Boggling

[kitanzi]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/04/stem.cells.liposuction.fat/index.html

No idea if this is for real, but now I have images of fat donation drives alongisde the blood donation drives at the local mall...

Comments

[bedlamhouse]

I have 20 pounds going spare (tire)...

[keristor.livejournal.com]

"could help ... people who have large scars"

For instance ones left from liposuction...

(I'm not fat, I'm just storing potential iPS cells in case I have a heart attack...)

[annonynous.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I wonder what other types of cells await discovery as being fairly easily coaxed into becoming stem cells. As the linked article stated, though, the iPS cells have most, but not all, of the properties of embryonic stem cells. But they also don't have the embryo death problem of embryonic stem cells.

One comment, if I may - liposuction is a medical procedure, noticeably more complicated than blood donation. So while you may find fat donation drives cheek to cheek with blood drives, they'll likely only be sign-ups to have the procedure done at a hospital or clinic, not actual liposuction at the drive site. I think Arisia this year had something similar, a bone marrow donation sign-up drive at the con, next to an actual blood donation drive. The attending Goths vamped about, helping both drives in their own inimitable fashion. :)

I wouldn't be of any use to either the fat cells drive or the blood drive, unfortunately. :(

Ann O.

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Well, yes... it was more of a tongue in cheek idea, really. I like the bone marrow drive idea, though! And I'm sure the Goths played it up marvelously. *grin*

[joecoustic.livejournal.com]

This is really interesting!

What I really like about it is that it brings in the potential to start moving people from a knee jerk reaction (fat = bad) to a more nuanced reaction (fat is more complicated, and maybe helpful, than they thought). There are already studies that show that some extra body fat might be a good thing for health as people grow older but this is a (weirdly) more altruistic role - it can help others outside of the fat person. Definitely like plasma or bone marrow.

Thanks for the heads up!