Fat Looked At As Source For Stem Cells

If this is true and a real possibility, so many lives will be saved and perhaps, well I least I hope the ethics part of stem cell research would be accepted by all. So many people have liposuctions, the supply is plentiful and if I could save a life, i'll even donate a few pounds of fat myself. What do you think? Is this the alternative and acceptable way for stem cell research instead of embryos?? I think the government needs to start pouring money into this research, either make it happen or rule it out.

Fat Looked At As Source For Stem Cells
Scientists will meet in Pittsburgh Monday to discuss an exciting possibility: that fat might be a good source of stem cells.

If so, fat -- something most people want to get rid of -- might someday help treat Parkinson's disease, heart attacks, heart failure and bone defects.

Stem cells can also be taken from an embryo, but in the process, the embryo is destroyed, which is a problem for people who consider an embryo to be developing human life.

Adult stem cells from fat would be less controversial, easy to harvest and plentiful.

The idea is being explored by the International Fat Applied Technology Society.

The group's president said it is "trying to make fat do good."

excellents links were provided with this article:
stemcells.nih.gov...

www.cbhd.org...

www.whitehouse.gov...


[edit on 10-2-2004 by worldwatcher]

not much meat to it, but hey, if this turns out to be true (its beyond me HOW) i know a couple of people who can cure us some good parkinsons. forever.

My backside can save people??

Now there is a reason for Ice Cream!!!

IFATS

An interesting acronym for the group.
The article was pretty short. But, I'd like to hear what comes of the meeting
on Monday.
Potentially good news.

What makes the issue so confusing is that when people say "Stem Cell Research" they often don't know that there is a distinct difference between adult stem cells, and embryonic stem cells.

Embryonic stem cells can form any cell in the human body and are especially useful for diseases like Parkinson's. The potential is huge, and they can produce large quantities. Embryos are destroyed every day - mainly those left over from fertility treatments. Many arge that these destroyed embryos can be used for good (ie research) and not simply tossed out. While many people support this idea, it's harder to find mothers to these embryos that would agree that their potential children should be used for research, or agree they should be destroyed.

Adult stem cells have shown great promise, but may not be as useful as the embryonic cells. Adult stem cells are now harvested from all sorts of tissue including bone marrow and brain tissue. They may not be as versitile and able to morph into any cell, its tougher to produce large quantities of these cells, and they may even become less effective over time.

I'm really curious to see how effective the adult stem cells specifically from fat would be. I wonder if they contain the factory like abilities of the cells from bone marrow that crank out blood cells. It's hard enough to morph my thighs let along have all those cells morph into a life saving treatment. If so, I'm going to be a millionaire The article linked didn't have much info on the science of it all and how they intended to use the fat to create stem cells.

Redballoon,

True, some of the links provided cover that..
I think THATS what the interest is. The possibility, that
these cells, might provide a better source, to allow for more differentiation.

Space

Here's some blurbs about fat specifically:

www.newscientist.com...
Longaker reports that ADAS cells grow seven times faster than the bone marrow cells in the laboratory. And it is relatively easy to harvest more than a litre of fat tissue, even from patients who are not obese. Bone marrow is much less plentiful and must be removed in a painful surgical procedure.

Of course, liposuction itself is not a pleasant operation. But according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, more than 300,000 people volunteered to have the procedure in 2003 simply for cosmetic reasons. If the procedure was the first step to healing broken bones or replacing other tissue its popularity could only grow.

www.eurekalert.org...
"Targeting Fat for Therapy: New Opportunities for Translational Research and Clinical Treatment" will be a forum for new research findings, including reports that demonstrate for the first time that adipose-derived stem cells can become bone marrow and smooth muscle cells, and preliminary results from what is believed to be the only human clinical trial using fat stem cells. The study, taking place in Spain, involves Crohn's disease patients who received their own cells to promote closure of a fistula, an external opening leading from the small bowel.

www.sciencedaily.com...
Using a cocktail of growth factors and induction agents, the researchers transformed cells isolated from mouse fat, also known as adipose tissue, into two important nerve cell types: neurons and glial cells. Neurons carry electrical signals from cell to cell, while glial cells surround neurons like a sheath.

"We have demonstrated that within fat tissue there is a population of stromal cells that can differentiate into different types of cells with many of the characteristics of neuronal and glial cells," said Duke's Kristine Safford, first author of the paper. "These findings support more research into developing adipose tissue as a viable source for cellular-based therapies.

Too cool!! I wonder if this will result in a rise of theraputic liposuctions, and if insurance companies would be more likely to pick up the tab in the future.

I'll try to look for an update tomorrow after the meeting of scientists.

IF this works, people will lining up faster to donate fat than they do to donate blood.

This could also solve the obeisety problems in the world. Instead of getting liposuction ot just look bette do it to save people.

Follow up on the meeting, read the link for more info:

Experts identify most promising areas of research for fat stem cells
Stem cells derived from fat may someday be used to provide a "medical bypass," a non-surgical alternative to heart bypass operations for people suffering from narrowed coronary arteries.

Treating coronary artery disease is one of three clinical applications considered most promising for these fat-derived stem cells, at least in the judgment of an expert consensus panel that met yesterday at the International Fat Applied Technology Society meeting here.

Treating peripheral artery disease in the legs and repairing congenital bone deformities and bone injuries are two other applications that should be considered for early clinical experiments, said Dr. Keith March, director of the Indiana Center for Vascular Biology and Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine, who moderated the session on clinical applications

I really think this will be the future for stem cell research, It won't cure all diseases or provide answers for all questions, embryonic stem cell research still needs to be done, but this is a damn good start and alternative until a "decision" is made.

I wouldn't want someone else's fat. Ew.

Christopher Reeve would be happy.

I think they should be able to pull something from sperm.

Originally posted by SpittinCobra
I think they should be able to pull something from sperm.

Good thoght, but they only contain half the chromosomes that normal cells would contain, and do not, on their own, divide and replicate. Sperm could also be seen as "potential life" by some of the same folks who get their panties in a bunch about embryonic stem cell research on embryos that are to be flushed and not used for implantation. Just think.. all that potential life in one sticky kleenex.

Originally posted by RedBalloon

Originally posted by SpittinCobra
I think they should be able to pull something from sperm.

Good thoght, but they only contain half the chromosomes that normal cells would contain, and do not, on their own, divide and replicate. Sperm could also be seen as "potential life" by some of the same folks who get their panties in a bunch about embryonic stem cell research on embryos that are to be flushed and not used for implantation. Just think.. all that potential life in one sticky kleenex.

I'm pro-life but I don't go so far as to say you shouldn't "waste" sperm. If I recall right, millions of sperm are launched during ejaculation, but only ONE reaches the egg. So someone's sinning because the other million didn't get there? I think not.

I've seen kooks who think a baby dies every time a woman has her period. Let me guess--a girl is supposed to keep on having sex--since before menarche--so she'll have babies and never a period. Yah right!

Human life, though, begins at conception. Not before. Not sometime DURING pregnancy.

Originally posted by Amethyst
I'm pro-life but I don't go so far as to say you shouldn't "waste" sperm. If I recall right, millions of sperm are launched during ejaculation, but only ONE reaches the egg. So someone's sinning because the other million didn't get there? I think not.

Human life, though, begins at conception. Not before. Not sometime DURING pregnancy.

Well, SOME people believe human life begins at conception, some people don't. There really isn't a way to prove it as absolute fact, and then we have to wonder what defines something as "human life" - if its just a living cell, then sperm count, too. Is it the potential to be a being? Sperm and eggs again count. That bring up a whole seperate mess of issues not at all related to this topic really, so I'll stop now.

Anyway, my post that you quoted was all about sarcasm I could care less if 1000 sticky tissues got flushed every second... just pointing out how so many people get worked up over anything that comes from a person, and declare it life with a free will and "rights." I don't pretend to know when life begins and it may very well be at that point. I'm not arguing that, however, I was just adding a perspective thats sure to come up if sperm was ever considered for treatments like that.

[edit on 9-11-2004 by RedBalloon]

Well RedBalloon, science has proved that human life begins at conception, not before, not sometime after. At conception the baby already has his/her chromosomes, all that's needed is for things to develop and the baby to grow. Gender is determined at conception, as are other physical traits.

Besides, wouldn't a decent person want to err on the side of caution if uncertain? "It might not be alive...let's get rid of it." Right.

And why is it called "reproduction"? What are we reproducing? Humans if I remember right!

Originally posted by Amethyst
Well RedBalloon, science has proved that human life begins at conception, not before, not sometime after. At conception the baby already has his/her chromosomes, all that's needed is for things to develop and the baby to grow. Gender is determined at conception, as are other physical traits.

Besides, wouldn't a decent person want to err on the side of caution if uncertain? "It might not be alive...let's get rid of it." Right.

Science hasn't "proven" when specifically "human" life begins. Sperm is alive. Eggs are living cells to. The humanity aspect is still being debated. I have not picked a side on that as of yet... Erring on the side of caution is good, but unfortunately, that doesn't always happen, and embryos are destroyed every day in the US when they are no longer needed and wanted in fertility clinics. The whole stem cell debate is alive on other threads though.. so if fat is as effective, then yay for fat. We all sure have enough of it. Point is - we don't KNOW what is best, more effective, better for this disease or that, And much more research and study needs to be done befoew we ever have the life thing, or the stem cell therapy thing down pat.