It does require the use of a cadaver, but the thing is, this is not the same thing as regrowing an ear, a nose, or even a finger. People that are awaiting heart transplants are not in a position to be choosy about possible unrecognized viruses (e.g., “HepF”). Speaking as a scientist, this is an amazing advance, and even more so because it is so incredibly simple. The researchers basically “dissolved” the heart using a detergent (you can actually find this detergent in a lot of shampoos - look for sodium dodecyl sulfate). That left a scaffold of the outer protein shell of the heart - things like the protein that makes up cartilage. The stem cells used this scaffold to grow a new heart.
The beauty of this study is that, yes, a cadaver is required, but it was neonatal mouse heart cells that were used to regrow the heart. Thus, the heart is genetically matched to the donor of the cells. In this case, a mouse fetus donated the cells, but we already know how to make cardiac stem cells from bone marrow stem cells. (However, and this is just my opinion here, I think that embryonic stem cells will be more useful in applications such as these. And this will require the pro-life version of ESCs, such as those that came out of Shinya Yamanaka’s lab, as ordinary stem cells will not be genetically matched to the donor, especially in the case of men requiring new hearts).
There has been some considerable discussion regarding the inability to put embrionic stem cells to good use. I may be way off base here, but it’s my understanding that there hasn’t been one truly beneficial ESC therapy implemented.
It seems that ESC efforts have resulted in mutated dead ends. Is that an eronious perception? I know there are about 50 to 60 adult stem cell therapies being utilized today, and I’m just wondering if ASCs still wouldn’t be the best bet here.
What’s your take on that? I would imagine from your recommendation, you must have some positive comments on ESVs, that you could provide, since you have expressed favoring their use.
I did pick up on the mention of approved ESCs BTW.