X-Message-Number: 8967
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 15:51:55 +0300 (MSK)
From: Eugene Leitl <>
Subject: FYI:>H Sunday Times UK (fwd, edited)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 15:41:11 +1000 (EST)
From: Mitchell Porter <>
Reply-To:
To:
Subject: >H Sunday Times UK
Transhuman Mailing List
via another mailing list. -mitch
Dearest cyberpelicans,
a few interesting articles on futurism in the
Sunday Times (www.the-times.co.uk) of 4 January 1998. Here's the beef:
January 4 1998
BRITAIN
Frozen baboons returned
to life=20
by Lois Rogers=20
Medical Correspondent=20
SCIENTISTS have unlocked the secret of suspended
animation by successfully reviving baboons hours after their
bodies were packed into crates of ice.=20
The breakthrough, which holds huge implications for the
battle against disease and ageing, will allow humans to
preserve their ice-cold bodies in suspended animation and
wake up years later in the same physical condition.=20
It has aroused the interest of space scientists investigating
the possibility of interstellar travel, allowing human
exploration of galaxies many light years away.=20
Military clinicians are also attracted by the prospect of
allowing critically injured troops to be near-frozen on the
battlefield and preserved for later treatment.=20
The key to the technology is Hextend, a revolutionary
plasma replacement fluid which is poured into the body
through a vein in the upper thigh as blood is drained and
the anaesthetised body is cooled to 1C. As the clear fluid
permeates the tissues, it prevents the deterioration caused
by extreme lowering of body temperature.=20
The results from the baboon studies, carried out at
Biotime, a California research company, were announced
at the annual meeting of the American Association of
Anti-Ageing Medicine.=20
Hal Sternberg, Biotime's head of research, said work on
the mechanisms of animal hibernation had provided much
of the basic information on suspended animation.=20
One type of North American frog can partially freeze its
body while it shuts down during the winter months.
Hamsters have been kept alive at 1-2C with no heartbeat
in Biotime laboratories for up to seven hours before being
successfully rewarmed.=20
The long-term objective is to add freeze-protectant
chemicals to the Hextend solution so human bodies can be
stored at -196C, the temperature of liquid nitrogen. The
principal barrier, however, is popular opinion.=20
"It is like the public attitude to early organ transplants," said
Sternberg. "Although everyone will love us when we
announce we have reversibly frozen a human being, at the
moment this area is not considered socially acceptable.=20
"There is a limit to how far people think you should go to
save a life: but we already have children being born from
frozen embryos. If you are extending the beginning of life,
why shouldn't you also extend it later on?"=20
Sternberg and his colleagues expect to use their new
techniques to put themselves into long-term hibernation
while they await the development of life-extending
techniques to cure and prevent cancer, heart failure and
Alzheimer's disease.=20
Doctors believe the technique can immediately be used in
complex surgery, where best results can be obtained by
cooling the body to a level which would otherwise cause
brain damage.=20
Clinical trials of Hextend led by Michael Mythen, a
consultant anaesthetist who worked on the project in
America, are to begin at University College hospital,
London, this year.=20
It will be used in complex orthopaedic, gynaecological and
stomach operations where there is a danger of catastrophic
blood loss and where better results can be obtained at low
temperatures.=20
Kelvin Brockbank, a British-born scientist in South
Carolina who has received funding from the American
government for his research work in the allied field of
preserving transplant organs, said deep-freezing of human
tissue would be possible within a year. "There will be a
whole range of applications for the technology," he said. "It
will be up to people to decide how to use them."
January 4 1998
BRITAIN
Scientists build living
breasts=20
by Lois Rogers=20
Medical Correspondent=20
SCIENTISTS have pioneered a revolutionary technique to
grow breast tissue using cells from a woman's own body.
The treatment is to be offered to breast cancer victims as a
natural and safe alternative to silicone implants.=20
The development will revolutionise the treatment for
women who suffer disfiguring tumour surgery or
mastectomies and transform the cosmetic surgery industry.=20
Scientists in Boston, Massachusetts, have already grown
nipples and associated tissue from human cartilage cells;
the first clinical trials in which nipples will be transplanted
onto human patients are to begin later this year. Further
trials involving larger replacement sections of breast tissue
are planned to follow within 12 months. The researchers
predict whole breast transplants within five years.=20
The tissue engineers working on the project also expect to
be able to recreate the complex function of lactation and
produce a later version of the breast which will be capable
of making milk.=20
The regrown nipples, which have a natural firmness and
projection, take several weeks to grow. They are
produced from a small sample of fat and blood vessel cells
taken from the buttock or thigh. The cells are seeded onto
an artificial pre-shaped scaffolding of polymer plastic.
Growth factors are added to promote cell division, and
each cell reproduces itself once every 24 hours.=20
Once the scaffolding is full, cell division slows. The
polymer, which is similar to the material used for dissolving
stitches in the body, then begins to disappear, leaving a
completely natural section of tissue with its own blood
supply, replacing cells only as needed. Because it is
created from a woman's own body there is no problem of
the implant being rejected.=20
The project is being run by Reprogenesis, an American
company based in Boston, with university research teams
at the forefront of tissue engineering in Ann Arbor,
Michigan, and Charlotte, North Carolina.=20
The company intends the replacement breasts, which will
also be offered for the cosmetic breast market, to be
available within five years. "Our initial intention is to
provide an option for breast cancer patients, but the
method could be used for cosmetic reconstructions and it
has generated a lot of interest," said Shawn Stovall, the
company's spokesman.=20
David Mooney, assistant professor of chemical engineering
at the University of Michigan, said the innovation was the
first of its kind.=20
"We are growing a soft tissue that can replace a soft tissue.
The key element of this technology is that it uses a
woman's own cells and a biodegradable scaffolding or
matrix," he said.=20
Britain has one of the highest breast cancer rates in the
world. Every year 26,000 new cases are diagnosed and
about 10,000 of them require removal of a whole breast or
a large section of tissue. At present many patients resist
having replacements because they fear surgery or the
potential side effects from silicone implants, the principal
synthetic material used for breast reconstruction.=20
Ian Fentiman, professor of surgical oncology at Guy's
hospital in London, warned that the American researchers
would have to ensure they did not "re-seed" the cancer
cells by growing breasts from a woman's own tissue.
However, he added: "Anything which increases the options
has to be a good idea. The first question women ask is
about the dangers of silicone."=20
Continuing anxiety over silicone led the government to
commission a panel of scientists to review the evidence of
damage for a third time. Silicone implants can harden or
leak; they have also been linked to cancer, multiple
sclerosis and arthritis.=20
The British market for breast surgery is worth at least =A32m
a year. Many believe demand will soar if cancer patients
and those seeking an enhanced profile are offered a safe
and natural alternative to silicone.=20
Margo Cameron, who runs Silicone Support UK for
women with implants, said: "I get calls every week from
women who have been disfigured by cancer surgery or
who suffer torment from being flat-chested. They are all
desperate to know if there is anything that doesn't contain
silicone."=20
January 4 1998
BRITAIN
Scientists predict revolt of
the bionic pensioners=20
by Steve Connor Science Correspondent=20
[snip]
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