From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Wed Sep 03 2003 - 09:16:48 MDT
On Tue, 2 Sep 2003, Extropian Agroforestry Ventures Inc. wrote:
> Not a science based answer, the KISS answer ;
> Cell lines can either differentiate and die by apoptosis or attempt
> to regenerate back to a stem cell line.
I know of nothing that indicates that cells de-differentiate back
into a stem cell line. Which is not to say that we may not be able
to develop the means to drive cells that are differentiated back into
a stem cell state -- I believe that we will probably figure that out.
> Cancer might be thought of as an unsuccessful attempt
> at regeneneration?
No, cancer is clearly the result of various corruptions of the original
genetic program. Whether it is point mutations or chromosome double
strand break misrepair (causing chromosome translocations and the
abnormal activation/deactivation of critical genes) it is clearly a
corruption problem. In cancer cells the normal genetic code is clearly
broken in some way -- usually multiple ways.
One would not want to play with a cancer cell driven back into an
undifferentiated state -- it would likely be quite dangerous because
its normal development paths might well be faulty. The most probable
result would perhaps be a "teratoma" [use Google].
Robert
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