Posted on 03/22/2005 5:03:32 AM PST by ewin
ALAN Mackay-Sim and his small team of researchers investigating the human sense of smell have tended to get up the noses, pardon the pun, of the serious scientists working in the field of stem-cell exploration.
Most of the real players were to be found studying embryonic stem cells at such long-established research centres as Monash University and the University of Queensland, although the work of those other Australian scientists targeting bone marrow and neural stem cells was also highly regarded.
But no one quite knew what to make of Mackay-Sim's Griffith University team that somehow had taken an odd turn into the murky tributary that is the olfactory mucosa - the organ of smell in the human nose - and begun rowing against the tide by studying adult stem cells taken from the nose.
The prevailing science was that where embryonic stem cells had multi-potentiality and could give rise to all cell types in the body, adult stem cells were old dogs that couldn't be taught new tricks. Even those stem cells in tissues that do regenerate, such as skin, blood and olfactory mucosa, can only give rise to, respectively, more skin, blood and olfactory mucosa, so the accepted wisdom went. ...
Yesterday, in one of those sublime moments with which the history of science is replete, the tributary might suddenly have become the mainstream. With the publication of Mackay-Sim's research on the Developmental Dynamics website, the twin arguments that adult stem cells lack the multipotency of embryonic stem cells and might not be as useful for stem-cell therapies were abruptly turned on their heads.
"Our experiments have shown adult stem cells isolated from the olfactory mucosa have the ability to develop into many different cell types if they are given the right chemical or cellular environment," explains Mackay-Sim. ...
Moreover, unlike embryonic stem cells, which reportedly can trigger tumours in one in five cases at the point of injection, these adult stem cells grow in a controlled fashion. As well, they are phenotypically stable, meaning that once they turn into, say, heart muscle, they remain heart muscle and do not revert to their original guise, as embryonic stem cells have been known to do.
And because they are the patient's own cells, there is no risk of the body rejecting them as alien. Hence there is no need for immune system-suppressing drugs, nor for therapeutic cloning.
Yet perhaps the most significant advantage is that this apparent breakthrough might eliminate the ethical dilemma that has fused itself to embryonic stem-cell research.
Adults are much more awkward to crack open in the back and suck the stem cells out. If this is going to take off, they're going to have to grow some smaller adults.
Actually that is a huge negative. How can they beat up Bush when their phony issue is shown to be completely unnecessary? This story will not get out and there will be an enormous effort by mainstream medicine to try to discredit this. Conventional wisdom (read liberal agenda) does not just fade away when the evidence goes against it. Just look at the gay gene and the global warming hysteria for examples of this. Science has become corrupted.
Actually they are getting the cells from their noses not their backs.
Well, sucking on peoples' noses is just gross.
A large, untapped source of stem cells is found in umbilical cord blood as the natural result of childbirth. Collect it, use it, do research with it.
What's the point if you can't rationalize the slaughter of babies?
Umbilical stem cells are a large, untapped resevoir for the further development of life saving/life prolonging therapies
Adult stem cells are not only more successful, they are easier on the patient who is having the stem cell treatment.
same source, earlier:
Sweet cell of success
(Major breakthrough in adult stem cell research could end ethical debate)
The Australian | March 22, 2005 | Wayne Smith
Posted on 03/21/2005 7:51:51 AM PST by dead
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