OUR BODIES CAN RECREATE & HEAL THEMSELVES NOW
We can cure blindness, heart and kidney disease, cancer in new ways, thanks to new advances in stem cell research. We might even save important species from extinction. Learn more about it and check out the recent studies featured below.
EXTINCTION PREVENTION
There are only 3 northern white rhinos left in the world. And none are able to breed. Their species (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) will be extinct shortly. But science may save them yet.
This coming October (2016), a team of scientists from the US, Germany, Italy, and Japan, will remove the last eggs from the two females and, using IVF and stem cell technology, they will create embryos which they will implant in surrogate rhino mothers.
Within 16 to 18 months, the team hopes to welcome a new set of baby northern white rhinos into the world.
All 5 rhino species are endangered, largely because many Asian consumers believe that their horns contain remedies for everything from impotence to hangovers, and their demand has grown exponentially.
The northern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni), one of the two subspecies of the white rhinoceros, has been hit the hardest. As recently as the 1960’s, thousands roamed across East & Central Africa. But poachers serving Asian demand, hammered the species down.
The 3 remaining northern white rhinos belong to the Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic but live in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, in Kenya. They are protected round-the-clock by armed guards.
While stem cell technology has been developing, albeit with political handicaps along the way, it has never before been used to try to save a species from extinction. If successful, not only will this beautiful species be saved, but the methodology can be used to help save other endangered species from being permanently wiped off the planet.
SAVING LIVES NOW
Now, we are using our roots to create new versions of ourselves. Recently, stem cells have created new human organs for the first time ever, with tremendous life-saving potential.
Primitive human kidneys (organoids) have been created in a laboratory dish, using stem cells at the Kidney Research Laboratory (KRL) at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, in Australia.
While organoids can’t perform the functions of a fully formed adult kidney, the researchers believe they will lead to new ways to help people suffering from kidney failure.
The KRL Team, led by Melissa Little, have managed to accomplish something others have been trying to do for years. Using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, the team developed a combination of growth factors, in optimal concentrations, to produce chemical signals that trigger organ growth.
These organoids can yield value now. Transplants might help save failing kidneys, hearts, livers, and other organs. They could be a better alternative to animal testing for Pharmaceutical companies. And more...
KRL’s results were recently published journal Nature.
CURING BLINDNESS NOW
Over a dozen children born blind can now see thanks to a radical new stem cell treatment.
Cataracts is the most common cause of blindness in the world. While the most common form we know presents in the elderly, congenital cataracts appear in about 0.4% of all births.
A team of researchers, led by Kang Zhang, at Shiley Eye Institute (University of California, San Diego), conducted a trial using a new stem cell therapy on blind babies & toddlers. Vision was enabled and clear lenses regenerated in all of the kids, with results far superior to those achieved by surgery.
Zhang’s team showed how epithelial stem cells found around the eye lens can regenerate healthy lenses if they are not damaged during surgery. Learn more about it in this Nature article.
Zhang now plans to investigate whether a similar stem cell treatment can work for adults with cataracts.
Read more about Beautiful Roots in 10 Wonderful Images & Ideas About the Roots of Beautiful Now, So Important: Save These Beautiful Roots Now, The Warm Fragrant Spicy Beauty of Ginger Roots Now, The Beautiful Art of Roots Now and Beautiful Roots Preserved Beautifully! See Them Now!.
And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact Daily Fix posts.
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IMAGE CREDITS:
- Image: by Ryan Harvey. White Rhino, Kenya.
- Image: by Heather Paul. Angalifu the Northern White Rhinoceros male (Ceratotherium simum cottoni).
- Image: by Michael Dalton Smith. One of Four Northern White Rhinos at Ol Pejeta. Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Kenya. (Editor’s note: There are now only 3 Northern White Rhinos remaining in the world.).
- Image: Courtesy of International Rhino Foundation. White Rhino Mom & Baby. Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Kenya.
- Image: by Valentina Storti. White Rhino. Solio Ranch. Kenya.
- Image: by Mistvan. Northern White Rhino, ZOO Dvůr Králové, Czech Republic.
- Image: by Stuart Price, of Make it Kenya. ‘Sudan,’ the World’s Last Remaining Male Northern White Rhino. Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Kenya.
- Image: by Christopher Allison Photography. Show Down.
- Image: Courtesy of The Salk Institute. Embryonic Kidney Cells.
- Image: by Fabian Fromling & Minoru Takasato. Kidney Organoid in a Dish Generated From Human Pluripotent Stem Cells. The Three Colors Show the Presence of Distinct Cell Types Within the Developing Nephrons.
- Image: by Minoru Takasato. Mini-Kidney Formed in a Dish from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.
- Image: by Anai Gonzalez-Cordero.Courtesy of UCL News. A Nascent Retina, Generated from a 3D Embryonic Stem Cell Culture.
- Image: by Alisha Bacon. Newborn with Brown Eyes.
- Image: by Rebecca. Baby doll.
- Image: by Aaron Gilson. Looking Up.
- Image: by Anai Gonzalez-Cordero. Courtesy of UCL News. A Cluster of Nascent Retinae Generated From 3D Embryonic Stem Cell Cultures.
- Image: Courtesy of Penn State. Microscope view: Stem Cells. Reprogrammed From Adult Skin Cells (Red Blobs), Morphing into Human Brain cells (green blobs).
- Image: by BN App - Download now!
- Image: by Joseph Elsbernd. Neural stem cell.
