h a l f b a k e r yVeni, vedi, fish velocipede
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Take a small bone marrow sample and culture it. Add fairly large amounts of erythropoietin and the raw materials required for erythropoiesis, thereby generating a steady supply of large volumes of blood. Test samples regularly for dodgy cells and scrap the whole lot if you find them. This gives people
their own blood bank with interest, and insures against blood shortages for others in future where their own blood is fairly compatible and plasma expanders and reused blood is not practical. Also useful for treating aplastic anæmia without needing to wait, for replacing blood after radiotherapy for chronic myeloid leukæmia after treatment and various other things.
Can also be used for veggie black puddings.
[link]
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I suspect you'd run into issues, because blood is a complex
ecosystem with many different types of cell. My guess is
that culturing would not be able to regulate the
populations of the various (many) different cell types, but
that's just a guess. Also, maintaining an ongoing culture
against possible needs of the individual would be hugely
expensive; probably far cheaper to just advertise for blood
of the right type at (say) £1000 per litre when you need it. |
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Interesting idea, though - I didn't find anything similar
(combinations of "blood" and "culture" just yield hits on
blood-culture of pathogens). |
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In that case, i wonder about other feedback systems for the likes of platelets and the various white cells. In fact, is anything known about them? Could you modify autoimmune conditions by something other than steroids? Could you do something about Waldenström's macroglobulinæmia? Other similar things? |
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The whole business of meta-scale organisation in
multicellular organisms is poorly understood. We know
about growth factors and cell-cell signalling and all kinds of
bits and pieces, but we don't really know how the body
maintains the right proportions of different cell types
(nor, for example, how your earlobe knows when to stop
growing). |
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I believe there are plenty of studies into using the
intrinsic signalling systems to modify immune-system
diseases, but I don't know about your example. I hope Mr.
Waldenström gets better soon. |
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It turns out that a laser procedure to remove a congenital umlaut was all Mr Waldenstrom needed. |
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Thank göödness it didn't metastasize. |
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That macröglöbulinæmia was plucked öut öf the air. It's just this thing which increases the viscosity öf the blööd thröugh manufacturing löads öf IgM 'cös of that mönöclönal dööbrie.
This needs to be set to Spinal Tap music really, doesn't it? |
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Sorry to churn, but it just occurred to me that this could also be used to increase tumour oxygenation and so help treatment even if there's no haematological malignancy. |
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