Politics
Monday January 14, 2008
Adult Stem Cells May Hold Key to Ethical Heart Transplants
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By John Connolly
ORLANDO, Florida, January 14, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Scientists have created a beating heart using laboratory techniques that involve adult stem cells and that could revolutionize organ donation.
Scientists at the University of Minnesota reported their findings at the American Heart Association's annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. The highly experimental procedure involved removing all the cells from a rat's dead heart, and using its protein blueprint as a guide for live adult stem cells seeded on the old heart.
"We took nature's building blocks to build a new organ," said Harald Ott, who worked on the project. "When we saw the first contractions we were speechless."
The ethical questions concerning heart donation could be completely sidestepped by such a process. Furthermore a new heart, grown in this way, would not be rejected by the patient's immune system, which is a common problem with organ transplants.
The procedure, however, is still in an experimental state, and it will probably be years before it can be tried on humans. Professor Doris Taylor, director of the University of Minnesota's center for cardiovascular repair, is very hopeful that this new breakthrough is a significant step towards the ability to create custom-built hearts as well as other organs.
"The idea would be to develop transplantable blood vessels or whole organs that are made from your own cells," Taylor said. "It opens a door to the notion that you can make any organ - kidney, liver or pancreas. You name it and we hope we can make it. This is a proof of concept. Going forward, our goal is to use a patient's stem cells to build a new heart."
Adult stem cells have led to many breakthroughs in medical science in recent years, in stark contrast to the lack of progress with ethically unacceptable embryonic stem cell research. Adult stem cells may be used to treat everything from heart attacks to damaged teeth. Many experimental projects have shown and are increasingly showing great promise for use of adult stem cells on human subjects.
See previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Adult Stem Cells Successfully Regenerate Pig Teeth, New Study Finds
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/07010502.html
Adult Stem Cells Used to Treat Emergency Heart Attack Patients
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/nov/06110809.html
Success Stories with Adult Stem Cells Coming in Almost Too Fast to Track
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jan/05012007.html
Adult Stem Cell Discoveries Could Treat Alzheimer's and Blindness
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/feb/05021405.html
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- "Manhattan Declaration" Embodies U.S. Christian Pushback against Abortion, Same-Sex "Marriage"
- Hoffman Loses Final Tally of NY-23 Race; Alleges ACORN Tampering and Fraud
- Abortion Activist Judge Hamilton Confirmed with Help of Ten Republican Senators
- CDC Reverses Gardasil Vaccine Requirement for Immigrants
- Germany Faces Economic Downturn with Plummeting Birth Rate and Aging Population
- CCHD in Archdiocese of Chicago Says it is Working to Fix Problems
- Rejection of Washington DC Marriage Referendum Challenged With Legal Suit
- Obama-Supporting Homosexual Activist to Out Sexually Involved Priests Unless they Support Gay 'Marriage
- Austrian Catholic Bishops Issue Bland Response to Govt's Homosexual Partnership Bill
- Interim Report on Catholic Sex-Abuse Says "Homosexual Identity" Not a Predictor of Sex Abuse
- Commentary on Nov 20 NewsBytes
- LSN NewsBytes - US Health Care Reform
- LSN NewsBytes - Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD)
- LSN NewsBytes - Life Issues, Religion, Swine Flu, US Politics, Sarah Palin, Miscellaneous
- LSN NewsBytes - Climate Change/Global Warming
- 59 Bishops Contributed Financially to Maine Bishop's Effort to Oppose Maine Same-Sex "Marriage" Law
- Pro-Abortion Lawmakers Shower Praise on Senate Bill's Phony Abortion Compromise
Most Read this Week
- Largest U.S. Homosexual Publisher Shuts Down, Closing Major Gay Newspapers
- EWTN's Arroyo Hosts Reform CCHD Reps Who Reveal Shocking Evidence Against USCCB Anti-Poverty Arm
- Italian Mayors Order Crufixes Put in Classrooms in Revolt against European Court Ruling
- Nat'l Organization for Marriage Responds to Miss California "Sex Tape" Scandal
- "Manhattan Declaration" Embodies U.S. Christian Pushback against Abortion, Same-Sex "Marriage"
- Obama Evades Questioning on Stupak Amendment in FOX Interview
- French Judge Finds Hospital Guilty of "Unreasonable Obstinacy" in Saving Newborn's Life
- EU Leaders to Choose President today in Secret "Soviet Style" Meetings
- Hoffman "Unconcedes" Battle for NY-23: Recount Provides Hope for "Miracle" Victory
- CCHD Responds to Reform Movement
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.