From: phil osborn (philosborn@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu Aug 17 2000 - 22:29:27 MDT
>From: JacqMath@aol.com
>Subject: Re: new stem cell breakthrough
>Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 10:34:27 EDT
>
>Damien Broderick wrote: NONONO - I wrote it! Damien is a totally
>different person. I swear.
> >
> >Nice! Now the next trick will be to get the absolute best egg cells to
> >start with. I mean the ones that have the really dynamite mitochondria.
> >There is an enormous variation in mitochondrial efficiency, and specific
> >mitochondrial lines have been closely correlated with life expectancy.
>So
> >you find the best ones and put in an ideal mix of several top strains,
>and
> >you've got the next FloJo.
> >Or, in the case of the potential for tissue/organ replacement, you put in
>a
> >new heart that is seen as yours by your immune system, but it runs at
> >olympic athlete levels.
>
>Since there would be some variation in the mitochondrial DNA is there any
>possibility of an immune response against the foreign proteins in the
>mitochondria? Cloning uses the process but the immune system develops with
>the organism. Not so in the case of tissue engineering or organ
>replacement.
> How much differentiation would be possible before such a response was
>elicited? And, I know this is a little off the subject, but has anyone
>done
>any research into how we might be able to make a body accept foreign
>proteins
>(due to somatic cell engineering)?
I suppose that it's possible to have an immune response to foreign
mitochondria, but it doesn't seem likely. Your body probably has a rather
wide variety of mitochondrial genotypes to start, from the original egg, and
then they tend to mutate prettty radically, which is a problem, but not
involving the immune system to my knowledge.
Phil - not Damien
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