In my presentation I would like to talk about the future of medicine, about stem cells and growing organs in the lab or inside animal`s body.
Please watch the following movie showing some part of knowledge in this field:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_91_nARa0E
It’s a big problem for medicine and of course for patients that in case of organ damage like a kidney, a liver, a heart, a patient`s life depends on his place on the transplant list. It also means that somebody has to lose the organ in order to give it to someone else. Organ transplantation itself is only a life saving procedure, it is not perfect and means that a recipient needs to take immunosuppressant pills till the end of his life in order to avoid rejection and he/she lives with many restrictions.
There are many researchers all around the world at leading universities and laboratories that grow organs using special technology inside an animal`s body such as pigs. The most popular animal is the pig because of similar organs` size to human. In the lab organs are grown using a patient`s stem cells and special scaffold. Growing organs inside pigs requires to make genetic changes. In both cases the aim is to make properly working organs and avoid rejection without a need for taking immunosuppressant pills.
Lets imagine a situation like in the movie. We can grow organs, tissues perfectly fitting our bodies. Of course in the case of emergency we have a perfect solution which saves a life but let’s talk about something different. Let us imagine replacing all organs except our brain.
My questions:
1. If it was possible as I wrote above, would your life be different? Why? Would you drink more alcohol, still smoke cigarettes, use other substances making you happy in an artificial way, do extreme sports?
2. Would it be a problem for you if there was a need to grow a pig or some other animal containing part of your DNA, next take a needed organ and let the heroic pig die? :) Would you like to have pigs’ eyes;) Does it go with your beliefs or religion.
1. I would not, just because I think people choose their way, and if someone want's to drink/smoke and so on they simply do it, and if someone does not want to they don't. But maybe there are some heroic people that deny themselves the pleasure, just for health.
ReplyDelete2. I simply cannot imagine such situation. But maybe this is our future?
Thank you for your answers. About the second one. It is almost possible. Please check the following article:
Deletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10132347/Human-organs-could-be-grown-in-animals-within-a-year.html
It would be good to have working procedure I mean replacement for standard transplantation even it is quite brutal (at the end we have to kill the pig).
Elos, Izam I think you both answered aboce questions.
ReplyDeleteElos: "Does it go with your beliefs or religion" - there are already people who don't want to give organs or take them becauseof their beliefs or religion. Even without pig involved.
I know I could take a piece of someone's body and I would give my body to save others lives if it could be possible after my death. But I also can't imagine this situation in terms of pig organs. Maybe if it could save my life? Who knows. I really hope never to be forced to make such decision.
According to first question - Iza is right, if you'll still have your own brain does the change of other organs makes you a different person? My uncle is after heart transplantation. It hasn't change his habits or feelings. I believe brain is the key here.
Thank you for your answers. Of course brain is the key, I totally agree with you. But my question is about something different, nowadays people try to eat healthy, avoid extreme situation. I think they do those things because they assumed that they have only one body and simple dont want to ruin it. So lets imagine situation when you can simple replace all of your "parts" (except of course mentioned brain). You think people would live faster?
DeleteI don't think that would determine if people would live more reckless lives. If you look at some people (in your city, country, Youtube, news), how worse would it get? :) I suppose these transplants would be extremely expensive, and 'higher class' citizens, who could possibly afford such transplantation, are not neccessarily going all-in with their lives. The possibility of replacing damaged organs would just make people feel more... secure? But I don't think they would smoke or drink more (excluding BASE jumping without parachute - the fall would damage the brain :) ).
DeleteIt’a tough topic but l think that people shouldn’t take their organs let’s say to heaven. Heaven knows
ReplyDeletethat we need them here on earth. Everyone knows that there is a huge gap between supply and demand for organs so maybe these artificial organ regrowth can help in such situations. I agree with Iza maybe it’s just our future?
We should also take into consideration the fact that people who have to do a transplant they don’t know who is their donor. It’s anonymous. So they won’t know from whom or whose kidney he will have.
1. If it was possible as I wrote above, would your life be different? Why? Would you drink more alcohol, still smoke cigarettes, use other substances making you happy in an artificial way, do extreme sports?
ReplyDeleteThat’s a strange question. I do not smoke or drink, because I don’t like it and alcoholics/heavy smokers do not really pay attention to their health. It’s hard for me to imagine the situation that anybody would do harm to himself/herself on purpose, because he/she would have an opportunity to fix it later on. Of course there would always be reckless people, who like to risk everything, but it’s only a small percentage.
2. Would it be a problem for you if there was a need to grow a pig or some other animal containing part of your DNA, next take a needed organ and let the heroic pig die? :) Would you like to have pigs’ eyes;) Does it go with your beliefs or religion.
We breed animals for food, so I don’t have problem, if that pig could save my life. I understand that sounds cruel, but I do not mind giving my organs after my death if they could help save someone’s live. If that pig would be killed not only to supply organs, but to be eaten as well… I have no problem with that at all.
And it was some good answers here Jakub. That's the same for me. Usually people don't do extreme sports, because they don't like it. If they liked it, they would have no other choice as to do this sport - as with all cases of extreme sports. They just draw people deeper and deeper. Problem is only when you don't have money for expensive devices needed in particular sport.
DeleteI know many people stopped smoking, and all of them would never want to return to this habit and it is not connected with any health status. Smoking is just a crap as well as regular heavy alcohol rapture.
Why the hell would you not kill a pig, if it could save your life? It's just stupid. Killing pig for medicine is bad, bad killing it for a bacon is good – where's the logic? Of course, if you are vegetarian – you can and should talk about it, couse it is in fact hard moral topic. But if you are not...it's just hypocrisy.
1. If it was possible as I wrote above, would your life be different? Why? Would you drink more alcohol, still smoke cigarettes, use other substances making you happy in an artificial way, do extreme sports?
ReplyDeleteObiviously not, I love my life ;) Of course it would be great to 'fix' issues inside my body which I got from the beginning and are not allowing me to do some 'extreme sports' but I got used to it and found out different stuff which gives me pleasure and happines in my life. Speaking more directly - the life is about overcoming obcastles, it gives us strength and will to fight and live.
2. Would it be a problem for you if there was a need to grow a pig or some other animal containing part of your DNA, next take a needed organ and let the heroic pig die? :) Would you like to have pigs’ eyes;) Does it go with your beliefs or religion.
I would have not a problem. I strongly would not go into religion topic right there ;)
this article:
http://www.reasons.org/articles/pig-organs-may-one-day-save-human-lives
is a nice extension of this topic and answers (or creates much more?) questions.
I'm happy this topic has been brought up, as I'm interested in stem cells and regenerative medicine for a few years now. The reason is I have an eye condition that may cause in the future some trouble for me - including worsening quality of vision. This made me realize how important is having a good eyesight, so I started searching if there are treatments. Sadly there are almost none, but the whole new area of research emerges from stem cell research and it seems that cure could be found soon.
ReplyDeleteThere are two bio-startup companies doing research on using stem cells to regenerate eyes - http://www.stemcellsinc.com/ and http://advancedcell.com/. I highly recommend following them as each of the things they do is revolutionary. Their first clinical trials finish around 2014 / 2015 and if all goes well treatments will be available to patients in at least 5 years. Both companies are focused on curing or stopping progress of Age-Related Macular Degeneration which is a disease that affects millions of elderly worldwide, robbing them of ability to read and lead normal life without assistance. Currently the disease affects around 10% of people 66 or more, but it's estimated that due to diet and lifestyle changes, this number will rise. And there is no treatment and no cure. So there is a big hope that stem cells will offer a solution. If the research goes well and patients with AMD will get treatment, the door will be open for trials for other eyesight-affecting diseases.
During my research about eye treatments I learned a very harsh truth about modern medicine. The reason we cannot help with retinal (tissue in the back of the eye) disorders is that it's built with neurons and we, the medicine as a whole, cannot help with neurological disorders as the neurons hardly grow back - as opposite to i.e. bone tissue. So, in fact, we're completely helpless faced with any kind of neurological disease - including Multiple Sclerosis that affects 1 in 1000 people (which is a lot!), is completely debilitating at later stages, currently has only a few treatment options and all of them hardly work and are extremely costly. You also probably heard of Parkinson's and Alzheimers, as these two are neurological diseases affecting elderly and drastically cutting their life expectancy together with life quality. Also, they're currently incurable.
So, for me future of the medicine holds the promise of having good eyesight till the end of my life and also not being scared for my parents as they might get incurably sick when they get older.
As for organ regrowth itself, I believe it's too far away to plan what we might be doing if that was possible. Seeing the speed of stem cell research I'm not even sure artificially grown organs will be transplanted during my lifetime. So, when it's not in the picture yet, I'm in no mood to make plans.
Thank you for your post. I see that you knowledge in stem cells field is quite advanced. I hope that we are quite close to the vision presented by Dr Taylor in the movie and I belive that it will be possible during you lifetime unles you are 95 years old :) I am kidding of course, I is not polite to talk about women`s age.
DeleteI would like add that I see big problem with all those researches, metnioned by you and me. Are they good for pharmacy industry which is very powerfull? I dont think so, and I am afraid that they will do everything they can to slow down or stop researches. Why? Transplantation without rejection, without immunosuppressant drugs - means less money, less profits because people would not need pills, But lets assume that they have proper intention :)
Definitely Big Pharma is a problem here and actually they're not supporting that much research in stem cells which only proves your point. I've seen major pharmaceutical companies invest in trials but only in small ones and non of them has been completed yet.
DeleteBut the beauty of the situation is that stem cells are such a widely known discovery, we have so many good scientific papers written about it that I don't think pharmaceutical companies will be able to kill off the research even if they tried. Or so at least I hope.
I think we are ourselves because of our brains, ability to think and collect memories. Exchanging organs is just a way to live longer. The most important
ReplyDeletefacts are:
– your life doesn’t depend on a donor or even his/her death,
– there’s no rejection risk,
–you get the organ faster.
The most difficult boundaries for organ transplantation were broken. I was happy to get to know in the movie it will save many lives.
Can’t wait when it’s so popular we may get the treatment in our hospitals (or can we already?!). But I wouldn’t treat it as a way to be able to drink/smoke too much. You may have an organ replaced, but it still requires you to:
1) Feel ill 2) See too many doctors 3) Probably send too many money 4) Stay in hospital 5) Admit hospital guest in pajamas 6) Eat hospital meals 7) Go through a difficult surgery 8) Recovery 9) Watch “M jak miłość” for few weeks during L4
Hope I didn’t ruin nobody’s dreams! ;)
I have always wanted to watch "M jak miłość" for weeks without-a-break. I hope no to feel point 1) from your list ;)
ReplyDeleteWathing "M jak miłość" for weeks without-a-break only for people with strong heart or brand new heart :) No offence funs :)
DeleteI think more and better organs for people is unequivocally a good thing. No discussion about that. I don't think it would change the way I behave, though. I don't think my current behavior is particularly shaped by worrying about my organs. And having good transplant technology does not provide an alternative for healthy leaving. There is much more to your body than couple of easily replaceable organs.
ReplyDeleteLudwik I agree with you. I also think that better transplantation techniques and organs are good, I would not change my lifestyle. I like to think that I respect my body, I do not overwork my organs. There is one thing that I would not like to see. I do not like to see animals being treated in very bad, harmful way. If being needs to be killed than let it be done in humanitarian way.
Delete1) If it was possible as I wrote above, would your life be different? Why? Would you drink more alcohol, still smoke cigarettes, use other substances making you happy in an artificial way, do extreme sports?
ReplyDeleteI believe my life wouldn't be different. I think we should appreciate everything what we've got in our life (including health), no matter if there is some reserve organs or not. However I understand that for some people it may be equivalent with a temptation to check their limits or, in other words, to live without limits.
2. Would it be a problem for you if there was a need to grow a pig or some other animal containing part of your DNA, next take a needed organ and let the heroic pig die? :) Would you like to have pigs’ eyes;) Does it go with your beliefs or religion.
Meet is one of the regular components of my diet, so it wouldn't be a problem for me at all, unless it would be a cat, or a dog. It may sound cruel to someone, but I believe that human life is above the life of the animal.