Category Archives: Stem Cells

Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012

KYOTO — Researchers have succeeded in improving the treatment of Parkinson's disease by using human embryonic stem cells to create nerve cells that produce dopamine and then transplanting the cells into monkeys' brains.

Four monkeys with Parkinson's disease — and previously unable to walk due to their symptoms — improved substantially after the human nerve cells were transplanted into their brains, reducing the shaking in their limbs and leading to some regaining the ability to walk, the research team, including Kyoto University professor Jun Takahashi, said Tuesday.

It is the first time pluripotent human embryonic stem cells have been successfully transplanted to improve symptoms of Parkinson's disease in monkeys, according to the team.

Parkinson's disease is linked to drops in the production of dopamine — a neurotransmitter in the brain. While there are drugs to treat the progressive neurological illness, there is currently no treatment to stop dopamine levels from falling.

In the study, the researchers transplanted nerve cells derived from the human stem cells into the four monkeys' brains. About three months later, all of them began to show improvements in their symptoms and tests conducted a year after the operation confirmed the nerve cells had been successfully grafted in their brains.

The finding holds much promise for the future treatment of Parkinson's disease in humans using regenerative medicine, but the researchers cautioned that a lot more work lies ahead as the study also showed that transplanted nerve cells that were not appropriately matured led to the development of tumors, although they were not malignant and could be treated.

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Monkeys' Parkinson's woes eased via stem cells

An important new study by a team of scientists at RhinoCyte™ Inc., Louisville, Ky., details promising results on the effectiveness of olfactory (nasal) stem cells in repairing spinal cord damage resulting from the most common cause of these injuries — contusions (bruising) due to major trauma such as is seen in auto accidents, falls or combat. This could have major implication for the estimated 5 million people worldwide affected by spinal cord injuries – 1.275 million of them in the United States alone, where the cost of treatment exceeds $40.5 billion each year.

Louisville, Kentucky (PRWEB) February 22, 2012

An important new study released by a team of scientists at RhinoCyte™ Inc., Louisville, Ky., details promising results on the effectiveness of olfactory (nasal) stem cells in repairing spinal cord damage resulting from the most common cause of these injuries — contusions (bruising) due to major trauma. Their study is featured in the current issue of the Journal of Neurodegeneration and Regeneration.

The study, led by Dr. Fred Roisen, has great implication for the estimated 5 million people worldwide affected by spinal cord injuries – 1.275 million of them in the United States alone, where the cost of treatment exceeds $40.5 billion each year. Current treatment options are limited to retaining and retraining mobility; no drug therapies are available, but studies pertaining to stem cell treatments are showing great promise for these as well as other neurodegenerative conditions.

A previous study by the group made national headlines when lab rats whose spinal cords had been partially cut in the region of the animal’s neck in a way that disabled their front right paws were able to regain significant use of their paws after being injected with olfactory stem cells. The investigative team took the cells from the olfactory neurosensory epithelium — the part of the nose that controls the sense of smell — in adult volunteer donors who were already undergoing elective sinus surgery. The removal of the stem cells has no effect on the patients’ ability to smell. Also, the minimally invasive surgery is frequently done on an outpatient basis so the cells are readily available and, as such, are a potentially promising source of therapeutic stem cells.

The researchers isolated the stem cells and increased their numbers in the laboratory by growing them in an enriched solution. The cells were then injected into a group of lab rats. Twelve weeks later, these animals had regained control of their affected paws while a control group that received no cells had not.

This latest study continued that original work, by concentrating on contusions caused by blunt force trauma such as that resulting from an automobile accident or a fall. Spinal cord and head trauma are common among soldiers suffering serious combat injuries, too.

Two independent sets of experiments were conducted, beginning two weeks after the rats had received contusions administered in a computer-controlled surgery. In the first group, 27 out of 41 rats were injected with olfactory stem cells, while the remainder received none. In the second group, 16 rats were treated with olfactory stem cells, 11 received no treatment and 10 received stem cells grown from human skin to see how the olfactory cells compared with another stem cell source.

The results once again showed great promise, with 40 percent of the rats treated with the olfactory-derived stem cells showing significant improvement after just six weeks, compared to 30 percent of those treated with human skin-derived cells and only 9 percent of those receiving no treatment. In addition, the olfactory stem cell-treated rats showing the highest rate of improvement recovered much faster than the other groups.

“This is very exciting on numerous levels,” said Dr. Roisen. “As an autologous cell source — that is, the patient is both the donor and the recipient — olfactory stem cells bypass the time a patient must wait while a suitable donor is found, which can be critical to the outcome of the patient’s treatment. They also eliminate the need for immunosuppressive drugs, which have numerous negative side effects.

“And just as importantly, stem cells taken from the nose of an adult do away with the ethical concerns associated with using embryonic stem cells.”

The researchers are in the final stages of their enabling studies, which are scheduled to be completed by summer; Phase 1 safety studies could begin as soon as early next year.

Dr. Roisen is chief science officer and co-founder of RhinoCtye™, and a professor and chair of the University of Louisville School of Medicine’s Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology. The original work forming the basis for the contusion study was conducted by Dr. Roisen’s group at UofL and has been licensed to RhinoCtye™ (http://www.rhinocyte.com), a company he co-founded in 2005 with Dr. Chengliang Lu and Dr. Kathleen Klueber to develop and commercialize diagnostic tools and therapies for stem cell treatment of multiple degenerative and traumatic neurological diseases. RhinoCyte™ currently has three patents for olfactory stem cell treatments approved in the United States, Australia and Israel, with others pending worldwide.

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Nasal Stem Cells Show Promise in Repairing Spinal Cord Damage Caused by Contusion

Monkeys suffering from Parkinson's disease show a marked improvement when human embryonic stem cells are implanted in their brains, in what a Japanese researcher said Wednesday was a world first.

A team of scientists transplanted the stem cells into four primates that were suffering from the debilitating disease.

The monkeys all had violent shaking in their limbs -- a classic symptom of Parkinson's disease -- and were unable to control their bodies, but began to show improvements in their motor control after about three months, Kyoto University associate professor Jun Takahashi told AFP.

About six months after the transplant, the creatures were able to walk around their cages, he said.

"Clear improvements were confirmed in their movement," he said.

Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurological illness linked to a decrease in dopamine production in the brain. There is currently no medical solution to this drop off in a key neurotransmitter.

The condition, which generally affects older people, gained wider public recognition when Hollywood actor Michael J. Fox revealed he was a sufferer.

Takahashi said at the time of the implant about 35 percent of the stem cells had already grown into dopamine neuron cells, with around 10 percent still alive after a year.

He said he wants to improve the effectiveness of the treatment by increasing the survival rate of dopamine neuron cells to 70 percent.

"The challenge before applying it to a clinical study is to raise the number of dopamine neuron cells and to prevent the development of tumours," he said.

"I would like to make this operation more effective and safe" before clinical trials, Takahashi said.

Takahashi said so far he had used embryonic stem cells, which are harvested from foetuses, but would likely switch to so-called Induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells, which are created from human skin, for the clinical trial.

His team, which has also transplanted iPS cells into monkeys, are now looking to see if the primates with Parkinson's disease show similar improvements in their motor control.

Scientists say the use of human embryonic stem cells as a treatment for cancer and other diseases holds great promise, but the process has drawn fire from religious conservatives, among others.

Opponents say harvesting the cells, which have the potential to become any cell in the human body, is unethical because it involves the destruction of an embryo.

The Japanese government currently has no guidelines on the use of human stem cells in clinical research.

In October last year, the Court of Justice of the European Union banned the patenting of stem cells when their extraction causes the destruction of a human embryo, a ruling that could have repercussions on medical research.

Scientists warned that the ruling would damage stem cell research in Europe, while the Catholic church hailed it as a victory for the protection of human life.

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Stem cell implants boost monkeys with Parkinson's

(RTTNews.com) - Researchers have used a patient's own stem cell tissue to help repair damage done as a result of a heart attack.

When a victim suffers a heart attack the damaged muscle is gradually replaced by scar tissue; however, the replacement scar tissue does not function as well as healthy heart muscle placing the victim at risk for higher heart attack incidence.

But, by using stem cells, researchers have been able to replace scar tissue with live, healthy tissue.

The British Heart Foundation says that the new growth was "unprecedented," adding that it could "be great news for heart attack patients."

The study took place as a joint effort between Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and treated 17 heart attack patients.

Within weeks after their heart attacks the patients had 12 to 25 million heart-derived cells returned into their hearts.

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Stem Cells Help Heal Heart Attack Damage

Dallas, TX (PRWEB) February 21, 2012

A Panamanian-led, multidisciplinary research team has published the first description of non-expanded fat stem cells in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis patients. "Autologous Stromal Vascular Fraction Therapy for Rheumatoid Arthritis: Rationale and Clinical Safety," which appears in the January publication of the International Archives of Medicine, followed 13 rheumatoid arthritis patients who were treated with their own fat-derived stem cells.

Treating arthritis with fat-derived stem cells has become commonplace in veterinary medicine over the past five years with over 7,000 horses and dogs treated by publication contributor Vet-Stem, a San Diego-based company. The objective of the joint Panamanian-US study was to determine feasibility of translating Vet-Stem's successful animal results into human patients.

Observing no treatment associated adverse reactions after one year, the team concluded that its protocol should be studied further to determine efficacy in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Their publication details the rationale for the use of fat derived stem cells in treatment of autoimmune conditions and is freely available at: http://www.intarchmed.com/content/pdf/1755-7682-5-5.pdf

“Key to advancement of any medical protocol is transparent disclosure of rationale, treatment procedures and outcomes to the research community in a peer-reviewed and IRB-compliant manner,” said Dr. Jorge Paz Rodriguez, Medical Director of the Stem Cell Institute and research team leader. “While we have previously published case studies on the use of fat stem cells in multiple sclerosis patients, and one rheumatoid arthritis patient, this is the first time that comprehensive follow-up has been completed for a larger cohort of patients,” he added.

An important distinction that separates this particular approach from those which are being explored by several international investigators is that the fat stem cells were not grown in a laboratory, affording a substantially higher level of safety and protocol practicality.

“This work signifies Panama's emergence into the burgeoning field of translational medicine,” commented Dr. Ruben Berrocal Timmons, the Panamanian Secretary of Science and publication co-author. “We are proud to have attracted and collaborated with internationally-renowned stem cell clinical researchers such as Dr. Michael Murphy and Dr. Keith March from the Indiana University School of Medicine Center for Vascular Biology and Medicine, Dr. Boris Minev from the University of California, San Diego Moores Cancer Center, Dr. Chien Shing Chen from Loma Linda University Behavioral Medicine Center and Dr. Bob Harman from Vet-Stem. By leveraging their vast, collective clinical experience with Panamanian scientific infrastructure and know-how, we are striving to develop effective, internationally recognized stem cell procedures that will be accepted the world over.”

The treatment procedure involves a mini-liposuction, collection of the fat's cellular component, processing to obtain a population of cells that includes stem cells, freezing the cells in preparation for quality control, and subsequent re-administration of the cells into patients.

The Panamanian-US group has previously shown that there is a specific type of T cell, called the T regulatory cell, associated with fat stem cells, which is capable of suppressing pathological immunity. Their current theory, which is described in detail in the publication: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20537320, is that the T regulatory component of the fat is capable of slowing down or suppressing the “autoimmune” reaction, while the stem cell component causes formation of new tissue to replace the damaged joints.

About the Stem Cell Institute
Founded in 2006 on the principles of providing unbiased, scientifically-sound treatment options, the Stem Cell Institute has matured into the world’s leading adult stem cell therapy and research center. In close collaboration with universities and physicians world-wide, the institute’s doctors treat carefully selected patients with spinal cord injury, osteoarthritis, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. Doctors at The Stem Cell Institute have treated over 1000 patients to-date.

For more information on stem cell therapy:
Stem Cell Institute Web Site: http://www.cellmedicine.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/stemcellinstitute
Blogger: http://www.adult-stem-cell-therapy.blogspot.com

Stem Cell Institute
Via Israel & Calle 66
Pacifica Plaza Office #2A
San Francisco, Panama
Republic of Panama

Phone: +1 800 980-STEM (7836) (USA Toll-free) +1 954 636-3390 (from outside USA)

Fax: +1 866 775-3951 (USA Toll-free) +1 775 887-1194 (from outside USA)

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Panamanian-US Scientific Research Supports Using Fat Stem Cells to Treat Rheumatoid Arthritis

Pet stem cells frozen and banked for future

ORLANDO, Fla. -

Eight Central Florida veterinary clinics are offering up a new procedure that could save or greatly improve a pet's life.

MediVet America has set up a holding center at the company's Nicholasville, Ken., lab to freeze and store pet stem cells for future use.  Clinical studies have shown the cells can be viable for decades.

The procedure extracts stem cells from the animal's own fat tissue. The cells are then treated and used for aging dogs and cats struggling with arthritis or degenerative disease for several years, with good results.

By "cryobanking," the healthy cells, they will be ready if needed in the future.

"Banking stem cells is like having an extra insurance policy for your pet," explained Jeremy Delk, CEO of MediVet America.

Dr. Daniel Evers of ValuVet is taking part in a pet stem cell project in Central Florida to determine if the stem cells are actually causing cartilage regeneration.

Twelve pets will be selected for the study, which will include two separate MRI scans to determine how effective the stem cell treatments are for pets struggling with joint issues.

Normally, the initial cost is $420, with a $150 annual storage fee. Owners whose pets are selected will get a discount on the stem cell procedure. Pet owners interested in the procedure can contact Erica Kent at erica@medivet-america.com or call 386-748-4251.

Copyright 2012 by ClickOrlando.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Here is the original post:
Pet stem cells frozen, banked for future

Pet stem cells frozen and banked for future

ORLANDO, Fla. -

Eight Central Florida veterinary clinics are offering up a new procedure that could save or greatly improve a pet's life.

MediVet America has set up a holding center at the company's Nicholasville, Ken., lab to freeze and store pet stem cells for future use.  Clinical studies have shown the cells can be viable for decades.

The procedure extracts stem cells from the animal's own fat tissue. The cells are then treated and used for aging dogs and cats struggling with arthritis or degenerative disease for several years, with good results.

By "cryobanking," the healthy cells, they will be ready if needed in the future.

"Banking stem cells is like having an extra insurance policy for your pet," explained Jeremy Delk, CEO of MediVet America.

Dr. Daniel Evers of ValuVet is taking part in a pet stem cell project in Central Florida to determine if the stem cells are actually causing cartilage regeneration.

Twelve pets will be selected for the study, which will include two separate MRI scans to determine how effective the stem cell treatments are for pets struggling with joint issues.

Normally, the initial cost is $420, with a $150 annual storage fee. Owners whose pets are selected will get a discount on the stem cell procedure. Pet owners interested in the procedure can contact Erica Kent at erica@medivet-america.com or call 386-748-4251.

Copyright 2012 by ClickOrlando.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Pet stem cells frozen and banked for future

Would you like fries with that? British celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal could be flipping test-tube burgers.

LURKING in a petri dish in a laboratory in the Netherlands is an unlikely contender for the future of food. The yellow-pink sliver is state-of-the-art in lab-grown meat and a milestone on the path to the world's first burger made from stem cells.

Dr Mark Post, the head of physiology at Maastricht University, plans to unveil a complete burger - produced at a cost of more than $290,000 - this October.

He hopes Heston Blumenthal, the chef and owner of the three Michelin-starred Fat Duck restaurant in Berkshire, southern England, will cook the offering for a celebrity taster.

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A new meaning to instant meals ... food in a test-tube.

The project, funded by a wealthy, anonymous, individual, aims to slash the number of cattle farmed for food and reduce one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.

''Meat demand is going to double in the next 40 years and right now we are using 70 per cent of all our agricultural capacity to grow meat through livestock,'' Dr Post said.

''You can easily calculate that we need alternatives. If you don't do anything meat will become a luxury food and be very, very expensive.''

Livestock contribute to global warming through unchecked releases of methane, a gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

At the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Vancouver, Dr Post said the burger would be a ''proof of concept'' to demonstrate that ''with in-vitro methods, out of stem cells we can make a product that looks like and feels and hopefully tastes like meat.''

Dr Post is focusing on making beef burgers from stem cells because cows are among the least efficient animals at converting the food they eat into food for humans.

Dr Post and his team have so far grown thin sheets of cow muscle measuring 3 centimetres long, 1.5 centimetres wide and half a millimetre thick. To make a burger will take 3000 pieces of muscle and a few hundred pieces of fatty tissue, that will be minced together and pressed into a patty.

Each piece of muscle is made by extracting stem cells from cow muscle tissue and growing them in containers. The cells are grown in a culture medium containing foetal calf serum, which contains scores of nutrients the cells need to grow.

Guardian News & Media

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At $290,000 test-tube burger is a taste of what's to come

Hamburger meat could be grown in a test tube as soon October. In a bid to protect the environment, Dutch scientists are exploring lab-grown meat options.

[More from Mashable: Student who Hacked into Facebook Employee Account Gets Jail Time [VIDEO]]

Fake meat might sound gross, but scientists say an alternative meat is essential. Raising cattle takes an enormous amount of water, feed and energy. All in all, about 100 pounds of resources is required to obtain 15 pounds of usable meat. Artificial meat could improve that efficiency by at least 35 percent.

Mark Post, chairman of physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, is conducting the $330,000 experiment, funded by an anonymous donor. He has begun transforming stem cells from a herd of cattle into inch-long strips of muscle tissue. The meat strips can be mashed together to create a hamburger patty. The color of the meat is wavers between whitish pink or pinkish yellow.

[More from Mashable: ‘Nightline’ Takes Cameras Inside China’s Foxconn Factories]

The research has support from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which is also urging scientists to create stem-cell chicken by the end of June for a $1 million prize. PETA's competition started four years ago. Like the red meat, the chicken would edible. PETA says it supports eating meat as long as the animal isn't killed or inhumanely treated.

Post did not offer any information about the healthy benefits from the artificial meat and we don't know whether the meat tastes the same as regular meat. We do know that with less real meat going around, E. coli and other food borne illnesses would be reduced.

Would you consider eating artificial meat hamburgers? Tell us in the comments below.

Thumbnail photo courtesy of Flickr, Passive Income Dream.com

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Original post:
Where's the Beef? Scientists Turn Stem Cells into PETA-Approved Meat [VIDEO]

Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal is the favourite to cook the $A250,000 hamburger made from stem cells.

THINKSTOCK

THE world's first hamburger made with a synthetic meat protein derived from bovine stem cells will be publicly consumed this October after being prepared by a celebrity chef, according to the inventor of the artificial mince.

Heston Blumenthal is the favourite to be asked to cook the $250,000 hamburger, which will be made from 3,000 strips of synthetic meat protein grown in fermentation vats.

Dr Mark Post, of Maastricht University in the Netherlands, said the anonymous backer of his research project had not yet decided who would get to eat the world's most expensive hamburger, which will unveiled at a ceremony in Maastricht.

Dr Post told the American Association for the Advancement of Science that a hamburger made from artificial beef protein was a milestone in the development of novel ways to meet the global demand for meat, which is expected to double by 2050.

"In October we're going to provide a 'proof of concept' showing that with in vitro culture methods that are pretty classical we can make a product out of stem cells that looks like, and hopefully taste like, meat," Dr Post said.

"The target goal is to make a hamburger and for that we need to grow 3,000 pieces of this muscle and a couple of hundred pieces of fat tissue. As long as it's a patty the size of a regular hamburger, I'm happy with it," he said.

A handful of researchers has been working for the past six years on the technical problem of extracting stem cells from bovine muscle, culturing them in the laboratory and turning them into strips of muscle fibres that can be minced together with synthetic fat cells into an edible product.

The technical challenges have included giving the meat a pinkish colour and the right texture for cooking and eating, as well as ensuring that it feels and tastes like real meat.

Dr Post admitted to being nervous about the final result. "I am a little worried, but seeing and tasting is believing," he said.

Although some animals still have to be slaughtered to provide the bovine stem cells, scientists estimate that a million times more meat could be made from the carcass of a single cow, compared with conventional cattle rearing. As well as reducing the number of beef cattle, it would save the land, water and oil currently need to raise cattle for the meat trade, Dr Post said.

"Eventually, my vision is that you have a limited herd of donor animals that you keep in stock in the world. You basically kill animals and take all the stem cells from them, so you would still need animals for this technology."
One of the economic incentives behind the research is the increasing cost of the grain used to feed much of the world's cattle. This is helping to drive up the cost of meat.

"It comes down to the fact that animals are very inefficient at converting vegetable protein [either grass or grain] into animal protein. Yet meat demand is also going to double in the next 40 years," he said.

"Right now we are using about 70 per cent of all our agricultural capacity to grow meat through livestock. You are going to need alternatives. If we don't do anything, meat will become a luxury food and will become very expensive.

"Livestock also contribute a lot to greenhouse gas emissions, more so than our entire transport system. Livestock produces 39 per cent of the methane, 5 per cent of CO2 and 40 per cent of all the nitrous oxide. Eventually we'll have an 'eco-tax' on meat."

Growing meat in fermentation vats might be better for the environment. And it might be more acceptable to vegetarians and people concerned about the welfare of domestic livestock, Dr Post said. "There are many reasons why people are vegetarian. I've talked to the Dutch vegetarian society, which has said that probably half of its members will eat this meat if it has cost fewer animal lives and requires less intensive farming," Dr Post said. Growing artificial meat would also allow greater control over its makeup. It will be possible, for example, to alter the fat content, or the amount of polyunsaturated fats vs saturated fats, according to Dr Post.

"You can probably make meat healthier," he said. "You can probably trigger these cells to make more polyunsaturated fatty acids, just like grass-fed beef has more polyunsaturates than grain-fed beef. You could make any type of meat, you could make mixed meats. I'm pretty sure you could even make panda meat."

Dr Post declined to reveal who his backer was, except to say that he was well known but not a celebrity - and not British. "It's a very reputable source of money," he said. "He's an individual. There may be two reasons why he wants to remain anonymous: as soon as his name is associated with this technology he will draw the attention to himself and he doesn't really want to do that."

Dr Post added: "And the second reason is that he has the image of whatever he does turns into gold and he is not sure that may be the case here so he doesn't want to be associated with a potential failure."

LAB-GROWN MEAT THE CASE FOR AND AGAINST:
 

Pros

Billions of animals would be spared from suffering in factory farms and slaughterhouses Would reduce the environmental impacts of livestock production, which the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates account for 18 per cent of greenhouse-gas emissions Could reduce by 90 per cent the land- and water-use footprint of meat production, according to Oxford University research, freeing those resources for more efficient forms of food production Would provide a more sustainable way to meet demand from China and India, whose growing appetite for meat is expected to double global meat consumption by 2040 Lab-grown meat could be healthier - free of hormones, antibiotics, bacteria such as salmonella and E.coli, and engineered to contain a lower fat content Would reduce the threat of swine and avian flu outbreaks associated with factory farming

Cons

Consumers may find the notion of lab-grown meat creepy or unnatural - a "Frankenstein food" reminiscent of the Soylent Green at the heart of the 1973 sci-fi film of the same name For some vegetarians, in vitro meat will be unsatisfactory as it perpetuates "meat addiction" - rather than focusing on promoting non-meat alternatives, and changing our meat-heavy diet Although the fat content can be tinkered with, other risks of eating red meat, such as an increased threat of bowel cancer, remain It's not cruelty-free - animals will still have to be slaughtered to provide the bovine stem cells There could be unforeseen health consequences to eating lab-grown meat As a highly processed, "unnatural" foodstuff, lab-grown meat is a step in the wrong direction for "slow-food" advocates, and others who believe the problems in our food system have their origins in the distance between food production and the consumer

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Blumenthal to cook $250,000 burger?