Is there a procedure comparible to HM/Cloning re: safety?

[elguapo]

Take what Intercytex is doing for example. They are extracting cells, culturing/cloning them (via mitosis - cell division - I assume), and injecting them into balding areas of our scalp.

There is a *possibility* that further mitosis of the injected cells will get out of control (as in the case of cancer), and that those cells growing out of control will migrate to other parts of the body (metastasis, as in the case of cancer), resulting in a spread of cancerous cells, essentially.

Is there another procedure that is already being done, perhaps on a large-scale basis, in which this same thing could happen? Something that the scientists can look at and say with confidence that because that procedure isn't resulting in any form of cancer, then follicular cloning should not result in cancer of any kind either?

Or is there any other guideline being used, for example if the cells do not show any sign of irregular mitosis within X amount of time, then there are no worries?

I would hate to see this procedure turn into a gaurantee for cancer for everyone who has it. But at the same time, I don't want for us to have to wait a lifetime before the scientists are convinced that it will never result in cancer, either.

PS - I'm not a scientist or biologist, so if this message doesn't make sense, my apologies. =[

 

[shaft]

cellular transplants are already used in several areas of medicine. pancreatic beta cells have been transplanted with great success in treating type I diabetes mellitus. stem cells have been used successfully in the treatment of alzheimers and of course, the obvious example of bone marrow stem cell transplants in the treatment of leukemia.

cancer is only a risk when mitotic controls within cells are damaged, usually by radiation or some kind of mutagen like benzene. simply implanting a healthy stem cell or differentiated follicular cell doesn't present an increased risk of cancer. hope this helps assuage your fears...

 

[elguapo]

This answers my question for the most part. But now I wonder if those other procedures involve altering the mitosis of the cells to speed things up, or grow more tissue at a faster rate than would otherwise be accomplished.

Is Intercytex speeding up or altering the mitotic process of the extracted cells? Here is a snippet from their website:

http://www.intercytex.com/icx/products/aesthetic/icxtrc/

These cells are cultured and expanded in proprietary media over three weeks and subsequently returned to the clinic in a sterile suspension.

Do you think this method of expansion might cause irregular mitosis? And if so, could the irregularity go undetected for years until one day, wham!, you've got cancer?

I'm not too worried about it. Personally, I think it will work. I'm just curious to know what sort of indications or flags are used in the medical/bioengineering field as a forewarning of potentially cancerous cell activity.

Thanks.

 

[shaft]

The text in this article doesn't really get into specifics but it doesn't sound like they are performing any modification of the cell nuclei. My guess is their proprietary media contains chemical signals to stimulate mitosis in these cells. Examples of these chemicals would be common hormones like testosterone and estrogen and lesser known transcription factors like BMP. The key is as long as they aren't messing with the machinery of the cells by modifying the chromosomes or disabling mitotic safeguards, the cells should divide with a normal response to their chemical stimulus. Once they implant these cells into your skin, the mitotic signalling molecules would come from your own body and would be regulated by normal epidermal vs. dermal interactions.

 

[elguapo]

Good answer. And I agree. It is unlikely that they are zapping the extracted cells with nuclear radiation or laser or anything that would change the way that the cells intrinsically divide, but rather, as you said, they are probably using normal chemical signals to assist cell the division process. It just sounds too good to be true, that in 3 weeks they can take hair follicle cells that are unaffected by dht, and breed them like rabbits within 3 weeks. Even if it took 1 year, I wouldn't complain!

Thanks again.