From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Fri Apr 30 1999 - 03:37:04 MDT
Joe Jenkins <joe_jenkins@yahoo.com> writes:
> > Adult Human Brain Stem Cells Reproduce In Vitro
> [snip]
> > Kukekov said, "These results are encouraging because it means that
> > even senior persons have these cells. This gives us the opportunity
> > in the future, as the research expands, to take a small biopsy
> > specimen from a diseased person, grow the necessary cells and then
> > transplant them back to the same person."
> [snip]
>
> Reality check please.
Sounds like a possibility. The problem here is of course getting the
cells connected into the network. What usually happens when young
nerve cells are transplanted (when things go right :-) is that they
start sending out axons to connect to neighboring or more remote
cells, depending on chemical signatures and their own preferences. It
is not obvious that transplants will help, but some experiments on
rats have been quite encouraging.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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