Good Morning All,
A bit lengthy but good reading and positive thinking.
Subject: Reversal of Cell Aging; Science Journal Article Describes
Milestone in
Medical R
Advanced Cell Technology Achieves Reversal of Cell Aging; Science
Journal
Article Describes Milestone in Medical Research
WORCESTER, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 27, 2000--Advanced Cell
Technology, Inc. today reported the successful reversal of the aging
process
in cells. The company's breakthrough may be the path to successful use
of
therapeutic cloning techniques to cure some of humankind's most
intransigent
age-related and degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's
and
diabetes, as well as heart, liver and kidney disease.
Today's report was published in the journal Science (April 28,
2000), and
was titled Extension of Cell Lifespan and Telomere Length in Animals
Cloned
from Senescent Somatic Cells, by Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) and its
collaborators. Prior to publication the journal requires that articles
be
checked by independent researchers through a scientific peer review
process.
Dr. Michael D. West, a pioneer in telomere research and the
President and
CEO of Advanced Cell Technology, said, "With this research we have shown
that
it may eventually be possible to improve the quality of life for
millions of
people. In the U.S. alone, over 64 thousand patients are currently
awaiting
organ transplantation, and a new name is added to the waiting list every
18
minutes. In addition to patients with heart, liver, and kidney disease,
over
16 million patients worldwide suffer from neurodegenerative disorders
such as
Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. Over 140 million patients suffer
from
diabetes, and millions more from other diseases that may one day be
treatable
using these new technologies."
In the report, the researchers describe how they used a new cloning
technology to literally rewind the aging clock in cells. Virtually all
types
of body cells, except reproductive cells, contain this aging clock. It
consists of a strand of DNA on the end of all chromosomes. These ends
are
called telomeres and every time a cell divides some of this tail is used
up.
We thus eventually run out the aging clock until the cells in our bodies
stop
dividing. This cellular aging phenomenon is known as the "Hayflick
Limit."
"This study represents a milestone in our efforts to understand how
mammalian longevity is determined," said Leonard Hayflick, Ph.D.,
Professor
at the University of California, San Francisco, discoverer of the aging
process in human cells and the man for whom the Hayflick Limit is named.
"The
oocyte (egg cell) apparently is the rejuvenating environment that makes
babies young."
Medical science has long sought a means to turn back the aging clock
by
returning old cells to their earliest stages of development. If this can
be
accomplished it will then be possible to regenerate cells and tissues
for the
repair of age-related disease. The results of previous research
indicated
that even cloned cells retained the aging clock of the clone donor. For
example, scientists that used an alternative cloning technique to create
Dolly the cloned sheep that has been so prominently featured in the
media,
reported that she was actually aging faster and that her cellular aging
clock
had not been reset by the cloning process.
Today's report in the journal Science describes the cloning of six
calves
generated from cells at the end of their lifespan. "The old cells were
not
merely returned to a youthful state. Remarkably, they were actually
given a
longer life span than those from normal animals," said Dr. Robert P.
Lanza ,
MD, Vice President of Medical and Scientific Development at ACT and
first
author of the report. The cloned animals, one of which is celebrating
her
first birthday this week, have telomeres that look like newborn calves
despite the fact that they were cloned from senescent cells.
"Our results show that cloning actually has the potential to reverse
the
aging of cells," said Dr. Lanza. "This has profound implications for
treating
age-related disease and for understanding the actual mechanisms behind
the
aging process."
The company's scientific objective in applying cloning to human
medicine
is to create human stem cells -- the basic primitive cells that
ultimately
form all the cells in the body. These basic building block cells would
then
be capable of differentiating into a variety of human cells, such as
heart
cells, neurons, blood cells or islets for transplant therapies. By
demonstrating that the cellular clocks of these stem cells can be reset
through the cloning process, ACT has shown that human therapeutic
cloning may
give scientists the potential to grow young cells, tissues, and organs
for an
aging population.
"We couldn't be more excited about these results," said Jose
Cibelli,
Ph.D., Vice President of Research at ACT and an author of the paper.
"These
new results highlight the importance of the human medical applications
of
cloning. The ability to produce even a small number of young cells of
any
type, all of which are genetically identical to a patient and with no
transplant rejection problems, may prove lifesaving for a host of
age-related
disorders."
The researchers of the paper from Advanced Cell Technology,
collaborated
with scientists from the Terry Fox Laboratory and Cancer Research
Centre,
Vancouver, British Columbia and the Lankenau Medical Research Center and
Wynnewood, PA. Michael D. West, Ph.D., is the senior author of the
Science
report. His co-authors are Dr. Lanza, Dr. Cibelli, Catherine Blackwell
and
Nancy Sawyer of ACT, Vincent J. Cristofalo and Mary Kay Francis of the
Lankenau Medical Research Center, and Peter Lansdorp, Jennifer Mak,
Michael
Schertzer and Elizabeth E. Chavez of the Terry Fox Laboratory.
Advanced Cell Technology is a biotechnology company focused on
discovering and developing the applications of cloning technology in
human
medicine, agriculture and veterinary medicine.
For additional Information, please visit:
http://www.noonanrusso.com/www/act/index.ihtml
------------------------------
God Bless You All,
marty auslander
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