Monthly Archives: February 2001

Dolly Researchers Turn Skin Cells into Stem Cells

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Researchers who helped clone Dolly the Sheep have turned what they learned there into an incredible breakthrough. Researchers at the U.S. subsidiary of PPL Therapeutics last week announced they had managed to turn cells from the skin of cows into stem cells. They were then able to turn the stem cells into functioning heart cells.

This has a number of important implications for human research. Stem cells of the sort announced by the researchers are typically found only in fetuses. Those stem cells can become literally any other type of cell if given the correct signals.

As organisms grow and age, however, the stem cells become differentiated and able to transform into fewer and fewer different types of tissue. This is necessary to control development of the organism.

For this reason, research involving stem cells in human beings has to date required the controversial use of fetal tissue. Experimental treatment for |Parkinson|’s disease, for example, uses fetal tissue in an attempt to spur growth of neurons in the brain.

Because of the ongoing controversy over abortion, use of fetal tissue has proven to be a political minefield (Great Britain is the only government in the world that currently allows government funding for such projects), and there are other limitations. Taking adult cells, such as from the skin, and turning back the clock, so to speak, to transform them into undifferentiated stem cells has been one of the ultimate goals of genetic research.

Dr. Ron James, managing director of PPL Therapeutics, told the BBC, “The results of this experiment give us confidence that the method we are developing as a source of stem cells is working and I believe it will be equally applicable to humans.”

If that proves to be true, which is an enormous if, it could revolutionize medical treatments leading to such science fiction-like scenarios as growing replacement for defective hearts and other organs.

Source:

Tissue transplant advance. The BBC, February 23, 2001.

Using Cow Veins to Improve Human Health

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Although Xenotransplantation may seem like an exotic new turn in medical research, but in fact researchers have been doing it for years. When infants are born with defective heart valves, for example, transplants from cows are routinely used to reinforce the heart.

Now researchers at the Toledo Hospital’s Jobst Vascular Center successfully transplanted the jugular van of a cow to replace the weakened femoral vein of a man.

The femoral vein is a major vein in the upper leg that regulates blood flow to the heart. When it is weakened, it results in a condition called chronic venous insufficiency (CVI). The weakened valve makes it difficult for blood to continue up to the heart, causing it to pool in the lower leg leading to extremely painful ulcers.

Why the jugular vein of a cow? “The neck vein of a cow is very similar in size to the femoral vein,” Dr. Hugh Beebe, director of the Vascular Center, told CNN. The bovine vein is treated with drugs before the transplant operation to prevent the body from rejecting it.

Several other hospitals are also experimenting with such transplants to assess the efficacy and safety of the procedure. Assuming the initial positive results hold up, it will still be several years before this sort of operation is widespread, but it does point to a very near future where xenotransplanation will be common.

Source:

Cow vein used in transplant. Jonathan Aiken, CNN, February 23, 2001.

Huntingdon Director Attacked by Thugs With Baseball Bats

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Huntingdon Life Sciences managing director, Brian Cass, 53, was attacked by three people wearing balaclavas outside his house on Thursday, February 22.

The three attackers proceed to assault Cass with baseball bats in an incident that police are linking to numerous other acts of violence against HLS and its employees by animal rights activists.

Cass described the attack,

I turned around and saw three individuals with baseball bats raised above their heads about to hit me with them. I can’t remember what they said but it wasn’t pleasant and I held my briefcase in front of my face as some form of protection.

As I felt the cracking noise on my head, my partner, who realized something was going on outside, opened the door and I stumbled in. A passer-by got involved and started shouting and chasing the three people down the street but as he approached them they sprayed what I believe was CS gas into his face.

Cass required eight stitches for his head wound and sustained additional injuries on his arms and hands.

Sources:

Animal lab chief denounces attackers as cowards. Ananova, February 23, 2001.

Executive of firm targeted by animal rights activists hit with baseball bat. Associated Press, February 23, 2001.

Researchers Find Mice Bone Marrow Cells Can Transform into Neurons

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Researchers at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke published an article in Science in December 2000 reporting on a very surprising finding — bone marrow injected into mice were able to transform themselves into brain cells.

Bone marrow consists of a couple of different types of stem cells which are the source of blood cells in the body. Scientists knew that neural stem cells can transform themselves into muscle, but the accidental discovery that bone marrow stem cells can transform into neurons was a major surprise.

In fact the researchers weren’t even investigating that possibility in their initial experiments. They had injected mice with a genetically altered form of bone marrow that contained a gene that made the stem cells glow in the dark. The researchers were investigating whether or not the stem cells would convert themselves to muscle cells in the mice.

When they performed the dissection of the mice, however, they were surprised to find the animals’ brains contained neurons that now glowed in the dark. Several other experiments, some involving a second laboratory, were done to confirm that in fact the bone marrow was replacing neurons.

Helen M. Blau, senior author of the Science article, told the Associated Press that, “It may be a repair mechanism that is going all the time at a low level.” The bone marrow probably doesn’t work at a high enough level to repair serious brain damage or disease, but it may be on ongoing way that the body replace dying or defective neurons.

A lot more research will need to be done to better understand what is going on here, and this may never lead directly to any treatment for neurological disorders, but it does add an important piece of the puzzle on how adult stem cells can differentiate into a wide variety of other cells which is of great importance in many current efforts to find treatments for Alzheimer’s, spinal cord injuries, and a whole host of other ailments.

Source:

Mice marrow can net neurons. Associated Press, December 1, 2000.

Josh Harper Finally Testifies

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On February 8 animal rights activist Josh Harper finally testified before a federal grand jury about what he knows about the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front.

Harper was supposed to testify before the grand jury last year, but instead spent four months as a fugitive attempting to avoid testifying. Charged with criminal contempt, he was arrested in September 2000 and is scheduled to go on trial March 6 on the contempt charge.

Hoping to avoid prosecution, Harper cut a deal with federal authorities in which he agreed to submit to questioning by the grand jury. According to The Oregonian, after testifying Harper said that he was asked about a number of ALF/ELF crimes going back to 1997 and that he invoked his rights under the Fifth Amendment several times to avoid answering questions.

Source:

Panel questions anarchist sought in eco-terrorist case. Bryan Denson, The Oregonian, February 9, 2001.

UK Activists Attack Angling

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When the House of Commons voted to outlaw fox hunting in January, many of those who voted for the law dismissed claims that fishing and other pursuits would be next on the animal rights agenda. Guess what? People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is funding an anti-angling campaign scheduled to kick off later this year in Great Britain.

“As well as an advertising campaign, we are planning demonstrations at fish and chip shops across the country,” PETA’s Andrew Butler told The Sunday Times (UK).

Although it hasn’t received the same attention the anti-hunting movement has, the Campaign for the Abolishment of Angling has been busy protesting fishing. At a European angling championship, CAA activist Clare Persey broke a competitor’s fishing rod and then jumped into a river to disrupt the championship.

Source:

Animal activists target anglers. The Sunday Times, February 11, 2001.

Wall Street Journal on ELF Guilty Plea

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Yesterday the Wall Street Journal ran an unsigned piece of commentary about the guilty plea recently entered by a young man who admitted to burning homes in the Long Island, New York, area in the name of the Earth Liberation Front.

The Journal worries that,

…despite ELF’s extraordinary run of arson, public outrage hasn’t caught up with the crimes, which the group boasts about on various Internet sites. Because its targets have been corporations, construction sites and research labs, there has been an inclination to dismiss the group as misguided idealists.

…think of the reaction had that been, say, an abortion clinic or an African-American church.

Regardless of why the ELF doesn’t have a higher profile in the media, a more interesting question is whether the FBI plans on taking action against the ELF web site. In all the news reports about the plea bargain, prominent mention has been made of the fact that the arsonists in Long Island downloaded everything they needed to know about how to torch the luxury homes from the ELF site.

In fact the ELF web site distributes an Animal Liberation Front manual in PDF form, Arson Around with Auntie ALF, describing in detail how to go about committing acts of arson. Although they have standard “don’t try this at home” warnings, those are unlikely to be a very solid defense against criminal conspiracy charges, possibly under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization statute, and even more likely a |Racketeering Influenced and
Corrupt Organization| civil suit by developers.

Source:

Review & Outlook. Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2001.

Celera Anounces Decoding of Mouse Genome

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On the heels of the publication of the human genome, |Celera| Genomics announced that it has completed sequencing the mouse genome. Since the mouse genome has a very large degree of overlap with the human genome, comparing the two genomes should yield important clues in understanding how human genes function.

Celera used its now-famous whole genome shotgun approach which helped it make such quick strides in sequencing the human genome. Celera used laboratory mice as the source of the genes it sequenced.

Now, Celera will turn to refining its mouse genome, annotating and analyzing the role of specific genes. Eventually extensive laboratory research will try to discern the function of specific genes by knocking them out of mice and then observing how the genetically modified mice are changed by the procedure.

Source:

The crucial mouse genome is assemblled, says Celera, the company which delivered the human genome on Monday. New Scientist, February 14, 2001.

ELF Terrorist Pleads Guilty

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Just weeks after Earth Liberation Front activists burned down luxury homes in Long Island, New York, Newsday and ABC reported that 17-year-old Jared McIntyre secretly plead guilty to the crime on February 10. McIntyre is reportedly working with authorities in identifying those who helped him commit the arsons.

McIntyre is believed to have been one of four individuals — all juveniles or young adults — responsible for a string of arsons committed in the name of the ELF. In all, nine homes under construction were burned, while there were 10 other incidents of property destruction in New York’s Suffolk County, including the destruction of a field containing genetically modified corn.

As is typical with Animal Liberation Front/Earth Liberation Front crimes, McIntyre was a part of a self-contained cell that committed crimes in the name of the ELF, but likely had no contact with any larger organizational structure. According to news reports, the FBI believes there may be a larger structure to the ELF, but this is likely wishful thinking on the part of the FBI.

McIntyre met his fellow terrorists at an animal rights rally in Port Jefferson, New York, in October 2000. They then downloaded instructions on how to carry out arson from an ELF web site. When McIntyre’s house was searched, police found spray paint and explosives.

McIntyre reached a plea agreement whereby he plead guilty as an adult to a charge of arson rather than risk a trial where he would have likely been charged with constructing bombs, possession of explosives, criminal conspiracy and other crimes. Meanwhile McIntyre’s agreement to plead guilty to adult charge means prosecutors don’t have to go through lengthy hearings trying to move his case from juvenile to adult court.

Source:

Teen guilty of arson. Newsday, February 11, 2001.

A green crusade erupts in flames. Tom Kenworthy, USA Today, February 14, 2001.

A Weekend of Animal Rights Violence in Great Britain

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Animal rights terrorists in the United Kingdom went on a tear over the weekend as more letter bombs were discovered in an ongoing terrorist campaign in which animal rights activists are the leading suspects, while a mob of up to 1,000 animal rights activists trashed facilities owned by pharmaceutical companies in the UK.

On the letter bomb front, army bomb disposal experts were called on to disarm a letter bomb sent to an unnamed agricultural business and a farm. At least nine people have been injured during the letter bomb campaign which has been directed at animal enterprises including farms, restaurants, pet pest control companies, and pet suppliers over the past couple months.

Police again urged that any business in the UK associated with animals be extremely cautious opening mail and contact police if they find any suspicious packages.

Meanwhile, as many as 1,000 animal rights activists took part in well-planned assaults on facilities owned by GlaxoSmithKline, Bayer and three other pharmaceutical companies in Great Britain.

According to The Independent (London), protesters first met at a church parking lot in an action organized by Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. At the parking lot the protesters were divided into a white and a yellow team and given detail instructions on routes to take to their targets as well as instructions on what to do once at the targets.

In all there were nine separate actions throughout the day. At a Bayer facility, activists stormed offices, smashed windows, destroyed machinery, and overturned cabinets and other office equipment shortly before 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Shortly after that, the activists targeted a factory owned by GlaxoSmithKline, smashing windows and damaging the building before participating in a sit down protest on the roads outside the company.

Police made more than 80 arrests of animal activists and were studying security camera tapes to identify other activists to arrest.

Protesters also surrounded the homes of several directors of pharmaceutical companies.

Chris Avery, SHAC spokesman, took credit for the violent assaults saying, “The protests were aimed at five different companies who are customers of Huntingdon Life Sciences and are paying for 500 animals to die every day.”

SHAC spokeswoman Heather James had a more ominous take on the day’s events saying, “We asked them if they were going to continue to use Huntingdon and they have refused to answer. They are being targeted now and will be targeted from now on. They certainly know they have been demonstrated against today. We’ve said we mean business and we do. People out there today were very, very angry. All those companies have underestimated how determined we are.”

GlaxoSmithKline issued a statement that the company “wholeheartedly condemns this violent action … which was clearly designed to disrupt work and terrorize employees.”

Police promise to track down and charge as many activists as possible. The main product of this day of mob action may be to strengthen Home Secretary Jack Straw’s call for more serious laws to curb animal rights extremists.

Sources:

Police vow to catch animal rights wreckers. Ananova, February 11, 2001.

Animal rights mobs invade drug companies Sally Pook, The Daily Telegraph, February 12, 2001.

Animal rights mobs synchronise attacks. Adrian Shaw, The Mirror, February 12, 2001.

Protesters held after 400 target Huntingdon. Paul Peachey, The Independent (London), February 12, 2001.

Pharmaceutical firms attacked. David Brown, The Guardian (London), February 12, 2001.

Protesters attack drugs groups’ premises. The Financial Times (London), February 12, 2001.

Firms ransacked during six-hour rampage as 87 are arrested; 1,000 animal rights activists in mass protest. Steve Hartley, The Express, February 12, 2001.

Animal rights mob of 1,000 on rampage. Ben Taylor and Gordon Rayner, Daily Mail (London), February 12, 2001.

Farming businesses on alert after letter bombs find. Paul Sims, Press Association, February 12, 2001.

Letter bomb defused by army experts. Paul Sims, Press Association, February 12, 2001.