Stem Cell Research - your opinions

Didn't see a thread on it.. so opened one?


What do you think of Stem Cell research?
What are your opinions, it's pros and cons?
How far should medical science probe into stem cell research?
Should governments intervene with the progress of medical science?

Please no flame baits! Lets keep this discussion purely scientific.

Post Away!

Stem cell therapy helps patient walk again, South Korea

Please give us your opinions on the questions you have put forth.

Thanks
FredT

WEll, my belief is if this was a really potential cure for any ails, the private sector would be in there like swimwear. Instead, a few are screaming that I pick up the tab.
A rat, I smellith!

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Some people who promote the idea do seem to over sell it, but there are some pretty remarkable results with them. Others on the other side try to dismiss the truth that stem cells hold out a lot of hope for many conditions.

Stem cells rebuild bladder control

Fetal tissue graft restores lost sight

Stem cells can mend human hearts

Here is where they are trying to adapt adult stem cells so they would be as effective as [our own?] embryonic stem cells:
Inserted gene helps stem cells heal heart
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Stem cells can also make you smarter grow more muscles and abuse all these privileges with stem cells. Sort of like steroids and coffee without the negatives.

I'm all for it, I don't see what the problem is. Let it go!!!!!!!!!!

I have no problem with the benefits of stem cell research (and I clearly see them)

The only thing that bothers me is how someone elses DNA inside YOUR body reacts and interacts with the DNA already there? I haven't found any scientific articles on it and do not plan to try to seek the info again, as i feel I will come to a dead end. If anyone is deep into the research and knows how other DNA reacts please lay it down.

stem cell research is good dont get me wrong but i just think that there is only so much you can do with it yes it has great regenerative properties but people think that this is some miracle the real benifits real on cloning i think i read somwhere maybe here that what if you could clone people with no head then there would be no mind to think so that would get rid of the stigmata surrounding the subject and you have organs to use straight away

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Another headline
Umbilical cord cells 'allow paralysed woman to walk
Headlines are used to sell papers,
people like miracles,
But stem cell research does almost sound like genuine biological fix-all putty.
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I love them.

Maybe if Bush hadn't interferred with it, we could very well have a running program treating thousands, if not millions of patients every year.

Maybe even Chris Reeves would have been able to walk if it wasn't restricted.

I don't see why Bush wants to restrict these great things.

Surf

That is the bueaty of stem cells. All they really know is that they are human the doctors provide the RNA?DNA? as needed to grow the perfect match for a transplant or to expand that bladder or put an ear od the back of a rat.

Some one commented "well why isn't the public sector doing it?" If it cost million and millions of dallors just to develop and certify a drug IT WILL BE BILLIONS AND BILLIONS to develop stem cell Manipulation to the miricle cure expect by the doctors and the patients.

DEAD STEVE
Kidney transplant recipient

Valentine's Day and her heart was singing! Mildred, and her husband Anthony, celebrated in Las Vegas where they attended a show by Little Anthony & The Imperials. Yes, these were memories of happier days and Anthony said, "We have some catching up to do."

Anthony Salas was free from the pain of angina. Here he was in Las Vegas after a triple bypass surgery and 33 stents implanted. Anthony now could unload the luggage and Mildred didn't have to worry about the oxygen and wheelchair.

What happened? His doctors had told him to go home and die. Anthony became part of an experiment known as "Injection of Autologous CD34-Positive Cells for Neovascularization and Symptom Relief in Patients with Myocardial Ischemia." A blind study involving 24 patients who were the sickest of the sick. It is called stem cell therapy.


more

I find this very encouraging news. This type of stem cell study is encouraged and funded by private and public funds. More than $200 million of federal money was used for adult stem cell research in 2003.

President Bush has not banned all stem cell research.

Anthony Salas took part in this study in July 2004. The following article was written in August 2004 after the completion of the study. It is in a little more detail about the entire story.

link to article

I monitor what's happening in stem cell research because I have 3 incurable debilitating diseases. I am told that they are not related - yet each one of them is caused by mutated connective tissue stem cells.



My research suggests that stem cell therapies have been offered in exclusive private clinics since the early 1950's, at least. ...The technology appears to be very advanced, and has been modified and applied in the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) industry for example.

The reason stem cell therapies are not generally available is because the research and technologies are privately owned as Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights - the cost of licensing is prohibitive. ...It's called an "economic barrier."

...The current push for stem cell research seems mainly designed to bring the technology rights more into the public domain, and to make stem cell therapy accessible to everyone, not just the chosen elite.

...If you look to the right of this page you will see ads for stem cell therapies and cell therapies - they've been here since I first posted on stem cells 5 months ago. They do change, not sure what ads and links will be up when you look.

When I first researched stem cell therapy a few years ago, several international exclusive clinics were listed as stem cell therapy providers - the information posted was general, and prospective 'clients' had to provide a financial report to prove eligibility. As far as I can tell, people are offered access to levels of therapy within their "budget," if they qualify at all. ...My links no longer work. Probably shouldn't have posted them on the net.



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Great thing about stem cells is now it can be taken from the umbilical cord, with no harm to the baby. It will become like a sperm or egg donation. Come in if your pregnant, let them do a painless procedure to take some stem cells, and get 50 bucks. The potentials for stem cells seem endless, and it seems to be the deffinitely progression in medical science. I don't see how anyone could appose it.

Scientists have been working with stem cells, including cord cells, for over 50 years in the public domain. Which means work in private clinics has been going on longer. The reason for using stem cells from different sources is that each kind has specific strengths and limitations.

The first and only stem cell transplant to become available to ordinary people is 'bone marrow' transplants for leukemia. The technology was developed in the 1950's and absolutely confirmed in the 1960's - but insurance companies did not want to cover it, so they claimed it was experimental. It took about 30 years of hard fighting to force insurance companies to acknowledge that transplanting stem cells from bone marrow to treat leukemia was NOT an experimental treatment.

...Here's a quick and dirty look at the public history of stem cell research.


1. Scientists have been working with umbilical cord stem cells, and others, for over 50 years.

Note: "Fibroblasts" are connective tissue stem cells.


* [Effect of human umbilical cord extracts on growth of in vitro culture of embryonal fibroblasts.] C R Hebd Seances Acad Sci. 1955 May 16;240(20):2018-20. LASFARGUES E, DANIEL P, DELAUNAY A. PMID: 14390784

* [Effects of human umbilical cord extracts on the growth of embryo fibroblasts cultured in vitro.] C R Hebd Seances Acad Sci. 1955 Jan 24;240(4):457-9. LASFARGUES E, DANIEL P, DELAUNAY A. PMID: 14364852

* Influence of human cord extracts on chick embryonic fibroblasts grown in vitro. Exp Cell Res. 1956 Feb;10(1):188-93. LASFARGUES EY, DELAUNAY A, DANIEL P. PMID: 13294127

* [Effect of human serum of benign tumor patients on fibroblasts cultivated in vitro.] Rev Soc Argent Biol. 1950 Apr-May;26(1-2):1-7. SACERDOTE de LUSTIG E, MANCINI RE. PMID: 14781570

* [Effect of human cerebrospinal fluid on the fibroblast in vitro.] Rev Soc Argent Biol. 1951 Jun-Jul;27(3-4):114-7. SACERDOTE DE LUSTIG E. PMID: 14900760

* Stimulating effect of nucleoprotein fraction of chick embryo extract on homologous heart fibroblasts.
Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 1953 Jun;83(2):390-5. KUTSKY RJ. PMID: 13064279

* [Studies on growth promoting substances of embryonal extracts in fibroblasts cultures.] Biochem Z. 1953;324(3):195-203. BAYERLE H, BANDIER J. PMID: 13126131



2. Researchers have been transplanting stem cells for over 50 years.

* The development of variations in transplantability and morphology within a clone of mouse fibroblasts transformed to sarcoma-producing cells in vitro. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1954 Oct;15(2):215-37. SANFORD KK, LIKELY GD, EARLE WR. PMID: 13233880



3. The link between stem cell mutations and cancer was recognized over 50 years ago.

* [A case of stem-cell sarcoma of the reticular connective tissue of the endometrium.] Arch De Vecchi Anat Patol. 1956 Jun;24(2):789-805. TARTARINI G. PMID: 13363603

* Transformation of normal human fibroblasts into histologically malignant tissue in vitro. Science. 1956 Mar 23;123(3195):502-3. LEIGHTON J, KLINE I, ORR HC. PMID: 13298708

* Further evidence favoring the concept of the stem cell in ascites tumors of rats. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1956 Mar 14;63(5):818-30. MAKINO S. PMID: 13314436

* Transformation of normal human fibroblasts into histologically malignant tissue in vitro. Science. 1956 Mar 23;123(3195):502-3. LEIGHTON J, KLINE I, ORR HC. PMID: 13298708

* The cytopathogenic effect of the Rous sarcoma virus on chicken fibroblasts in tissue cultures. Bull Johns Hopkins Hosp. 1955 Sep;97(3):248-65. LO WH, GEY GO, SHAPRAS P. PMID: 13284471

* [Morphology and evolutive possibility of the fibroblast in various inflammatory conditions.] Arch De Vecchi Anat Patol. 1955 Aug;23(2):501-24. MIGNANI E. PMID: 13283689

* [Stem-cell leukemia.] J Radiol Electrol Arch Electr Medicale. 1951;32(1-2):119-20. BRU, POUTANSANT, PLANEL. PMID: 14841727

* Reticulo-endotheliosis or stem-cell leukemia; a case report. Conn Med. 1949 Dec;13(12):1128-33, illust. EVANS TS, CIPRIANO AP, FERRELL EH Jr. PMID: 15397554

* Production of malignancy in vitro. XII. Further transformations of mouse fibroblasts to sarcomatous cells. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1950 Oct;11(2):351-75. SANFORD KK, EARLE WR, SHELTON E, SCHILLING EL, DUCHESNE EM, LIKELY GD, BECKER MM. PMID: 14795191



4. Transformation works both ways; just as stem cells can mutate and turn cancerous when exposed to chemical and other pathogens or infectious agents, mutated or cancerous stem cells can revert back to normal when exposed to normal stem cells - a fact recognized over 50 years ago.


* Transformation of carcinoma cells into fibroblasts. Acta Unio Int Contra Cancrum. 1956;12(4):459-60. BUENO P. PMID: 13381572

* The effect of aminopterin and partial exsanguination transfusion on a case of acute stem cell leukemia; a case report and review of the literature on these two procedures. Ann Intern Med. 1950 Jan;32(1):123-8. ROSS RT, SCHOEMPERLEN CB. PMID: 15404131

* The effect of serum ultrafiltrate on cultivated mast cells and fibroblasts from human skin. Science. 1954 Jan 15;119(3081):99. ZITCER EM, KIRK PL. PMID: 13122039



............Whether or not we support stem cell research, the therapies have been offered for decades in exclusive private clinics - and always will be, no matter what we do or think. (See my post above)

Last year, cancer was the #2 killer in America - the stats said 1 in 2 American men would get cancer, and 1 in 3 women. This year, cancer overtook heart diseases - cancer is now the #1 killer in America.

IMO - the "stem cell debate" is entirely synthetic. It's all about money - and the fact that insurance companies don't want to cover the costs of treatment.


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[edit on 21-2-2005 by soficrow]

I'm 100% for stem cell research. Let medical science should be able to go as needed. Religions are holding back the human race. Imagine the possibilites of medical science.

I'm all for it, myself, particularly since we can extract stem cells from umbilical cord blood. I'd gladly donate for that!

Adolph Hitler would be a champion for Embryonic Stem Cell research... Just as Arnold Schwartzeneggar is.

I have no real problem with playing with your own cells... knock yourself out.. Do not clone yourself so you can rob the resulting embryo of life.

LEAVE EMBRYO'S ALONE...PERIOD!! THER IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN Embryonic stem cells and Adult/umbical stem cells. TO CONFUSE THEM IS MORONIC!

[edit on 21-2-2005 by Kinja]

I was most impressed with the success story I posted just above here. Using an adult's own stem cells to repair his heart. This is over simplified, so please read the post. Along with the stem cells from umbilical cord blood, and adult stem cells the research is progressing.

The following was my summary at the time I posted. Soficrow has raised some questions that need to be looked at also.

Mahree - you are mistaken; I did not make that statement.

FYI - Bush has not banned ANY stem cell research - he simply guaranteed that none of the technology will get into the public domain by prohibiting public funding for it. ...Oh yeah, he did allow public funding for research using already stockpiled contaminated stem cells, which are of course, useless.

Also, Bush blocked an international initiative to ban human cloning - and prevented any resolution from passing.



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