Re: Human Embryonic Stem Cells

From: Joe Jenkins (joe_jenkins@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Nov 09 1998 - 11:05:20 MST


---John Clark <jonkc@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

> Human
> embryonic stem cells are undifferentiated but can develop into any of
> the 220 different kinds of cells that make up the human body. This
is a
> huge step toward cloning spare organs with no danger of rejection from
> your immune system.

---later John also wrote:

> Geron thinks it can convert any one of your cells back to its
embryonic > > form.
> Take any human embryonic stem cell, it doesn't matter who it's from,
and
> destroy the nucleus in it, then remove the nucleus (the part of the
cell > that
> contains the DNA) from any cell in your body and insert it into the
> > > > cytoplasm
> of the stem cell. You end up with Scott Badger's personal embryonic
stem
> cell.

Excuse the bio-ignorance but what is the basic game plan for getting
the stem cell to grow a particular organ? How do you trick it into
growing a lung (for example), and how do you keep it alive while it's
growing? Is there any way to speed up the growing of the lung so it
doesn't take 15 years to reach adult size?

Joe Jenkins
joe_jenkins@yahoo.com
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