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On Thursday, November 8, 2001, at 10:11 PM, Ivan M Suzman wrote: > Hi Bob, > > If a PWP wants to become a stem-cell > patient at one of these laboratories, what > are the first steps one must take? > Forget about these cell lines,..ANIMAL RESEARCH ONLY. Not available for human consumption. These lines have been cultured with fetal bovine serum and on mouse feeder cells. There is a concern that retro viruses could be transferred from those other species and we would have another problem disease like HIV. There are some private labs that have developed a way to culture without a mouse cell feeder layer and substitute human amniotic fluid or growth factors. > Do we patients have any means to evaluate which > of the above laboratories should be selected > to affilaite with, for research treatments? > Short term, there are labs in the UK, Japan, Sweden, India that are still allowed to produce new lines -- and can take advantage of cleaner techniques. The labs that obtain these cell lines will be investigating all sorts of issues. Over 200 kinds of body cells can be derived, not just neurons. Therefore, lab affiliation would be what it is now, if you have a favorite lab. Wait for NIH approval for a Phase I Clinical Trial--yah right? There are existing animal models and lots of work done with animal stem cells and little in the way of moral objections about that. And that is why there is such excitement about stem cells. Animal studies have been promising. Now we gotta see how similar or different human cells are. > Are stem cells , once implanted, able to produce a > controllable amount of usable dopamine? Stem cells are smart cells--they go where needed for repair. There is a lab in Sweden working on this--for Parkinsons. Other labs are trying non-stem cell lines. If growth gets out of control the cells need to be inhibited by the use of a rare antibiotic that they have been programmed to be suseptable (sp?). The area of viral transformation of cells or ways of turning genes on and off needs further investigation. > I am concerned that just as fetal cell transplants may have > resulted in a few cases of unstoppable dyskinesias due to > over-production of dopamine, which may have caused egregious > harm to a few unfortunate patients, proliferating stem cells > might cause similar harm by multiplying uncontrollably. > There will come a time when those issues will not be a concern. I worry about the outlawing of new stem cell lines that will come from beyond the reach of the Federal government and the outlawing of therapeutic cloning. I sincerely believe there are ethical ways of obtaining stem cells without the destruction of an embryo. That also needs investigation. Sorry, no references. Hard disk crash (under warranty), I don't know if my favorite articles are backed up somewhere or lost. I have had other priorities lately. I wish I could be more encouraging, but, like they say... maybe 2 years... maybe 5 years... maybe 10 years... it is coming. > Ivan > :-) > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Ray 49/47 dx/40 onset PD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn