THE LIFE AFTER LIFE CONSPIRACY

Stem cells taken from the patient: now rejuvenating hearts, soon repairing knees

"For the first time, stem cells from patients' own hearts have been shown to battle heart failure." That's the lead on ABC's story last night on a new experimental regenerative medicine treatment that uses cardiac stem cells collected from the hearts of patients while they were on the operating table for heart surgery.  

What's especially  important is that in regenerating the hearts, these stem cells came from the patient himself (him, in this case reported), not from embryos. That opens new pathways to the use of stem cells in regenerative medical procedures.

Here's the link to that ABC report of November 14, 2011

NBC and CBS also reported it, same date.

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In another regenerative medicine study just out, this in England, a patient's own stem cells will be used to treat torn knee cartilege. That same researcher has already used a patient's own stem cells to tissue-engineer a new windpipe.

Given the reality that a lot of over-60 tennis players have knee problems, the market for that slice of regenerative medicine seems vast! Imagine that: no more tennis knees, eternal youth on the court!

That's in an article in the Independent, by Steve Connor

Stem-cell doctors to trial "bandage" for torn knees

 

"Researchers on the verge of growing human hearts"-- Independent UK (blogs)

 

"Growing human hearts"--- great headline. And for a great first line, how about this? "As I type, 17 human hearts are currently forming and there is much anticipation as to whether they will beat."

This from a blog put out in the framework of the Independent, in the UK, and the author is Siva Nagararajah.

The work uses what's termed "whole organ decellularisation," which means taking an actual heart from a deceased donor, then washing out the original heart cells to "leave only a pale fibrous matrix--'a ghost heart.'  That forms a scaffold on which stem cells are placed and left to --- hopefully--- grow and then beat.

The work was led by Dr. Doris Taylor.  Commenting on other break-through research her team performed, she said --- very memorably, I think: “A member of the media asked me: ‘If it’s so simple, why someone hasn’t done it before?’ And what I realised was that no one had done it before because no one had believed it was possible.”

". . .no one had done it before because no one had believed it was possible.”

Which echoes The Life After Life Conspiracy.  What comes to be in the fictional Hauenfelder Clinic is, I am convinced, not so very far ahead of what will be actual--- maybe not in mainstream labs, but likely in obscure labs in dictatorships, where legal and medical ethics are of no concern . . . as at Hauenfelder.

Actually, Dr. Taylor's work is one aspect of the larger field of regenerative medicine.  As we've noted in other posts here, stem cells are being used in a variety of regenerative medicine labs, with other organs and human body parts under development.  Also, in Dr. Taylor's lab in Wisconsin, and in others around the country and the world, chimeras (blends of human and other animals including chimps, rats, pigs and others) are being grown and tested.

Independent blogs: "Researchers on the verge of growing human hearts."

 

 

Synthetic windpipes, and kidneys "printed" in 3-D

Matt Ridley's article in the Wall Street Journal (July 16, 2011) begins with a mention of a synthetic windpipe grown with the patient's own cells. It was then successfully implanted in the patient, and he went home. (I've seen other accounts of this particular operation, and will include them here another time.)

Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Atala at Wake Forest University is experimenting with "printing" whole kidneys, using something akin to an ink-jet printer.  The procedure is still experimental and not able to turn out actual usable human kidneys, just replicas.  But the time will come.

As I've written elsewhere on this blog, the concepts I put forth in the early version of my sci-fi thriller, THE LIFE AFTER LIFE CONSPIRACY, were rejected by the publishing powers-that-be (rather "powers-that-were") as, paraphrasing, "too far out, impossible, just not ever going to happen."  Well, that was then, and a lot of it is happening around us now . . . though not yet the "Vehicles."

Here's the link to the Matt Ridley article:

WSJ article: How close are we to "printing" new organs?

Regenerative medicine / growing body parts

Regenerative medicine / growing body parts

Author's background comments:

If a salamander loses a leg, another grows back to take its place. Some studies are finding that if a child loses part of a finger, and certain non-traditional therapies are used, the end of that finger will grow back, complete with the nail.

Thus, the question that has long been asked — Given that salamanders (and other species) and children can regenerate lost limbs, why can’t we all do the same?— seems to be on the cusp of having a positive answer.

Interest is there, and funding is becoming increasingly available through foundations, businesses and the American government via DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency )  AFIRM Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine), Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and other military medical centers. More may be, likely is, being done in other countries in studies that haven’t been reporeted.

My point is that a lot of what seemed impossible not so many decades ago, is now happoening, or set to happen . . . In the real world, and even more so in my thriller, THE LIFE AFTER LIFE CONSPIRACY.

Without spoiling the plot for you, I’d like to give you an accessible overview of what has been done already, just in the past few years. Most of these relate to clippings that are online, many from popular newspapers, magazines and respected television series. I’m including those that are recent and that can be pulled up via an easy on-line search.

SOME RELEVANT STUDIES, ARTICLES, AND DOCUMENTARIES

• “How to grow new organs: Pioneers in building living tissue report important advances over the past decade.” Ali Khademhosseini, Joseph P. Vacanti and Richard Langer. Scientific American Magazine. May 4, 2009

• “Growing body parts. Morley Safer reports on the amazing science of regenerative medicine growing body parts.” 60 Minutes. Updated and aired July 25, 2010

• “Building artificial organs using ‘biological legos’ Darren Quick. Bloomberg Business Week. May 22, 2010

• “The race to grow new organs.” Anthony L Komaroff, MD. Newsweek. December 7, 2010.

• “War on wounds.” Anne Underwood. Newsweek. May 19, 2008. References to Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

• “The amazing ‘pixie dust’ made from pigs bladder that regrew a severed finger in four weeks.” Michael Hanlon. Mail Online (London). May 1, 2010. Includes photos.

• “Pigs could grow human organs in stem cell breakthrough.” Richard Gray. Telegraph. (London). June 19, 2011

• “Humans could regrow their own body parts like some amphibians, claim scientists.” Richard Alleyne. Telegraph (London). March 18, 2010

• “Discovery could help humans regrow limbs.” AOL News. March 17, 2010. Report on the research at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia. Mention of DARPA’s funding of tissue regeneration research for nearly a decade.

• “Grow-your-own to replace false teeth.” Ian Sample. Guardian (London). December 29, 2009

• “Japanese create stem cells from wisdom teeth.: No author credited. AFP. August 22, 2008

• “Gel that can help decayed teeth grow back could end fillings.” Pat Hagan. London Daily Mail. July 27, 2010

• “Made-to-measure lungs grown in laboratory a step closer.” Richard Alleyne. Telegraph. (London) June 24, 2010

• “Scientists grow ‘embryonic eye’ in test tube.” Richard Alleyne. Telegraph. (London) April 6, 2011

• “Simple eye grown from stem cells.” Ian Sample. Guardian. (London) April 6, 2011.

• “Scientists create human kidneys from stem cells.” No author cited. Telegraph. (London). April 12, 2011

• “British scientists create first pure brain stem cells.” Alok Jha. Guardian (London) August 17, 2005

• “Live human heart grown in lab using stem cells in potential transplant breakthrough.” David Derbyshire. Daily Mail, Mail Online. April 4, 2011

• “Seeding hearts with healing cells, doctors hope to grow muscle.” Rob Stein. Washington Post. November 6, 2003

• “Could cotton candy build blood vessels?” Malcolm Ritter. Associated Press, in USA Today. February 12, 2009

• “British scientists to create ‘synthetic blood.’ Steve Connor, Science editor. The Independent (London) March 23, 2009`

• “U.S. scientists grow beating mice heart muscle strip.” Lauran Neergaard. Associated Press. Posted October4 15, 2009.

• “‘Injectable bone’ made to heal breaks in a hurry. Eric Bland, Discovery News, in Discovery. Posted December 21, 2008.

• “Custom-made bones to be grown within hours.” Julian Ryall. Telegraph (London) November 25, 2008.

• “Mimicking human cartilage to repair a knee.” Anne Eisenberg. New York Times. June 28, 2011.

• “Hopes of custom-built organs as scientists create beating heart.” Times Online from Sunday Times (London) Sarah-Kate Templeton. January 15, 2008.

• “First bioartificial heart may signal end of organ shortage.” Roger Highfield. Telegraph (London). Updated January 13, 2008. (This did, may still, link to a video.)

• “It was horrible to see Sarah lying in that hospital bed without any skin.” Martin Fricker. Telegraph (London) November 1, 2004. Woman lost all skin as result of allergic reaction to common antibiotic (Bactrim). Artificial skin TransCyte was used, and she is now expected to make a full recovery.

• “Stem cell ‘fabrics’ promise universal tissue.” Colin Barras. New Scientist (England) February 26, 2009

• “Infusion of young blood revives old muscles.” Robert Roy Britt. LiveScience in AOL. February 16, 2005.

• “Skin cells turned into brain cells in stem cell breakthrough. Skin cells have been turned directly into nerve cells in research that could be a ‘huge leap forward’ for the treatment of dementia.” Richard Alleyne. Telegraph. (London) January 27, 2010

• “Stem cells could be used to repair brain damage.” Steve Connor. Independent. (London) April 14, 2010.

• “Fetal tissue heals burns: tests show treatment led to normal skin regrowth.” David Brown. Washington Post. August 18, 2005. In a preview of what was to be published in the prestigious medical journal, The Lancet, a Swiss team used skin cells grown from an aborted fetus to grow skin patches to cover other childrens’ second and third degree burns. From that one “donation,”which was smaller than a postage stamp, the team expected to be able to grow more than two million 3.5x5 inch pieces. Other researchers have successfully used foreskins of circumcised newborns and large pieces of skin removed from cadavers.

• “Scientists use ‘biological alchemy’ to convert one cell type into another.” Roger Highfield. Telegraph. (London) June 23, 2008. “...a new front has opened in regenerative medicine: the direct conversion of one cell type, say a skin cell, into another, say a brain cell.”

• Related: “Stem cell technique is ‘significant advance.’ Roger Highfield. Telegraph (London) August 1, 2008. Researchers have taken skin cells from a patient with a “genetic condition and transformed them into nerve cells . . . so they could study the cause of the nerve degeneration.” This could be useful in developing drugs. Even better, they hope that “if they can find a way of altering tyhe cell to make it healthy they will be able to grow a patient’s cells and tissue, free of disease, to transplant back into their body and fight the condition.” Study related to ALS, and related motor neuron disease

• Related: “Patient’s own cells mass produced for first time in lab.” Roger Highfield. Telegraph (London) July 31, 2008. Same patients etc as in article above.