Stem Cells in the Heart? 158
NewScientist reports that researchers have discovered stem cells in the heart, leading them to believe that the heart can regenerate itself. From the article: "The finding raises the possibility that these cardiac stem cells could one day be manipulated to rebuild tissues damaged by heart disease - still the leading cause of death in the US and UK. Because fully developed heart cells do not divide, experts have believed the organ was unable to regenerate after injury. But, in 2003, researchers at Piero Anversa's laboratory at New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York, US, discovered stem cells in the hearts of mice, and subsequently humans. However, they still did not know whether these stem cells actually resided in the heart or had merely migrated there from another tissue, such as bone marrow."
what exactly is the news here? (Score:5, Informative)
But there was really not much actual science in this article.
Are we talking about adult, embryonic or.. I assume not, but cord blood stem cells.
I assume we are talking about adult stem cells. These have been discovered and are old news. In fact adult stem cells exist in basically any tissue, which includes the heart... So what exactly was the big news story here about?
Re:what exactly is the news here? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Stem cells! Stem cells! Look, we found stem cells! Give us more grant money!"
Re:what exactly is the news here? (Score:2)
I was you know thinking of the actual science here, I forgot about the power of hype and the all mighty grant money:)
Re:what exactly is the news here? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:what exactly is the news here? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:what exactly is the news here? (Score:2)
Re:what exactly is the news here? (Score:3, Informative)
It would be interesting to find out what the effects of removing the damaged tissue might be. Could it be possible that new functional tissue would grow in its place? Maybe enough to get the job done? Of course this is speaking from not knowing how the damaged tissue effect the hearts operation or if it has been tried before.
Re:what exactly is the news here? (Score:2, Informative)
Although I tend to think that popular science articles like this one are more "look at the cool gadgets we want to exist in 20 years" rather than "look at the cool gadgets that will exist in 20 years," I think this article is very relevant to this topic, especially what you were saying about the heart regenerating itself after damage from minor attacks.
Real heart disease progress found elsewhere (Score:2)
The big news is that the heart was thought that it couldn't repair itself after damage has occurred. Damage like minor heart attacks (which people often don't even know about, yet still have them) create scars on the heart. Over time, the build up of these scars reduces the hearts ability to function properly. Now we learn, that there may be new hope in a heart that could regenerate. Think of all the lives that could be saved. That's the big deal!
Researchers look at stem cells as magic pixie dust able t
Re:what exactly is the news here? (Score:1)
Plus, there are other options on the 'market' right now. Babies, dead babies, pigs (more like transplant) and even cows (I watched 'House' for this, assuming it's true especially for Bowel transplant).
Maybe I watched TV too much. Hm~
Re:what exactly is the news here? (Score:5, Informative)
1. They are not talking about embryonic cells. These are often referred to as "cardiac stem cells" and we each have them in our hearts. Thus they would be considered adult stem cells. As mentioned, their existence was established by Anversa's lab (and confirmed by others) a few years ago. That was a huge milestone, because we previously believed that all cells in the heart were "terminally differentiated" or incapable of generating new cells. We now know that there *are* cells in the hear that can do this, but not fast enough to make a difference in most cases. For example, if you have a heart attack, part of the muscle dies. For whatever reason (not enough cells, don't replicate fast enough, etc.), the cardiac stem cells are unable to completely repair the damage. Current trials of stem cells in the heart have focused on delivering cells derived from other sources (bone marrow, muscle cells, etc.), but it would be ideal to understand enough about the cardiac stem cells to be able to just "activate" them or at least improve the efficiency of what they do.
2. You are absolutely right we are talking about adult stem cells and even that those exist in the heart is old news. The only news here is that this is a step towards identifying them more efficiently/effectively (which would help as alluded to in my point #1). It's an important step, but an incremental one and I don't think it merited a Slashdot story - I agree with you that it's not that big of a deal.
Cardiac Scar Tissue Mechanism (Score:2)
Either some of those termianlly differentiated cells regress to an earlier state and then divide to create scar tissue, or scar tissue is the result of rapid division by cardiac stem cells, or there's something else happenning.
Does anyone have any data on this?
Re:Cardiac Scar Tissue Mechanism (Score:4, Interesting)
Homeostatic Control Mechanisms (Score:2)
The objective is to learn how those HPCs work, how they fail and how they can be repaired or failure prevented.
The assumptions are:
Re:Homeostatic Control Mechanisms (Score:2)
Kassab GS and Nav
Re:Homeostatic Control Mechanisms (Score:2)
See also his article (Pubmed ID: 16256799) on the same in tje Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery in November 2005
Hope this helps.
Re:what exactly is the news here? (Score:1)
Re:what exactly is the news here? (Score:1)
Everything else you will find in a modern A&P textbook.
Re:what exactly is the news here? (Score:2, Interesting)
Oh no (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh no (Score:3, Funny)
Even better: you could grow a new gorilla heart, if that kind of thing floats your boat. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it does, along with having a chicken brain implanted in your butt to drive your legs more efficiently.
Protest (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Protest (Score:5, Funny)
that is all.
Re:Protest (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Protest (Score:2)
No it doesn't. Haven't you ever seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?
Not only does a removed heart not stop beating, it also bursts into flame. That's wicked cool.
Re:Protest (Score:4, Interesting)
The SA and AV nodes have a pacemaker feature that makes a heart beat at a constant rate of about 100 bpm (for SA control, 60~ for AV control), and this is not controlled by the CNS. However parasympathetic innervation of the heart slows the heart rate to about 70 bpm. This is why heart transplant patients have a high heart rate constantly, because they have no para/sympathetic control of the heart. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiac_pacemaker/ [wikipedia.org]
Anyways if a good enough medium is made to supply the heart with nutrition, and about the same consistency as blood, it could support a heart beat for a fair while.
Heard of this before.... (Score:5, Informative)
Fantastic they discovered stems cells, but the heart repairing itself when relieved of load is not news.
(btw, I don't remember the name of the device used when they discovered this, but it was basically a small, simple liquid pump installed next to the heart. They didn't try to mimic a pulse, figuring it was unneccesary. They were right.)
Pumps (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Pumps (Score:2)
With a username of Dr. Beavis, I hope to God you don't work for them :)
Re:Heard of this before.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Heard of this before.... (Score:2)
Re:Heard of this before.... (Score:2, Informative)
Truly, you are a master geek... (Score:5, Funny)
Wow. I've never actually heard organs referred to as OEM.
Imagine an organ transplant...
"Well, sir, we can pop in this OEM model here, but it's pretty pricey. We do, however, have this third-party Korean heart that we could slap on in there, but it would violate your warranty and, lemme tell ya', those boys in inspections on the other side are unforgiving of that sort of thing. Of course, we could just throw a refurb in there, but those can be hard to come by..."
All in good humor of course, thanks for your informative post
Re:Truly, you are a master geek... (Score:1)
Re:Truly, you are a master geek... (Score:2)
Re:Truly, you are a master geek... (Score:5, Funny)
I don't think I could ever own a heart that came in a white box.
Re:Truly, you are a master geek... (Score:1)
Why is it always about race with you, grammar fascist?
Packaged Hearts (Score:2)
Re:Heard of this before.... (Score:2)
This would be really helpful for someone I know. (Score:4, Interesting)
Right now, he is set for a few more years before they have to cut him open again and make adjustments. I hope by then they can just replace the tubes with living tissue and also replace the unsightly scar tissue that has developed from being cut open so many times.
Let's pray to $DEITY that this gets off the ground. I'm pretty sure it will, mindless theologans aside.
Re:This would be really helpful for someone I know (Score:4, Informative)
Also, this development would not help your friend. These are cardiac stem cells, so they can only develop into cardiac tissue. The aorta is a blood vessel, and is composed of material very different to the heart. It wouldn't help with the visible scar tissue for the same reason.
Re:This would be really helpful for someone I know (Score:2)
Re:This would be really helpful for someone I know (Score:2)
Re:This would be really helpful for someone I know (Score:3, Insightful)
If they are "real" theologians, then its the preacher who would be listening to them, not the other way around. And yes, a "real" theologian would understand the difference.
Re:This would be really helpful for someone I know (Score:1, Insightful)
And the cardiac stem cells could be used for other purposes as well eventually. It's funny how your argument contradicts itself, because if it were true, then embryonic stem cells would HAVE to be used for the aorta, making your rebuttal to my argument invalid anyway!
Re:This would be really helpful for someone I know (Score:2)
Even if embryonic stem cells
Re:This would be really helpful for someone I know (Score:1)
Now I'm confused.
Re:This would be really helpful for someone I know (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:This would be really helpful for someone I know (Score:2, Informative)
Limited to heart tissue? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Limited to heart tissue? (Score:1, Informative)
It also means that you can't retrieve, say, brain stem cells without killing the person first.
Embryonic stem cells don't have the limits that adult stem cells do, and they are much easier to obtain.
Would you rather be cut open to get stem cell treatment or merely take some medecine?
Re:Limited to heart tissue? (Score:2)
Re:Limited to heart tissue? (Score:3, Informative)
Of course, when it comes to actual therapy, techniques will have to be developed that rely on adult stem cells. The whole point of stem cell therapy is th
Re:Limited to heart tissue? (Score:2)
Heart Removal... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Heart Removal... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Heart Removal... (Score:2)
Re:Heart Removal... (Score:2)
Besides, religions gods aren't Satan by default. they may be profits or other whatever and it would be the actions of reguarding them as a god thats against the religion. For some reason, if you whoreship a cow or a pig, it is still a cow or a pig. I don't see any difference with Kali. It would just be a false
Re:Heart Removal... (Score:2)
not just him (Score:2)
Migrating (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, bone marrow is reponsible for the production of blood cells, so having stem cells migrate into the blood stream and end up in the organ every ounce of one's blood eventually passes through makes sense to me.
Owner of a lonely heart... (Score:1)
http://www.internetdj.com/watch_video.php?op=watc
Slightly OTT, yes. But you won't be disappointed. Great tune too. Or if you're a closet case 80s fanatic like me [youtube.com].
Imagine that, (Score:1)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valhalla [wikipedia.org]
Good news for lovers (Score:3, Funny)
They've been so upset for so long, and today when I told them about how their hearts can regenerate, I think I saw hope in their eyes for the first time...
What about... (Score:4, Insightful)
Curing heart diseases is undoutedly important and necessary, but understanding why and how we have heart diseases could lead to less such diseases in the first place.
The problem - and not only with heart related diseases - is that there are quite a lot of life-style related causes, isn't it so?
And changing behaviours (what you eat, how you exercise, how you relate to your fellow human beings etc) is presently more "difficult" (for cultural reasons) than discovering cell manipulation techniques, that is, than intervening (than making a "patch").
That is the tradition bestowed upon us at least since Francis Bacon: the world, including nature and the human body, are objects which we can manage, alter, change to suit our "needs", to extract profit etc, because we can.
Instead of adopting a humbler attitude towards life, the universe and everything, trying to live seamlessly with our environment and with each others, we learned to alter the world so that it would adapat to our whims. The eventual errors, mistakes and disasters that follow such courses of action are tackled with further and deeper interventions.
Is it possible to change centuries of an intervention tradition, to try to understand and adapt to the environment and others, instead of adapting others and the environment to us?
Am I making any sense?
preventing heart atacks (Score:2)
But that is a lot of work!
The easiest way to prevent heart attacks is to pick parents that aren't prone to that issue. Otherwise, if you need your heart fixed, yeah, I'd say patch it up.
Re:preventing heart atacks (Score:2)
As a teenager, I'd love to have picked my parents.
Re:As a teenager... (Score:2)
Yeah, but I'd be filthy rich right now. Surely there's nothing wrong with that.
Bacon... (Score:2, Funny)
*Drools*
Re:What about... (Score:3, Insightful)
> everything, trying to live seamlessly with our environment and with each
> others, we learned to alter the world so that it would adapat to our whim.
That's right. Let's all just live in grass huts and eat wild fruit.
Re:What about... (Score:2)
Re:What about... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:What about... (Score:5, Insightful)
No, I'm not kidding.
Re:What about... (Score:2)
Re:What about... (Score:2)
People forget life has natural "warning" signs in things. When science side steps these warnings/problems, new ones arise which are more "DONT FUCK WITH ME!" rather than "hey, you can't even stand, you shouldn't of gon
Re:What about... (Score:3, Insightful)
(emphasis mine).
Whoa there... I think people would rather not be kept alive for too long after their lifetime of doing the happy stuff...
Seriously though: a big problem is who pays for it.
Seems like we're heading to a future where repairing people will be increasingly be limited by money (resouces) than by medical technology. Not sure when we'd ever be able to afford to pay to repair eve
Re:What about... (Score:4, Interesting)
touche (Score:3, Insightful)
We live in a society in which we really don't respect what fragile gifts our bodies are. The mantra seems to be "you could be hit by a bus tomorrow so live it up!!". While it is true that at any time your body can cease to function for a myriad of reasons, chances are you are going to live to see 60. What then? Living an entire life smoking, eating like a slob, and sitting on the couch will have taken a
Re:What about... (Score:1)
Re:What about... (Score:2)
Yes, yes you are. You're saying the individual is worthless and we should let genetics run its course.
Sorry, I'm the most important thing in my world and if I need stem cells in order to not die, I'm going after them.
Re:What about... (Score:2)
Sounds like you may want to investigate replacement organs before you turn 26.
The pharmaceutical industry is amoral; they move according to what's profitable. Curing diseases which have few victims, or which can be cured with simple remedies, are not profitable. Therefore you will learn about these cures only on the Internet.
My stance consists entirely of generalizations (if the rule only works for me then it's not mu
Cardiomyopathy (Score:2)
Similarly, some heart illnesses are hereditary, and not preventable by reducing fat, stress, etc.
Prevention, where available, is certainly better than cure, but let's be careful not to accuse all patients with cardiac damage of causing the damage themselves through bad choices.
Great news (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Great news (Score:3, Funny)
That's really weird thinking, there. "I want to be more like this fool who rushed into my sword?"
Re:Great news (Score:3, Funny)
Take that, GWB (Score:1, Insightful)
therefore, invest in Geron (GERN) (Score:1)
videlicit:
http://www.geron.com/pressview.asp?id=744 [geron.com]
and
http://www.geron.com/showpage.asp?code=prodsthr [geron.com]
Stress is the leading cause of (Score:1)
Dr Who Can Regenerate (Now We Can Regenerate too! (Score:2, Funny)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lJUdZqoOdU [youtube.com]
aww (Score:1)
Niche (Score:3, Funny)
A chick flick aimed at cardiologists.
broken heart (Score:2)
But we're doing that in Thailand already (Score:2, Informative)
Political implications (Score:2, Funny)
MAKE. IT. STOP (Score:2)
"Stem cells in the heaaaaeaaaaaaaeaeaeaaaaaaart"
not much of an article (Score:2)
The only thing we have now is, "Which do we kill for stem cells... the old fuckers like myself (jk) or the unborn"
Re:Hmmm (Score:4, Funny)
At least people don't need to worry anymore that they'll wake up in a bathtub full of ice with a fresh scar on their side. Why steal a kidney when you can take a heart instead and get a 2-for-1 deal?
Re:Nature, the idiot. (Score:2)
Re:Nature, the idiot. (Score:2)
Why stop there? (Score:2)
Why stop there? Why not kill off people for organ transplants, too? Of course, you couldn't be too blatant about it. Instead, the government can create a big DNA cross-referenced database. A senator needs a new heart? Find a match in the database and that person has an unfortunate accident the next day. An oil tycoon needs a liver? Well, you get the picture.
Of course, it woul