X-Message-Number: 8967
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 15:51:55 +0300 (MSK)
From: Eugene Leitl <>
Subject: FYI:>H Sunday Times UK (fwd, edited)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 15:41:11 +1000 (EST)
From: Mitchell Porter <>
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To: 
Subject: >H Sunday Times UK

Transhuman Mailing List

via another mailing list. -mitch

Dearest cyberpelicans,
                      a few interesting articles on futurism in the
Sunday Times (www.the-times.co.uk) of 4 January 1998. Here's the beef:

January 4 1998
                                          BRITAIN



  Frozen baboons returned
                  to life=20

                 by Lois Rogers=20
              Medical Correspondent=20


 SCIENTISTS have unlocked the secret of suspended
 animation by successfully reviving baboons hours after their
 bodies were packed into crates of ice.=20

 The breakthrough, which holds huge implications for the
 battle against disease and ageing, will allow humans to
 preserve their ice-cold bodies in suspended animation and
 wake up years later in the same physical condition.=20

 It has aroused the interest of space scientists investigating
 the possibility of interstellar travel, allowing human
 exploration of galaxies many light years away.=20

 Military clinicians are also attracted by the prospect of
 allowing critically injured troops to be near-frozen on the
 battlefield and preserved for later treatment.=20

 The key to the technology is Hextend, a revolutionary
 plasma replacement fluid which is poured into the body
 through a vein in the upper thigh as blood is drained and
 the anaesthetised body is cooled to 1C. As the clear fluid
 permeates the tissues, it prevents the deterioration caused
 by extreme lowering of body temperature.=20

 The results from the baboon studies, carried out at
 Biotime, a California research company, were announced
 at the annual meeting of the American Association of
 Anti-Ageing Medicine.=20

 Hal Sternberg, Biotime's head of research, said work on
 the mechanisms of animal hibernation had provided much
 of the basic information on suspended animation.=20

 One type of North American frog can partially freeze its
 body while it shuts down during the winter months.
 Hamsters have been kept alive at 1-2C with no heartbeat
 in Biotime laboratories for up to seven hours before being
 successfully rewarmed.=20

 The long-term objective is to add freeze-protectant
 chemicals to the Hextend solution so human bodies can be
 stored at -196C, the temperature of liquid nitrogen. The
 principal barrier, however, is popular opinion.=20

 "It is like the public attitude to early organ transplants," said
 Sternberg. "Although everyone will love us when we
 announce we have reversibly frozen a human being, at the
 moment this area is not considered socially acceptable.=20

 "There is a limit to how far people think you should go to
 save a life: but we already have children being born from
 frozen embryos. If you are extending the beginning of life,
 why shouldn't you also extend it later on?"=20

 Sternberg and his colleagues expect to use their new
 techniques to put themselves into long-term hibernation
 while they await the development of life-extending
 techniques to cure and prevent cancer, heart failure and
 Alzheimer's disease.=20

 Doctors believe the technique can immediately be used in
 complex surgery, where best results can be obtained by
 cooling the body to a level which would otherwise cause
 brain damage.=20

 Clinical trials of Hextend led by Michael Mythen, a
 consultant anaesthetist who worked on the project in
 America, are to begin at University College hospital,
 London, this year.=20

 It will be used in complex orthopaedic, gynaecological and
 stomach operations where there is a danger of catastrophic
 blood loss and where better results can be obtained at low
 temperatures.=20

 Kelvin Brockbank, a British-born scientist in South
 Carolina who has received funding from the American
 government for his research work in the allied field of
 preserving transplant organs, said deep-freezing of human
 tissue would be possible within a year. "There will be a
 whole range of applications for the technology," he said. "It
 will be up to people to decide how to use them."



January 4 1998
                                          BRITAIN



     Scientists build living
                 breasts=20

                 by Lois Rogers=20
              Medical Correspondent=20


 SCIENTISTS have pioneered a revolutionary technique to
 grow breast tissue using cells from a woman's own body.
 The treatment is to be offered to breast cancer victims as a
 natural and safe alternative to silicone implants.=20

 The development will revolutionise the treatment for
 women who suffer disfiguring tumour surgery or
 mastectomies and transform the cosmetic surgery industry.=20

 Scientists in Boston, Massachusetts, have already grown
 nipples and associated tissue from human cartilage cells;
 the first clinical trials in which nipples will be transplanted
 onto human patients are to begin later this year. Further
 trials involving larger replacement sections of breast tissue
 are planned to follow within 12 months. The researchers
 predict whole breast transplants within five years.=20

 The tissue engineers working on the project also expect to
 be able to recreate the complex function of lactation and
 produce a later version of the breast which will be capable
 of making milk.=20

 The regrown nipples, which have a natural firmness and
 projection, take several weeks to grow. They are
 produced from a small sample of fat and blood vessel cells
 taken from the buttock or thigh. The cells are seeded onto
 an artificial pre-shaped scaffolding of polymer plastic.
 Growth factors are added to promote cell division, and
 each cell reproduces itself once every 24 hours.=20

 Once the scaffolding is full, cell division slows. The
 polymer, which is similar to the material used for dissolving
 stitches in the body, then begins to disappear, leaving a
 completely natural section of tissue with its own blood
 supply, replacing cells only as needed. Because it is
 created from a woman's own body there is no problem of
 the implant being rejected.=20

 The project is being run by Reprogenesis, an American
 company based in Boston, with university research teams
 at the forefront of tissue engineering in Ann Arbor,
 Michigan, and Charlotte, North Carolina.=20

 The company intends the replacement breasts, which will
 also be offered for the cosmetic breast market, to be
 available within five years. "Our initial intention is to
 provide an option for breast cancer patients, but the
 method could be used for cosmetic reconstructions and it
 has generated a lot of interest," said Shawn Stovall, the
 company's spokesman.=20

 David Mooney, assistant professor of chemical engineering
 at the University of Michigan, said the innovation was the
 first of its kind.=20

 "We are growing a soft tissue that can replace a soft tissue.
 The key element of this technology is that it uses a
 woman's own cells and a biodegradable scaffolding or
 matrix," he said.=20

 Britain has one of the highest breast cancer rates in the
 world. Every year 26,000 new cases are diagnosed and
 about 10,000 of them require removal of a whole breast or
 a large section of tissue. At present many patients resist
 having replacements because they fear surgery or the
 potential side effects from silicone implants, the principal
 synthetic material used for breast reconstruction.=20

 Ian Fentiman, professor of surgical oncology at Guy's
 hospital in London, warned that the American researchers
 would have to ensure they did not "re-seed" the cancer
 cells by growing breasts from a woman's own tissue.
 However, he added: "Anything which increases the options
 has to be a good idea. The first question women ask is
 about the dangers of silicone."=20

 Continuing anxiety over silicone led the government to
 commission a panel of scientists to review the evidence of
 damage for a third time. Silicone implants can harden or
 leak; they have also been linked to cancer, multiple
 sclerosis and arthritis.=20

 The British market for breast surgery is worth at least =A32m
 a year. Many believe demand will soar if cancer patients
 and those seeking an enhanced profile are offered a safe
 and natural alternative to silicone.=20

 Margo Cameron, who runs Silicone Support UK for
 women with implants, said: "I get calls every week from
 women who have been disfigured by cancer surgery or
 who suffer torment from being flat-chested. They are all
 desperate to know if there is anything that doesn't contain
 silicone."=20


January 4 1998
                                          BRITAIN



 Scientists predict revolt of
     the bionic pensioners=20

       by Steve Connor Science Correspondent=20
[snip]
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