X-Message-Number: 14314
From: "George Smith" <>

Subject: Rutgers to patent growth medium to create nerve stem cells for brain 
repair, etc.
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 18:52:34 -0700

The following Reuters new story points to the progress in non-nanotech
medical repair of neurons in general and the brain in particular.

As these approaches continue and eventually become standard medical
procedure, the reasonableness of repair of cryonic suspendees will probably
be increasingly accepted.

(MY COMMENTS BELOW INTERSPERSED IN CAPS):

http://news.excite.com/news/r/000814/18/health-paralysis

Researchers make nerve cells from bone marrow

Updated 6:58 PM ET August 14, 2000
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers said Monday they had coaxed master cells
from bone marrow into becoming nerve cells, and said they hoped they could
use these cells to treat conditions ranging from paralysis to Alzheimer's
disease.

The team at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey say they
developed a culture that makes stem cells -- the so-called master cells of
the body -- turn into nerve cells "like wildfire."

They hope their formula can be used to help produce treatments using a
patients' own cells.

"These cells grow like wildfire in culture, so we have a vitually unlimited
supply," Dr. Ira Black, chairman of the department of neurosciences at the
university, said in a telephone interview.

Stem cells have been the subject of intense study by scientists, who hope
that they can be used to grow tissue and perhaps even organs on demand, if
only they can learn the secret of how to direct their growth.

(ORGANS "ON DEMAND" MAY GREATLY REDUCE THE NEED FOR LONG TERM PRESERVATION
METHODS.  INTEREST IN RESEARCH FOR CRYOGENIC AND/OR VITRIFICATION METHODS
MIGHT THEN BE UNFORTUNATELY REDUCED).

Black's team worked with stromal stem cells, which are found in the bone
marrow and which give rise to bone, muscle, fat and certain other kinds of
cells.

Writing in the Journal of Neuroscience Research, the researchers said they
started out with rat stem cells grown in the laboratory, and then confirmed
their findings using human stem cells in lab dishes.

The secret to making them grow, Black said, was in the growth medium used to
keep and grow cells in labs.

"It is a combination of ingredients that we used," he said. These included
antioxidants, which had been shown to help neurons live and grow, and growth
factors such as fibroblast growth factor (FGF).

(HERE THE RESULTS COME WITHOUT THE NEED FOR HIGHLY ELEGANT UNDERSTANDING OF
CAUSES.  TECHNOLOGY SKIPPING AHEAD WHILE SCIENCE LAGS BEHIND WONDERING WHAT
HAPPENED.  AMAZING).

"Now we have the optimal medium which results in the conversion of 80
percent of the cells into neurons, which in this area is astronomically
high."

Now they are testing to see what the cells can do.

"We are transplanting the cells into live rats and initially we've begun
with normal rats to answer some very simple questions -- will the cells
survive in various areas of the brain and the spinal cord and the answer is
yes they do," Black said.

So far they have lived for months, without causing any detectable
ill-effects in the rats, he said.

MORE TESTS PLANNED

Next they will test the cells in animals with Alzheimer's, stroke,
Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injuries.

Other studies have suggested that injured cells send out chemical calls for
help to which stem cells can respond. One study has shown stem cells
migrating through the brain and replacing damaged cells.

Black said it might be possible to grow these cells, inject them into an
injured spinal cord or damaged brain, and watch them go to work repairing
damage.

(THIS DESCRIPTION SHOULD DRAW THE RAPT ATTENTION OF ANY CRYONICIST.  "INJECT
THEM INTO ... [A] DAMAGED BRAIN, AND WATCH THEM GO TO WORK REPAIRING
DAMAGE".  DOESN'T THIS SCENARIO SOUND FAMILIAR?  GETTING CLOSER?).

It is more likely, however, that scientists will have to help out the stem
cells a little bit.

"I think it will be combination of different approaches that ultimately will
work," Black said.

"We have found that the spinal cord contains special growth factors that
enhance the regrowth of damaged neurons. In addition, there are inhibitory
factors that prevent regrowth, so probably the ultimate therapy, which none
of us can picture yet, would be a combination of the use of cells,
stimulation factors and the inhibition of antagonistic factors."

Black, who also works at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers
University, said the university had applied for a patent on the special
growth medium.

(MAYBE RUTGERS UNIVERSITY THINKS THERE MIGHT BE SOME COMMERCIAL VALUE IN
RADICAL RESTORATION OF HUMAN BODIES.  AS MEGA BUCKS CONTINUE TO BE PLOWED
INTO THE TECHNOLOGY WE NEED FOR CRYONICS TO WORK, THE ANSWERS WILL CONTINUE
TO COME.  FOLLOW THE MONEY).

The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, which helped fund the study
along with the National Institutes of Health, welcomed the findings.

"The possibilities for spinal cord and brain repair suggested by this study
are quite profound," Susan Howley, executive vice president and director of
research at the foundation, said in a telephone interview.

"Now ... we need to see if these cells help to promote functional recovery."

Reeve, an actor paralyzed in a riding accident, recently told Congress he
hopes stem cell research will cure him. ^

(ME?  I'LL TAKE MY CHANCES WITH SUPERMAN.  GO CLARK GO!).

(BY THE WAY, DOES ANYONE HAVE A PERSONAL CONTACT TO GET THE CRYONICS CONCEPT
THROUGH TO CHRISTOPHER REEVES?  THIS MAN DOES NOT SEEM TO WANT TO QUIT AND
SEEMS A MORE LIKELY CANDIDATE FOR SIGNING UP.  TALK ABOUT PULLING YOURSELF
UP BY YOUR OWN BOOTSTRAPS!).

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