From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Fri Jan 07 2000 - 07:45:14 MST
"John Clark" <jonkc@worldnet.att.net> writes:
> I have no knowledge of the practical application of Cryonics so I'd like
> to ask those that do if the following is a nutty idea. As I understand it
> some otherwise promising cryoprotectants are rendered useless
> because they're too viscous to infuse at body temperature, much
> less during cool down. But what if you engineered a bacteria to produce
> the cryoprotectant and then infused the bacteria; wouldn't that make the
> viscosity of the substance irrelevant and as a bonus be dirt cheap too?
You have to time it with the immune system. If it is too active it
will attack the bacteria and you won't get much use from them. On the
other hand, infusing them when the patient is cooling might mean they
have a too short time window to produce cryoprotectants before they
freeze too.
In my opinion the best solution would be to add genes for
cryoprotectants connected to a hormone promotor from some insect
either prenatally or through gene therapy during adulthood, and then
activate the cryoprotectant production when it becomes necessary. Why
involve bacteria when there are trillions of cells?
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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