Re: Human Embryonic Stem Cells

John Clark (jonkc@worldnet.att.net)
Tue, 10 Nov 1998 01:06:24 -0500

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Joe Jenkins Wrote:

>Excuse the bio-ignorance but what is the basic game plan for getting
>the stem cell to grow a particular organ?

Nobody has made an entire organ yet but you can do a lot with just the cells. Geron has already manufactured mouse heart muscle cells from mouse stem cells, when the muscle cells were injected into a living mouse they found their way to the heart and successfully integrated into it supplementing the muscle already there. In a similar way it should be possible to use pancreatic cells to cure diabetes, neuron cells to treat Parkinson's disease and stroke, retina cells to treat blindness and bone marrow cells to treat cancer. My hunch is that the first complete organ they'll aim at is the liver, it can grow fast.

John K Clark jonkc@att.net

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