markomalley Posted August 17, 2006 Share Posted August 17, 2006 University of Florida researchers have shown ordinary human brain cells may share the prized qualities of self-renewal and adaptability normally associated with stem cells. Writing in an upcoming edition of Development, scientists from UF’s McKnight Brain Institute describe how they used mature human brain cells taken from epilepsy patients to generate new brain tissue in mice. Furthermore, they can coax these pedestrian human cells to produce large amounts of new brain cells in culture, with one cell theoretically able to begin a cycle of cell division that does not stop until the cells number about 10 to the 16th power. “We can theoretically take a single brain cell out of a human being and - with just this one cell - generate enough brain cells to replace every cell of the donor’s brain and conceivably those of 50 million other people,” said Dennis Steindler, Ph.D., executive director of UF’s McKnight Brain Institute. “This is a completely new source of human brain cells that can potentially be used to fight Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and a host of other brain disorders. It would probably only take months to get enough material for a human transplant operation.” Read the entire article here. This is some tremendous news that might spell a cure for many, many people who suffer from a whole host of diseases. Here is the best part about it (from an ethical point of view, at least): The findings ... are the result of the research team’s long-term investigations of adult human stem cells and rodent embryonic stem cells. We keep on finding results when adult stem cells are used... Anyway, I thought some of you might be glad to hear of this breakthrough! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan w. Posted August 18, 2006 Share Posted August 18, 2006 Heavy Marijuana users might be very interested indeed !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waysider Posted August 21, 2006 Share Posted August 21, 2006 "Thank you Father for healing my brain cell." ( plural not implied) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmiller Posted August 21, 2006 Share Posted August 21, 2006 It would be a wonderful thing, if adult stem cells could be used instead of embreyonic stem cells (for research). :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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allan w.
Heavy Marijuana users might be very interested indeed !!
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waysider
"Thank you Father for healing my brain cell." ( plural not implied)
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dmiller
It would be a wonderful thing, if adult stem cells could be used
instead of embreyonic stem cells (for research). :)
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