X-Message-Number: 19217 Date: Thu, 6 Jun 2002 09:26:35 -0700 (PDT) From: Scott Badger <> Subject: Cryo-Diversification Sixty Minutes II on Wed evening aired a story about a 6 year old boy with sickle-cell anemia who was considered terminal. He was treated with stem cells extracted from an umbilical (or as the boy pronounced it, umbiblical) chord found at a public storage facility that had been gathering and freezing umbilical chords. Although very close matches are needed for operations like bone marrow transplants, stem cells apparently offer a much broader range of compatibilty options. Within a couple weeks, significant improvements were seen. The stem cells migrated to the bone marrow where they developoed into blood forming cells. Oddly enough, the boys blood type changed from O pos to Type B! He also stopped growing and now is 16 but looks about 9 years old. Now there's a company in Arizona, I think, that has generated about 50 million dollars charging parents about $1500 and an annual fee of about $75 to cryogenically preserve their newborn's umbilical chord. Questions: Why isn't ALCOR or CI in this business? There's no real controversy surrounding it since embryos aren't involved. In fact what other cryogenic services could feasibly be offered to help ensure that ALCOR or CI survives over time to revive us? What effects would such stem cell injections likely have on normal adults? Possible rejuvenation effects? Just curious. Scott Badger __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=19217