Stem Cells Cure Paralyzed Rats 330
An anonymous reader writes "According to an article on Forbes as well as other sources, 'Scientists have used [embryonic] stem cells and a soup of nerve-friendly chemicals to not just bridge a damaged spinal cord but actually regrow the circuitry needed to move a muscle, helping partially paralyzed rats walk.'"
If only... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:If only... (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, not always, there's a girl living near me who has a big RAT in her apartment. Reason: She (the girl, the rat no longer) works at a laboratory, knew that they were going to kill the rat and decided to take it home instead so that it wouldn't happen, and also because "it's so cute". The only problem is the chewed cables and bed sheets...
Re:If only... (Score:5, Interesting)
The fear is that someone could introduce a parasite, virus, or bacterial infection into one of the mouse colonies, which would be devistating to our research (http://www.jax.org/research/research_areas.html [jax.org]), and our mouse business (http://jaxmice.jax.org/index.html [jax.org]). I don't handle the lab mice, or even come in close proximity of the mice on a regular basis since I'm a software engineer and this restriction still applies to me.
Re:If only... (Score:5, Informative)
If the lab you work in is part of Jackson Labs, that's a reasonably paranoid restriction. If a university lab has an infection problem, they're often small enough to treat the issue medically. If not, they can buy a fresh population from, say, Jackson Labs. Jackson needs to have the equivalent of "five-nines" reliability in their animals, where a univeristy vivarium is usually happy with two or thee nines.
Re:If only... (Score:2)
But on the second thought - nevermind....
Re:If only... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:If only... (Score:3, Funny)
Wait - you have girlfriends and a wife? And you are a
Re:If only... (Score:3, Funny)
I'm confused. Which one is the rat ?
Re:If only... (Score:2)
Re:If only... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:If only... (Score:3, Funny)
Please. Broken spine? Cured! [bennyhinn.org] Mysterious foot pain? Cured! [bennyhinn.org] Crippling halitosis? Cured! [bennyhinn.org]
For those (Score:5, Funny)
Let's just tell the animal rights protestors that anyway.
Re:For those (Score:4, Funny)
Oh wait... I haven't got any.
I once saw... (Score:2)
I have come to question how one aquires a paralyzed dog? Usually a household pet will be saved and given some sort of help, but the dogs you find at the pound would be put down if they were "broken" from the waist down (although I don't agree with it, it is true). I mean, you couldn't obtain a paralyzed dog from the ve
Re:I once saw... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:For those (Score:5, Funny)
One of my coworkers worked in a Drosophilia (fruit fly) lab as a summer student some number of years ago. One Monday morning, he came in to the lab to wryly smiling colleagues. Apparently, animal rights activists had broken in to the lab over the weekend, and set all of the fruit flies 'free'. Unfortunately, this particular lab was working with curly-wing and wingless mutants, so the freed flies took a few tottering steps, then fell out of their open tubes and collected on the floor.
Re:For those (Score:3, Interesting)
My boss wouldn't let me throw eggs (from battery hens) at them. Spoilsport.
Re:For those (Score:5, Interesting)
Lab animals being set free often end up like that. They've been in labs for their entire lifespan (which is required, because all the variables need to be known and controllable), and they don't know how to fend for them selves. All those mice being set free usually just curl up somewhere and die. They don't really know how to look for food (they just nibble everything), and they don't know to run from predators.
Animal rights activists don't usually know anything about animals/nature. Animal rights acivists got egg collecting (from a rare species of bird, that lays it's eggs in fields) banned here last year. What they didn't know was, that when the colletors collected the first batch (which usually freezes to death) they put a flag near the nests so the farmer wouldn't drive over it. So all those years it was the egg collecting sustaining their existance (farmers don't go around putting flags near nests just for the heck of it, they've go 'better' things to do.
Re:For those (Score:3, Interesting)
Answer: yes (Score:3, Insightful)
That's easy. Take your pick:
A. Kill off the entire human species.
B. All of the above.
This is amazing (Score:5, Funny)
We must do this as quickly as possible. For science!
Re:This is amazing (Score:2)
Re:This is amazing (Score:5, Informative)
Oh wait, you have no idea how science gets funded in this country, and are parroting a talking point that someone prepared for your consumption. Most scientific research depends on federal funding. The stem cell lines on the "short list" are useless because there are so few of them and they are now contaminated with the cells from other animals that are used to keep the stem cells alive. The Bush ban isn't a matter of the government paying for all your lab costs except for particular stem cell lines which get crossed off as a line item. If any lab in any scientific research organization touches a non-Bush-approved stem cell line, it "poisons" the entire organization "GPL-style" and all federal funding gets cut off for all research that the organization might be doing whether it is related to stem cells at all or not. That will effectively shut it down.
If this is the universal panacea that it's being touted to be, then there should be no difficulty finding state, local, or private funding sources. You just can't feed out of the FEDERAL money-trough on this one.
The voters of the state of California approved Prop 71 which set up a bond for a stem-cell research in the state as a result of the federal funding restriction. The state would be getting a new non-federal research facility that would not be tainted by a single dollar of federal funding for equipment or office supplies or anything. Unfortunately, construction on the facility has now been held up for years now because of lawsuits from litigious wingnuts.
John Hopkins == NIHM!! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:John Hopkins == NIHM!! (Score:2)
...literally... (Score:5, Funny)
From the article ""They did something that people have been trying to do for at least 30 years and literally hit a brick wall until now," said Dr. Naomi Keitman..."
Is this why they developed an interest in repairing spinal cord injuries? I think we should be told...
Re:...literally... (Score:2)
That one *almost* makes sense (Score:3, Insightful)
So there is a physical wall involved, rather than a metaphorical one.
Though the word "literally" does conjure up a picture of bricks in someone's spine.
Got ya (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Got ya (Score:2)
...more commonly known as a 'car'...
Reconnecting Nerves is like hand soldering (Score:5, Insightful)
Its always going to be messy and you will likely fuse the wrong things together.
But having some movement/sensation is good so Thumbs (and index finger) up to this research.
Re:Reconnecting Nerves is like hand soldering (Score:5, Interesting)
A better link for that video would be appreciated, btw - the above requires IE and MS Media Player.
Re:Reconnecting Nerves is like hand soldering (Score:2, Insightful)
The difference being that the cpu (brain) can recognize those miswired connections and reroute them to work properly. Usually.
Re:Reconnecting Nerves is like hand soldering (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Reconnecting Nerves is like hand soldering (Score:2)
Question (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Question (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Question (Score:3, Informative)
Not the scientists, no. That what lab assistants are for! I wish I was joking.
Actually, they probably design some sort of rat-spine-breaking device so the assistants can paralyze them more uniformly than could be achieved just by stepping on them. I wish I was joking about that too.
Re:Question (Score:4, Funny)
If this goes commercial... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:If this goes commercial... (Score:3, Informative)
Of course not, and asking means you understand neither how an erection (and Viagara) work nor how spinal cord injuries work.
Viagara is a Vasoconstrictor [wikipedia.org] which causes blood vessels to contract. It was developed for other clinical applications, and had the happy side effect of granting erections to people. Except for a few people, it's probably not used very much for its original purpose.
Using stem cells to re-connect severed nerves means that the conduit to transmit ne
blind? (Score:2)
rats or mice (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:rats or mice (Score:3, Interesting)
This is what we're talking about (Score:5, Insightful)
Stem cells, biology (evolution!), global warming...The subjection of science to political considerations has to stop.
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:2)
Actually (Score:5, Interesting)
many don't realize the numbers of restrictions and amounts of red tape that come with government funding. So while the motive for limiting federal participation in stem cells may be political/religous/etc in basis it does also follow the theme of letting private industry take the risks and reap the rewards.
making people well is big business but along with that comes great cost and time. Innovations come from those who are not bound by restrictions and having the government looking over one's shoulder.
look at it this way, with private entities doing the work, competeing with each other, we will may end up with different cures for the same problems allowing a broader range of people to benefit. we also have multiple avenues to not being impacted in the future by the government agencies as the work was performed in the free market.
Re:Actually (Score:2)
Re:Actually (Score:2, Insightful)
It has been demonstrated time and time again that Big Business is not in the habit of taking risks. They would rather tweak an existing drug, repackage it and bingo we have another anti-histamine (Claritin-D). If you have done the research you will know that the big cures have NOT been happening. That drug companies have dumped more money into advertising than R&D. The bottom line, government funding is necessary for BASIC RESEARCH. Basic Research is ver
Re:Actually (Score:3, Interesting)
See, the problem with that is private entities are quite often not interested in finding cures. More than anything, they try to come up with long term treatments that will bring in recurring profits from each and every user over the lifetime of their patent. Privatization is not the answer to everything. I'd almos
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:5, Insightful)
Part of subscribing to a moral code is realizing that its requirements are overriding.
Here is the thing about moral codes: individuals subscribe to them according to their own beliefs. The government has no business legislating them. If christians of various flavors have a problem with stem cell research, they are free to refuse treatments based on it.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:2)
I have two university degrees, and we never had Ethics. Uh, I mean... Here in the U.S. at least, Ethics isn't required. Uhmmm...
Forget it.
--Rob
What we are talking about is Cells! (Score:3, Interesting)
The religious rightists are killing real people with this "moral code" that blocks desperately needed medical research for cures for terrible diseases. It is not a secular moral code of any sort, it is simply a purely religious belief that a soul is created in the human egg cell when a human sperm cell enters it.
These cells are created and expired all the time in fertility clinics, the religious rightists would prefer that these cells be thrown in the trash rather be used to help cure disease.
The
It is not a "judgement call" (Score:3, Insightful)
They are routinely discarded by fertility clinics, this is an established practice with established laws surronding it.
Various things are opposed by all sorts of fringe groups. The only group of anti-stem cell research advocates t
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:3, Insightful)
Do you really believe "The government has no business legislating [moral codes]"?
I firmly believe this. The government should be about enforcing agreed upon ethics that result in a conflict between individuals, not about morals.
Does that mean that you won't care if someone...
There is a difference between "caring" and thinking it is the government's job.
Common ethics says children need to be protected until they mature. If one individual tries to violate that ethical rule
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:3)
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:2, Interesting)
Here is the thing about governments: it serves the people. More than that, it represents the people (ideally), and it makes laws in a way that reflect the constituency.
If the US was a representative democracy with a majority composition of pag
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:4, Informative)
Also, we're not talking late-term fetuses that look like babies. We're not talking about fetuses like the ones you see on ultrasounds. We're talking about microscopic eggs that have been fertilized for a few days. If they were in a woman, she wouldn't know. If they failed to implant or miscarried, she'd never notice. However, they're not in a woman. Most embryos for stem cell research come from fertility clinics, extras created for backup and then unneeded, so they will never go in a woman and grow into a baby. If they weren't donated to science, they'd be thrown away. I for one, would rather they be used to help people, or even animals, rather than be thrown away.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:3, Informative)
And, in addition, not all Christian churches believe as a matter of doctrine that zygotes are little tiny people screaming out for protection with their cytoplasm mouths.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:2)
I pointed out that: no, it wouldn't. If I didn't see the context of the earlier discussion, then my second point was indeed offtopic, but the first point is the more important one.
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:2)
Most humorous statement given the history of the christian religion. Let the stoning begin! Seriously, just because you're christian doesn't mean you give up the right to form your own opinions without being a labeled a hypocrite. It's not hypocritical because the church is not the voice of a priest or even a Pope. Over time their opinions change because people challenge common accepted ideas.
With that said I think a lot of people completely misunderstand exactly what an embryo is. It's a pile of goo and
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:2)
First of all, whether they they're hypocrites or not doesn't make them pro-lifers.
Second of all, not all churches are against abortion and stem cell research. The United Church of Christ [ucc.org] very much supports a woman's right to choose, and The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice [rcrc.org] has information on being pro-choice within other faith tradi
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:3, Insightful)
It's short for a woman's right to choose what she does with her own body. That's kinda long, so we shorten it.
Say stupid shit like you support my right to choose if I get a tattoo or not all you want. Sorry, but my choices over my body are not limited to what you like and what you don't. I don't tell men what to do with their bodies, don't tell me what to do with mine.
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:2)
Without such an attitude, we'd still consider leeches as the pinnacle of modern medicine. The human body was once considered holy and untouchable, and cutting it open was not something a doctor could even consider without risking to be burned alive.
In
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:3, Interesting)
But at least when talking about laws and actions in the real world, I'd like to only include moral reasons that actually have a real world basis. Claiming that stem cells have tiny little souls is as useful in a moral debate as claiming that rocks have then and geology is evil. If someone thinks that killing a stem cell is wrong, then they've as much sent up a giant firework that blows up and displays the words "I have
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:2, Insightful)
"Consideration" and "belief" shouldn't enter into the discussion. It is an objective fact that embryos are human beings. One needs only look at the embryo's genetic make up.
Deciding if embryos are human or not via statistics of beliefs or opinion polls of the populace is subjective to the whims of the day. It is like 1850's United States southern farmers `deciding` if blacks were peo
Too true (Score:2)
Results woul
Important political debates (Score:2, Flamebait)
Really, this exemplifies the sort of research we've been talking about when it comes to stem cells. Unfortunately, the actual scientific possibilities were overshadowed by a bunch of political bullshit.
The source of stem cells is a profoundly important debate. Do we really want to breed and sacrifice a race of sound humans to fix broken bodies already deselected by nature?
Stem cells, biology (evolution!), global warming...The subjection of science to political considerations has to stop.
The debate
Re:Important political debates (Score:2)
No, we want to culture cells, which are as different from "sound humans" as almost any living thing aside from viruses and bacteria as anything could be. The full grown cow that I eat for lunch is FAR FAR more like a human being than any stem cell. Stem cells are just that: cells. That they are genetically human and can under certai
Re:Important political debates (Score:2)
On abortion, I can see the reason in saying that with no bright line, we must err on the side of life. But with stem cells, they are so far over on the "non-person" side of that line that that argument becomes nonsense.
Seems we agree. The source of stem cell lines will continue to be of interest.
The debate over evolution in general (common descent, natural selection shaping speciation events, etc.) is over. The only reason people are still debating is because they generally don't know what they are t
Re:This is what we're talking about (Score:2, Funny)
Embryonic? (Score:2, Interesting)
which ones did they use to help the rats walk.
stem cells are legal to use.
embroynic stem cells can be used but require private funding.
article doesn't distinguish wich ones are used on the rodents
Re:Embryonic? (Score:3, Informative)
Miracle (Score:3, Funny)
soup of nerve-friendly chemicals (Score:5, Funny)
I for one (Score:2, Funny)
Geeze (Score:5, Funny)
Groups like Peta think that rats are abused in laboratories, but they don't realize how easy a life they have it. Scientists are curing all sorts of problems in rats, making it easier for rats to survive. Billions of dollars are spent every year to cure rat problems.
I just wish that scientists would start curing stuff in humans, it would be nice if one of these days they started applying these discoveries on humans and maybe helping the human race out. If they could just take some of those billions spent on rat research and put it towards humans, what a wonderful world it would be.
So, hurray, scientists cure something else in some lab rat! Let me know when they start working on humans.
Re:Geeze (Score:2)
What we need is a president and a few high ranking congressman in wheel chairs. Once they know how it feels to be paralyzed they won't be so quick to say stem cell research is evil.
While I do not believe an embryo should be grown and harvested specifically for research, I do think that if a woman does have an abortio
This could be crucial to the stem cell debate (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This could be crucial to the stem cell debate (Score:2, Insightful)
We are talking about embryonic stem cell research,and it wouldn't change my viewpoint to have a cure for myself or a loved one dangled in front of me. Some of those "luddites" are not expressing an irrational fear of technology, but a set of deep-seated values.
Re:This could be crucial to the stem cell debate (Score:2)
But at what point are one person's beliefs allowed to harm those who do not share them? If people object to embryonic stem cell research then don't use it, but the millions of people who don't should be allowed to benefit from this god-given knowledge.
Re:This could be crucial to the stem cell debate (Score:2)
University of Louisville method (Score:5, Interesting)
I've met these folks. They are getting great results with procedure that is easy to duplicate AND the method uses the patient's own cells. Not only does that avoid the pesky ethics issues, there's no tissue rejection issues.
Yes, but what goes around comes around... (Score:2)
Human Clinical Trial (Score:3, Insightful)
Considering how things are currently going in the US though, this could end up being the only chance many of us will have for getting this sort of treatment any time soon. Eventually, some self-righteous asshat is going to propose federal bans on this, forcing those of us suffering from this type of condition to either live with the problem as-is, or leave the country and pay for it out of pocket.
Re:Also works as a gender change medicine! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Also works as a gender change medicine! (Score:3, Interesting)
However, it's not common to use the word to distinguish between species. I think the original poster's point was joking that if you could turn a mouse into a rat (as the original headline error implied), you could probably change a woman into a man. (of vice versa.)
The thing is, gene-splicing sex changes are probably not that far down the road. Figure out just the
Re:I have to say it... (Score:2)
Re:Stem Cells Cure Paralyzed Rats (Score:2)
i ThInk MAybE iT Is. hoWEver, CAPItalizINg tHe FIrSt leTTer oF eaCH WOrd in A HEADline iS coMmoN PRactiCE. (ALsO trUe foR CamelCase).
Re:How long till they get cancer? (Score:2)