Wilgrove
26-03-2007, 06:37
Ok, first off, let's all get that dirty image out of our heads from the title.
Stem-cell work raises hope for organ transplants
Lenita Powers RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 3/30/2005 12:36 am
The lead scientist behind stem-cell research that uses sheep to produce humanized organs is Esmail Zanjani, chairman of animal biotechnology at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Funded by millions of dollars in federal grants, Zanjani and his team of researchers hope to use the sheep to incubate organs that one day can be transplanted into humans or cells that can be injected into human fetuses to treat genetic diseases in vitro.
Working with Zanjani is husband-and-wife team Christopher Porada and Graca Almeida-Porada, both members of UNR’s animal biotechnology department.
The project involves taking human stem cells from the bone marrow of adult volunteers or from one of the federally approved embryo lines and injecting them into the fetuses of sheep before the unborn lambs’ immune system develop enough to reject the human cells.
The hybrid animals created by this transgenic mixing of cells are known as chimeras (pronounced ky-MER-uhs), a reference to the fire-breathing monster in Greek mythology that was part lion, goat and serpent.
Zanjani’s work has captured national and international attention, but some medical ethicists say it poses some potentially serious medical issues. One concern is that viruses specific to sheep could mutate into a form that could infect humans.
“That’s the real limitation,” Zanjani said during an earlier interview with a Reno Gazette-Journal reporter. “Whether there will be viruses that could then be transferred into humans and what effect that could have, I don’t know the answer.”
Within the past few years, Zanjani and his researchers have received $2.5 million for their stem-cell project. In a list of 89 professors at UNR’s College of Agriculture ranked according to the total amount of grants they have received since 1997, Almeida-Porada ranked 14th, her husband was 17th and Zanjani ranked 23rd.
The sheep, kept at UNR’s Main Station Farm off South McCarran Boulevard near Hidden Valley, are the perfect subjects for such research because their stem-cell behavior is similar to that of humans, Zanjani said.
“We found that if we transplanted the adult stem cells, human cells developed everywhere in the sheep fetus — in the skin, the liver, the heart and the pancreas.”
Eventually, from 7 percent to 15 percent of their organs are composed of human cells, Zanjani said.
The human cells from those organs or portions of the organs themselves could be used to battle diseases or for transplants, he said.
Normal, viable human cells could be extracted from the sheep fetuses, placed in a culture to multiply and then injected into the diseased liver of a human, where it would regenerate healthy tissue, Zanjani said. Or, the entire part-animal, part-human organ could be harvested and implanted into the patient who donated the bone marrow used to grow the human cells in the sheep fetus.
The body’s immune system attacks the sheep cells but the human cells survive, he said.
“So your body is going to reject the sheep part of the liver and destroy it, but your body would accept the human part,” Zanjani said. “And that little bit of liver that is accepted has the ability to regenerate.”
Injecting the sheep fetus with the human donor’s own stem cells also increases the chances that the donor’s immune system won’t reject the human portion of the chimera organ, according to Zanjani.
“This isn’t science fiction,” he said of the effort to develop organs for human transplants. “I think in the next five to 10 years it will happen.”
http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2005/03/30/95831.php
Ok, five bucks says that if this sheep learns to talk and it turns into a total abomination against God and nature that it'll just say "Kill me!" over and over.
Stem-cell work raises hope for organ transplants
Lenita Powers RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 3/30/2005 12:36 am
The lead scientist behind stem-cell research that uses sheep to produce humanized organs is Esmail Zanjani, chairman of animal biotechnology at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Funded by millions of dollars in federal grants, Zanjani and his team of researchers hope to use the sheep to incubate organs that one day can be transplanted into humans or cells that can be injected into human fetuses to treat genetic diseases in vitro.
Working with Zanjani is husband-and-wife team Christopher Porada and Graca Almeida-Porada, both members of UNR’s animal biotechnology department.
The project involves taking human stem cells from the bone marrow of adult volunteers or from one of the federally approved embryo lines and injecting them into the fetuses of sheep before the unborn lambs’ immune system develop enough to reject the human cells.
The hybrid animals created by this transgenic mixing of cells are known as chimeras (pronounced ky-MER-uhs), a reference to the fire-breathing monster in Greek mythology that was part lion, goat and serpent.
Zanjani’s work has captured national and international attention, but some medical ethicists say it poses some potentially serious medical issues. One concern is that viruses specific to sheep could mutate into a form that could infect humans.
“That’s the real limitation,” Zanjani said during an earlier interview with a Reno Gazette-Journal reporter. “Whether there will be viruses that could then be transferred into humans and what effect that could have, I don’t know the answer.”
Within the past few years, Zanjani and his researchers have received $2.5 million for their stem-cell project. In a list of 89 professors at UNR’s College of Agriculture ranked according to the total amount of grants they have received since 1997, Almeida-Porada ranked 14th, her husband was 17th and Zanjani ranked 23rd.
The sheep, kept at UNR’s Main Station Farm off South McCarran Boulevard near Hidden Valley, are the perfect subjects for such research because their stem-cell behavior is similar to that of humans, Zanjani said.
“We found that if we transplanted the adult stem cells, human cells developed everywhere in the sheep fetus — in the skin, the liver, the heart and the pancreas.”
Eventually, from 7 percent to 15 percent of their organs are composed of human cells, Zanjani said.
The human cells from those organs or portions of the organs themselves could be used to battle diseases or for transplants, he said.
Normal, viable human cells could be extracted from the sheep fetuses, placed in a culture to multiply and then injected into the diseased liver of a human, where it would regenerate healthy tissue, Zanjani said. Or, the entire part-animal, part-human organ could be harvested and implanted into the patient who donated the bone marrow used to grow the human cells in the sheep fetus.
The body’s immune system attacks the sheep cells but the human cells survive, he said.
“So your body is going to reject the sheep part of the liver and destroy it, but your body would accept the human part,” Zanjani said. “And that little bit of liver that is accepted has the ability to regenerate.”
Injecting the sheep fetus with the human donor’s own stem cells also increases the chances that the donor’s immune system won’t reject the human portion of the chimera organ, according to Zanjani.
“This isn’t science fiction,” he said of the effort to develop organs for human transplants. “I think in the next five to 10 years it will happen.”
http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2005/03/30/95831.php
Ok, five bucks says that if this sheep learns to talk and it turns into a total abomination against God and nature that it'll just say "Kill me!" over and over.