Germ Cell Fever!

This news, if it pans out, I find quite heartening!

Having recently read the news of the production of viable stem cells from an adult mouse testis, I'm thrilled to see this new research on human germ cells, the obvious next step, comin' hard right on its heals!

U.S. Firm Says It Made Stem Cells From Human Testes

By Maggie Fox
Reuters
Sunday, April 2, 2006; Page A10

U.S. researchers said yesterday they had transformed immature cells from men's testicles into stem cells, which they then coaxed into becoming nerve, heart and bone cells.

Their work has not been assessed by standard peer-review processes but was presented at a meeting of stem cell researchers in Valencia, Spain. If other researchers can duplicate their efforts, the study offers a possible new source of valuable stem cells.

Darksyde was just talking about the political ramifications of similar recent findings. In Of Mice and Men, he goes into the likelihood of the "We Told You So" argument flyin' around from the right wing.

And some gruesome political uses for Medicine.

This story shows the research gettin' back to forward progress, despite our culture's theocratically organized opposition.

The findings are certain to be scrutinized before they are accepted. Earlier this year, South Korean researcher Hwang Woo Suk was disgraced for having faked two studies in which he claimed to have cloned human embryos and used them as a source of embryonic stem cells.

Last week, Gerd Hasenfuss of Georg-August-University in Goettingen, Germany, and colleagues reported in the journal Nature that they had transformed mouse germ cells into stem cells.

Francisco Silva and colleagues at PrimeGen said they had accomplished the same thing and taken it several steps further using human germ cells.

"Germ cells isolated from adult human testis can be therapeutically reprogrammed to have the ability to differentiate into cells that can be used therapeutically for cell-based regenerative medicine," they wrote for a presentation in Spain.

"We've already been able to reproducibly differentiate heart, brain, bone and cartilage cells, and we are excited to begin testing how these cells incorporate into tissues," Silva said in a statement.

I'm honestly just glad to see that there might be many different ways to do this kind of biological work. Even Hwang made progress, but he's paying for taking stupidly unethical shortcuts; no matter how logical his pre-experiment expectations may have been.

I'm thinkin' these authors are gonna be showing all the body of evidence to the peer review process.

Silva's team took cells from the testes of men ages 26 to 50. They grew them in various cell cultures, first to reprogram them to act as malleable stem cells and then to use them to grow various cell types.

Reproduction depends on it in more ways than one.

I'm also thinkin' that the whole abortion controversy is remaining unsolved for awhile. I know how I feel and what I think about abortion, embryonic stemcell research and how the equal and different natures of Men and Women need be treated under the Law.

[Link] 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

At least this means South Dakota's draconian new Law won't survive the SCOTUS. Even if it's writers did just get a philosophical boost from the Testis. But as they say about car insurance: Keep it Legal.