Friday, January 18, 2008
First came the breakthrough of possibly sourcing stem cells from our very own skin and then this one -- decellularisation -- a promising procedure to revive failing organs.
In this article by Agence France-Presse (AFP) and published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Jan. 13, it appears there is now an alternative to organ transplant. A team of U.S. scientists have reportedly succeeded in making a dead rat's heart "beat" again, opening the possibility of recycling organs that are failing either due to old age or congenital defects.
The process involves dissolving the organ into a "bleached-white scaffolding" using powerful detergents and then injecting it with fresh stem cells that will begin the regeneration process. In their experiment, detailed in the British journal Nature Medicine, scientists were able to jump-start a dead heart after about four days.
"It opens a door to this notion that you can make any organ: kidney, liver, lung, pancreas -- you name it and we hope we can make it," AFP quotes Doris Taylor, lead researcher and director of the Center for Cardiovascular Repair at the University of Minnesota.
Very promising, indeed.
I have long been interested in the "stem cell research" debate raging for years now. To me, it is as important a topic as climate change and population control, which I will take up in future posts.
In the U.S., Republicans and Democrats are equally split on the issue of stem cell research and the division is as partisan as abortion. You see, every Republican president has refused federal funding on these studies that earlier had only one source of stem cells -- human embryos. Conservative as they are and pro-life as it were, Republicans believe putting federal money on experiments that reduce human embryos into lab culture objects is revolting. And I agree with them. Let the private sector put up the money to develop clones for purposes of mining human organs, but don't use taxes paid by people split over the issue.
And then a few months ago American and Japanese scientists found a way to extract stem cells from skin, a radical breakthrough that voids the need for embryos. Like everyone else on the pro-life side, it made me wonder if public money should now fund promising cures for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, etc. using stem cells.
As a born-again Christian, I am staunchly pro-life but not necessarily against science and medical advances. For me, they are not mutually exclusive. Science, in fact, validates that there is a God and human advancements only bolster the existence of a higher being. To be sure evolution could be one of the reasons we have become highly functional beings than apes, but that doesn't mean there is no room for God in that process.
But that's not the point of this post. I wonder how the debate will evolve now that there are alternative ways to clone or revive human organs using stem cells. On a broader scale, how will these advancements impact ordinary individuals and third-world countries that cannot afford to waste money on expensive research such as as these?
The U.S. will surely capitalize on this breakthrough as it greatly impacts its ambition to remain the world's superpower. Imagine being able to keep your people alive? Today, the goal is simply to revive a failing organ. Tomorrow, it just might be to keep your population young, strong and healthy to continue the hegemony.
Al Gore, the best president the U.S. never had, has predicted climate change to usher the next great conflict. He can add two more to the list -- stem cell research and decellularisation.
Abangan ang susunod na kabanata.
