Dog Gets Stem Cell Transplant

[Quiet_One]

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash. - Darrell and Nina Hallett love their dog Comet and have reached deeply into their wallets to prove it.



The couple spent $45,000 on a stem cell transplant for their golden retriever, who is recovering from lymphoma, a type of cancer that attacks the immune system.


Dr. Edmund Sullivan, a Bellingham veterinarian, performed the transplant last summer, using stem cells from another golden retriever.


Sue Hendrickson, a friend of the Halletts, owns Comet's mother and 11 other dogs. She spent months tracking down 40 of Comet's relatives to donate blood, eventually finding three perfect matches.


She flew to Florida to get Rico, the biggest of the three and the one who could yield the most stem cells, and delivered him to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, which donated advice and facilities for the transplant.


The cancer center has performed hundreds of bone-marrow or stem-cell transplants on dogs over the past four decades, as researchers perfected techniques used to treat cancer in humans.


Comet's transplant happened in June. After a long, steady recovery, he appears to be showing signs that he's been cured

 

[Quiet_One]

Well, i am very glad they love thier dog, what make sme angry is theres cure i know wee all know it free just those people dont wanna give it out natural cure for dogs and humans, sad way world is u either pay or die:BLEEP:

 

[JohnSWA]

This sounds great, but it got me thinking. Can't you get the same type of surgery outside of the US? Maybe I'm wrong, but wouldn't the world outside the US be making money hand over fist curing cancer/ alsheimers and the like with stem cells? This sounds kind of fishy to me that they have been using stem cell treatments for 40 years on animals, but like I said, I could be wrong.

 

[WHT_MTNMAN]

And I thought my degree was useless

At the risk of sounding too “scientific” let me first say that the stem cell debate has been going since the first “discovery” of them. First human stem cells haven’t been used for 4 decades, they (scientists) may have been known about but that is about it. It wasn’t until 1998 that a successful line of human embryonic stem cells were culture. The first line of stem cells that were culture was mouse stem cells in 1981.
Second there are many types of stem cells, totipotent (all potential) or pluripotent (many potentials etc...) one is precursor to the other. For many diseases only Embryonic Stem cells would have the potential to differentiate into the type of cells needed to replace necrosis. (dead or dying tissue) The embryonic stem cells are derived from the blastocyst and result in the death of the embryo (fetus, baby) which by itself is a huge debate.

The stem cells presumably used to treat the lymphoma were hematopoietic (blood or bone marrow) stem cells which normally cannot be used to differentiate into neurons or other more specialty type of cells.

So in short the reason that stem cell research isn’t used more regularly (on humans) is because first the ethical issue involved and second the inability to control differentiation with pinpoint accuracy. This is of limited importance when working with dogs and mice etc… a little more important when working with human subjects.

There is good news, I did embryonic research as a senior at ASU during 2003 & 2004 and there were many studies done that showed stem cells migrating to diseased areas and differentiating into needed cells. The research on animals is about as far as it can go, In no time at all stem cells will be a part of the treatment of humans. Remember it usually takes 15years for many drugs to be developed and this is just for drugs not new treatment procedures like stem cells.

Enough of that :BLEEP:

 

[Moosie]

I only know about Jail cells...........

 

[JohnSWA]

At the risk of sounding too “scientific” let me first say that the stem cell debate has been going since the first “discovery” of them. First human stem cells haven’t been used for 4 decades, they (scientists) may have been known about but that is about it. It wasn’t until 1998 that a successful line of human embryonic stem cells were culture. The first line of stem cells that were culture was mouse stem cells in 1981.
Second there are many types of stem cells, totipotent (all potential) or pluripotent (many potentials etc...) one is precursor to the other. For many diseases only Embryonic Stem cells would have the potential to differentiate into the type of cells needed to replace necrosis. (dead or dying tissue) The embryonic stem cells are derived from the blastocyst and result in the death of the embryo (fetus, baby) which by itself is a huge debate.

The stem cells presumably used to treat the lymphoma were hematopoietic (blood or bone marrow) stem cells which normally cannot be used to differentiate into neurons or other more specialty type of cells.

So in short the reason that stem cell research isn’t used more regularly (on humans) is because first the ethical issue involved and second the inability to control differentiation with pinpoint accuracy. This is of limited importance when working with dogs and mice etc… a little more important when working with human subjects.

There is good news, I did embryonic research as a senior at ASU during 2003 & 2004 and there were many studies done that showed stem cells migrating to diseased areas and differentiating into needed cells. The research on animals is about as far as it can go, In no time at all stem cells will be a part of the treatment of humans. Remember it usually takes 15years for many drugs to be developed and this is just for drugs not new treatment procedures like stem cells.

Enough of that :BLEEP:

Now that was interesting! Thanks for sharing!!!

 

[Bandit]

Wouldn't stem cell transplants be like playing god?

 

[WHT_MTNMAN]

The only way I see that stem cell transplants would be like playing God is if we "create" life in a test tube and then kill it just for the harvesting of embryonic stem cells. If we only use stem cells that have been harvested from stem cell lines (already have been cultured and colonized) then no harm is done. Left by themselves a stem cell does not have the ability to form a fetus.
Pres. Bush signed a bill stateing that no "new" lines were to be created and all research would be done with exsisting lines, these exsisting lines can be cultured and regenerated so that there is plenty to go around.
In medicine we already use byproducts of cells as drugs, (antibiotics) the destruction of cell lines are extremely common in the development of medicines, and drugs.

 

[Quiet_One]

Well, good post and interesting WHT, i found this in the weird news got more and so many things people are doin to play god is so blphamast, like cloning, or even playing god on tv, even doin abortion in a way is, anything that doctor aint doin is playing god least i think , , good sub to ask bandit love ya!!!