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• Regenerative medicine
• Stem cells

• Follow the Money To Find the First Therapies

  ABCNews reminds us that you'll find the first (expensive, comparatively crude) experimental application of new technologies right where the money is. In the case of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, modern athletics is one such location: "some researchers are optimistic that sports medicine could reap the benefits of stem cells in the foreseeable future. ... In athletes, we will probably first see stem cells being used to treat meniscus injuries in the knee and tendon injuries ... We could also see it used in ligament reconstruction in the knee. ACL repair is a common operation -- typically you take part of a ligament from a donor site in the knee. Instead we might be able to use a patient's own cells to grow their own ligament. ... one company is currently in the early phases of a clinical trial for a new technique to repair the meniscus -- a crucial wedge of cartilage in the knee joint. ... Although the trial is still in its early stages, he said these therapies may one day allow athletes to heal more completely and faster than ever before. ... Stem cell therapy is much closer than people think. Once that happens, it's really going to open up the door for large-scale stem cell therapies to invade into other areas and become part of the armament of sports medicine physicians."
  
  View the Article Under Discussion: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/print?id=3038931
  Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/
  Posted Monday, April 16, 2007 5:33 PM from Longevity Meme News and Commentary / 0 Comments

  Tags: Stem cells, Regenerative medicine, Sports performance enhancement

• Commerce Drives Progress

  From FuturePundit, some thoughts on where you should be looking to see progress in implementing the next stages of regenerative medicine and enhancement built upon growing use of stem cells: "Professional athletes are not risk averse. The doping in baseball and by athletes in other sports demonstrates the huge health risks they'll run in order to win. Plus, they have big dollars to spend. Imagine that Michael Jordan could have gotten his knees fixed with stem cell therapies. He could have made millions more by playing more seasons. If athletes can find ways to take risks with stem cell therapies then stem cell therapies will advance more rapidly. I am also expecting plastic surgeons to embrace a lot of experimental stem cell therapies ahead of the mainstream medical community that treats diseases. The plastic surgeons mostly market to people who pay out of their own pockets. This gives them more flexibility. ... Once stem cell therapies for injury repair start happening then expect to see the therapies take off for rejuvenation. A bad joint from hard football tackles needs some of the same kinds of repairs as a bad joint from decades of wear and tear in the bodies of the elderly. ... Once a substantial market develops then part of the research to further improve treatments will get funded from cash flow."
  
  View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/004158.html
  Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/
  Posted Sunday, April 01, 2007 11:07 AM from Longevity Meme News and Commentary / 0 Comments

  Tags: Regenerative medicine, Sports performance enhancement

• Stem Cells for Enhancement?

  If the introduction of more stem cells helps when you're aged and injured, could it also help you push off age-related degeneration, or otherwise improve the duration of some youthful capacities? The profit motive in professional sports seems the most likely way to answer that open question, given that enhancement (and even prevention, all too often) isn't on the regulatory agenda for mainstream medical research funding. "There's a spin-off technology from stem cells that could produce super-athletes ... injecting stem cells into healthy muscles might increase their size and even restore them to their youthful capacity. ... You could potentially find a 40-year-old man with 20-year-old legs." Sadly, there's all to much to aging that you can't fight with forms of regenerative medicine or enhancement via boosting stem cell activity - if such proves plausible. That shouldn't stop us from trying for those gains that can be had.
  
  View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/ap/2006/09/07/sports/EU_SPT_Doping_Stem_Cells.php
  Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/
  Posted Friday, September 08, 2006 4:51 PM from Longevity Meme News and Commentary / 0 Comments

  Tags: Stem cells, Sports performance enhancement