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STEM CELLS - ANOTHER MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGH From an article I read: "A team of researchers have successfully grown a beating human heart in the laboratory using stem cells. Right now, there are 4,186 people waiting for a heart transplant in the U.S., but with a huge donor shortage not all of these patients are likely to survive. Growing transplantable hearts in a laboratory has been a long-standing dream within the medical community, and a study in the journal Circulation Research has moved it one step closer to reality. Previous research has shown how 3D printers can be used to manufacture 3D heart segments using biological material. Although vacant of any actual heart cells, these structures provided the "scaffold" on which heart tissue could be grown. Now, a team from both Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School has taken this scaffolding concept and combined it with stem cells for some truly spectacular results. The main problem with heart transplants, other than a lack of donors, is that there’s a chance that the receiver’s body will reject the new organ. For this study, 73 human hearts deemed unsuitable for transplantation were carefully immersed in solutions of detergent in order to strip them of any cells that would provoke this self-destructive response. What was left was a matrix (or “scaffold”) of a heart, complete with its intricate structures and vessels, providing a new foundation for new heart cells to be grown onto. This is where stem cells come in. After just two weeks, the networks of lab-grown heart cells already resembled immature but intricately structured hearts. The team gave them a burst of electricity, and the hearts actually started beating. "Among the next steps that we are pursuing are improving methods to generate even more cardiac cells," said Jacques Guyette, a biomedical researcher at the MGH Center for Regenerative Medicine and lead author of the study, in a statement. Although this study manufactured a whopping 500 million stem cell-derived heart cells for the procedure, regrowing a whole heart would actually take "tens of billions," Guyette added. So despite falling short of growing an entire, mature human heart in a laboratory from a patient's own cells, this is the closest anyone has come to date to reaching this goal – and that in itself is a breathtaking achievement." How do you feel about what's being done with stem cells? I personally think it's fantastic how people can be helped. Elaine Shuel |
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I think that the use of stem cells is wonderful and will be soooo amazing! They are now beginning to draw stem cells from a person with joint issues, processing them, and injecting the stem cells into the joint to regenerate the tissue. If this process can be used for backs and other joints, think of all the surgical time that will be saved in hospitals. 
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I think that the use of stem cells is wonderful and will be soooo amazing! They are now beginning to draw stem cells from a person with joint issues, processing them, and injecting the stem cells into the joint to regenerate the tissue. If this process can be used for backs and other joints, think of all the surgical time that will be saved in hospitals.  Elaine Shuel
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Maggie, I am so happy to hear that.  Thanks for sharing such wonderful news. Elaine Shuel
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It's terrific but just the beginning. Reminds me of the first step on the moon. You have to start with one small step. Thanks for your comment, Roxy. Elaine Shuel
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Wonderful news. Elaine Shuel
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Wonderful. I didn't know about that. Stem cells can do so many things in so many areas. Thanks for your comment, TxJW2. Elaine Shuel
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