My plan is to regrow myself, top to bottom, using stem cells. This post is why my current endogenous stem cells won’t do the trick and I’ll probably need to have some removed and fooled with and put back in.
Alternatively, I’ll start a website akin to this:
There is no doubt in my mind that the stem cell technology is on its way, and that a little bio-baggie full of cells nipped here and tucked there will do the trick. Hopefully my would-be heirs will be pleased to know they don’t have to wait around to inherit anything because I plan on not being dead, at least not totally. A teensy drop of dementia, or at least selective loss of episodic memory, before regrowing the brain stem cells, would be good. Specifically, this is related to an Austin Powers costume party circa 1997.
Regardless, unless you’re a neonate, you stem cells probably won’t work. At least not well. It’s a dicey matter, growing those stem cells. Too much, too juvenile-like growth, you get cancer. Not enough, you get cells that take up space at best (and go toxic at worst).
So, why won’t my existing non-neonatal non-umbilical stem cells work? Any 8th grader can just capture them (a little CD34 binding, some magnets, you all know the drill), culture them up, put them in a drip bag, and mainline right back in.
A recent report by Kaspar et al. found that as stem cells age ( at least mesenchymal stem cells, “MSC’s”) they become more susceptable to being a zombie (senescence) and they have reduced migratory ability (stem cells home in and travel to the injury to repair it) :
. . .Thus, we postulate two main reasons for the compromised cellular function of aged MSCs: (a) declined responsiveness to biological and mechanical signals due to a less dynamic actin cytoskeleton and (b) increased oxidative stress exposure favoring macromolecular damage and senescence. These results, along with the observed similar differentiation potentials, imply that MSC-based therapeutic approaches for the elderly should focus on attracting the cells to the site of injury and oxidative stress protection, rather than merely stimulating differentiation.
Stem cell scientists: kindly take out my CD34+ cells, pick out the ones that aren’t overly oxidatively damaged, put in some extra actin-encoding genes, and add a little dash of , you know, je ne sais quoi. A little more charm and irresistability, a little less, um Austin Powersishness, next time around would be good.
Grit Kasper, Lei Mao, Sven Geissler, Albena Draycheva, Jessica Trippens, Jirko Kühnisch, Miriam Tschirschmann, Katharina Kaspar, Carsten Perka, Georg N. Duda, and Joachim Klose, “Insights into Mesenchymal Stem Cell Aging: Involvement of Antioxidant Defense and Actin Cytoskeleton,” Stem Cells Vol. 27 No. 6 June 2009, pp. 1288 -1297, doi:10.1002/stem.49
See also, A. J. Simonnet, J. Nehme, P. Vaigot, V. Barroca, P. Leboulch, and D. Tronik-Le Roux, “Phenotypic and Functional Changes Induced in Hematopoietic Stem/Progenitor Cells After Gamma-Ray Radiation Exposure, ” Stem Cells 2009 27:1400-1409 doi:10.1002/stem.66
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Ok so you can regrow your body but what about your brain it starts to shut down as well, by age 100 you start to loose memories, have mental disabilities, and forget things Would stem cells be able to correct that?? I want to know more i would love to know that i could live forever.
Curiosity: The brain apparently has some resident stem cells, and there are plenty of researchers trying to answer the question you pose.