Cell Regeneration: Unlocking Immortality?

[NeedBioInfo]

People are trying to make us live a really really long amount of time by perfecting cell regeneration right?

I was just wondering,
thanks

 

[Artermis]

Not really cell regeneration but more along the lines of cell preservation... As you grow older your cells actually weaken, they don't produce as fast, they aren't as receptive, they metaphorically fade out - which is a cause for diseases directly related to age such as cancer and Alzheimers.

 

[JamesU]

WHat do you mean by cell regeneration


BTW- Artemis, I don't get your sig.

 

[NeedBioInfo]

I mean, how long could we live for if all our cells could be/were preserved/replaced perfectly (like 100% preserved/healthy)

Thanks

 

[JamesU]

probably a little longer. a lot of aging is caused by improper protein production, (caused by emotion (depressed, sad)). for instance, if you were depressed, your cells would only have receptor sites for the specific amino peptides that make you feel depression. You would become depressed over time, and your cells would produce eccesive amounts of only a certain protein. for instance: when you get old, your skin becomes elastic, and elastin is a protein.

(please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm only learning)

 

[NeedBioInfo]

Well if you could make the cells essentially replace themselves (whenever/wherever necessary to achieve the indefinite lifespan or whatever) by connecting up to other cells could you live an indefinite lifespan?

 

[iansmith]

Not likely. Connecting cells will not solve the problem.

The problem with aging is that your cells stop dividing at some point, hence the degeneration process. So the idea behind anti-aging therapy is to make cell divide infinetly but control the cell division (i.e. have a control cell death mechanism). For example, cancer cells divide infinetly but it is in uncontrolled matter. The cells are immortal and do not respond to control cell death signals.

 

[NeedBioInfo]

But if you take on cell- and have connect up to another (Healthy, young, not old) cell to make the two cells become one- wouldn't the new cell continue dividing, (Despite the part of it that's an unhealthy cell) since it would have the healthy cell in it?

I mean hypothetically. Sorry if they didn't make any sense

I mean I was talking about having unhealthy cells replace themselves with healthy (Foreign?) cells of the same type by connecting up to them (By unhealthy cells I mean cells that would/have stopped dividing at some point)

 

[NeedBioInfo]

I mean um

Are there any circumstances where you could make a cell merge with or absorb another cell? (Eg with genetic engineering)

 

[JamesU]

no, The only way a cell could absorb another cell is through endocytosis, but they would not merge. and it would be a eukaryotic cell taking in a prokaryotic cell. (white blood cell eating bacterium)

 

[NeedBioInfo]

So could you for example...destroy unhealthy cells in a person and inject (or something) healthy cells into them so that they live longer?

 

[JamesU]

Ever heard of stem cells?

 

[NeedBioInfo]

The stem cells are ones that are bodies won't reject right?
So the key is to get cells that are bodies won't reject?

 

[JamesU]

ste cells are cells that do not have a particular function (i.e. bone cell, skin cell) they are like blank cells. scientists want to use stem cells to replace old dead ones, because they can take on the function of their surrounding cells.

 

[NeedBioInfo]

What would be wrong with using cells that have particular functions though?

 

[JamesU]

the body will reject them because they are alien cells, not from that body. I suppose that might happen w/ stem cells..I don't know...

 

[NeedBioInfo]

So if you had cells from like, cloned embryos or adult clones (I'm pretty sure that cloning humans is impossible well I think they can clone embryos but not bring the embryos to term) you could use those in place of stem cells? What's the current problem with stem cells?
Thanks

 

[JamesU]

I'm not sure about the coning question. ask a biologist. The problem with stem cells is that too many people are against getting stem cells from aborted fetuses an mother's wombs. they would work fine, but nobody wants to continue the research

 

[NeedBioInfo]

But they wouldn't work fine unless the research was continued and more answers/information was found right?

 

[JamesU]

I'm not sure, I don't know too much about it.

 

[NeedBioInfo]

Hi...yomamma said she wasn't sure about the cloning question and to ask a biologist...could a biologist here answer that? :P

Thanks

 

[Monique]

I'm not sure about the coning question. ask a biologist.

Stem cells are useful since you can potentially program them into any cell type you want, for instance you can replace dopamine-secreting midbrain neurons to treat Parkinson or transplant insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells to battle Diabetes.

They isolate stem cells from embryos, since they are a good source. It is very difficult to isolate stem cells from an adult (there are some, think blood producing cells in the bone marrow). Cloning is useful, since you can create an embryo from an adult cell and isolate stem cells from there: the advantage is that the stem cell will be native to the body of the recipient and thus won't be rejected.

 

[NeedBioInfo]

So at this point could we use stem cells to live indefinetly...if so why not? Because research hasn't progressed that far yet?

Could you (hypothetically) use cells from a cloned version of yourself (Eg an embryo or an adult, not that we can bring cloned embryos to term or anything) as a replacement (not an exact replacement for stem cells and live indefinetly that way?

 

[Monique]

First you need to understand why we age, them you can question how we can combat it. For a discussion look here https://www.physicsforums.com/archive/t-72949_why_do_you_get_old_and_ultimately_die.html

You whole body is under stress of aging, you can't possibly replace everything by stem cells. We might understand more about our bodies' mechanism of protection against damage from the chemistry of stem cells.

A cloned version as a replacement? It would be of no use, unless you know how to transplant a 'soul'. Identical twins are a clone; one does not serve as a replacement for the other.

 

[NeedBioInfo]

No I meant...

could you use the cells from the clone, because they wouldn't be rejected, like stem cells wouldn't be rejected

 

[NeedBioInfo]

While the whole body is under stress of aging and we can't possibly replace everything by stem cells we could theoretically replace all the CELLS with stem cells right...(I mean theoretically/hypothetically)

 

[Monique]

No I meant...

could you use the cells from the clone, because they wouldn't be rejected, like stem cells wouldn't be rejected

Stem cells are rejected when they come from a foreign body. That's why cloning would be an answer to get stem cells that are not foreign (therapeutic cloning is the name).

While the whole body is under stress of aging and we can't possibly replace everything by stem cells we could theoretically replace all the CELLS with stem cells right...(I mean theoretically/hypothetically)

Your whole body is composed of cells.

Some cells that are easy to replace are those in the bone marrow, you can irradiate to kill all the bone marrow cells and then seed the body with donor bone marrow cells. It won't be that easy with other tissue types.

 

[NeedBioInfo]

so you would have to get stem cells from cloned embryos?

 

[NeedBioInfo]

theoretically could replacng cells lead to an indefinite lifespan?

 

[Monique]

If you want to avoid the histocompatibility issue: yes.

What happens is that a biopsied nucleus is transferred into a enucleated egg, the zygote is grown to a blastocyst state, after which the stem cells can be extracted. A problem is oocyte shortage.