alcohol, probably because of the difficulty of doing studies in which people often do not tell scientists and doctors how much they really drink. The Penn results are just the largest sample showing significant harm to the heart in even moderate intake. The genetic component was due to not being able to tolerate alcohol, not better genes overall. I may or may not discontinue my habit of 2-3 oz of red wine a day (60-70 ml?) but it is good to know this just seems to be another case where you get a lot of hype about health benefits that doesn’t stand the test of time.
Should work but the brain has many parts, different types of nerve cells, and the blood-brain barrier protects it. Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy has been shown to improve brain function and there is a movement to offer this to our vets outside of the VA. The government is only doing studies now, but outside there have been many. In Europe they do not use pure oxygen because of the damage, if I remember right, from long-term or overdose use.
The heart also has brain cells, so could they use the patients heart-brain cells for the brain?
No meat didn’t help the guy.
One interesting article I read this week was of a woman whose cells formed a nose 8 years after they were planted-on her back.
I wonder if it has anything to do with alcohol tolerance. The heart has brain cells in it. Males and females have different tolerances, too. I would think when it comes to what we eat, we should follow our ancestor’s diet. If they live a long time, do what they did. If you are of mixed heritage, good luck. Gene studies will someday tell you what you are good for. The one thing I learned about genes that I didn’t know is some can turn on and off.
Sorry about missing the tolerance statement in your post. Must be having a low sugar crash. Too much maple syrup in my oatmeal? Get loopy. When I re-read your post I realized I wasn’t far off. Better go get some meat to offset my sugar.
Good that you found the study - I hadn’t read it but heard it discussed by a physician as part of a Fox News program on medical news - there was a genetic component to the effects as you noted - but that said, I have to acknowledge that my own cardiologist told me a couple of years ago to limit wine consumption to six ounces per day, since more alcohol than that could damage heart muscle - I don’t always stay within limits, but I have tried to cut back some - as my wife says, “as long as a moderate amount doesn’t hurt, what’s wrong with it?” - and there’s always the positive psychological effect of having a nice sip of wine now and then to civilize things.....
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