The placenta is an organ that connects the developing fetus to the uterine wall, thereby allowing nutrient uptake, waste elimination, and gas exchange via the mother's blood supply. Proper vascular development in the placenta is fundamental to ensuring a healthy fetus and successful pregnancy. This book provides an up-to-date summary and synthesis of knowledge regarding placental vascular biology and discusses the relevance of this vascular bed to the functions of the human placenta.
Many diseases earlier considered to be incurable are now being treated with modern innovations involving fetal tissue transplants and stem cells derived from fetal tissues. Fetal tissues are the richest source of fetal stem cells as well as other varying states of differentiated cells and support or stromal cells. The activity of such stem cells is at their peak provided they are given the correct niche. Stem cells, as we know, are immortal cells with the capacity to regenerate into any kind of differentiated cell as per niche-guidance. As such, fetal tissues have the potential capacity to mend, regenerate and repair damaged cells or tissues in adults, when directly transplanted to the site of injury, or even when transplanted in some other site, because it may have a homing capacity to migrate to the site of the specific injured organ. This is a new area of translational research and needs to be highlighted because of its immense potential. This book will bring together the new work of prominent medical scientists and clinicians who are conducting pioneering research in human fetal tissue transplantation. This will include direct transplant of healthy fetal tissue into mature patients as well as in hosts with genetic diseases. Transplant techniques, donor-host interaction, cell and tissue storage, ethical and legal issues, are some of the many matters which the book will deal with.
Recent scientific breakthroughs, celebrity patient advocates, and conflicting religious beliefs have come together to bring the state of stem cell researchâ€"specifically embryonic stem cell researchâ€"into the political crosshairs. President Bush's watershed policy statement allows federal funding for embryonic stem cell research but only on a limited number of stem cell lines. Millions of Americans could be affected by the continuing political debate among policymakers and the public. Stem Cells and the Future of Regenerative Medicine provides a deeper exploration of the biological, ethical, and funding questions prompted by the therapeutic potential of undifferentiated human cells. In terms accessible to lay readers, the book summarizes what we know about adult and embryonic stem cells and discusses how to go about the transition from mouse studies to research that has therapeutic implications for people. Perhaps most important, Stem Cells and the Future of Regenerative Medicine also provides an overview of the moral and ethical problems that arise from the use of embryonic stem cells. This timely book compares the impact of public and private research funding and discusses approaches to appropriate research oversight. Based on the insights of leading scientists, ethicists, and other authorities, the book offers authoritative recommendations regarding the use of existing stem cell lines versus new lines in research, the important role of the federal government in this field of research, and other fundamental issues.
"A real jewel of science history...brims with suspense and now-forgotten catastrophe and intrigue...Wadman’s smooth prose calmly spins a surpassingly complicated story into a real tour de force."—The New York Times “Riveting . . . [The Vaccine Race] invites comparison with Rebecca Skloot's 2007 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.”—Nature The epic and controversial story of a major breakthrough in cell biology that led to the conquest of rubella and other devastating diseases. Until the late 1960s, tens of thousands of American children suffered crippling birth defects if their mothers had been exposed to rubella, popularly known as German measles, while pregnant; there was no vaccine and little understanding of how the disease devastated fetuses. In June 1962, a young biologist in Philadelphia, using tissue extracted from an aborted fetus from Sweden, produced safe, clean cells that allowed the creation of vaccines against rubella and other common childhood diseases. Two years later, in the midst of a devastating German measles epidemic, his colleague developed the vaccine that would one day wipe out homegrown rubella. The rubella vaccine and others made with those fetal cells have protected more than 150 million people in the United States, the vast majority of them preschoolers. The new cells and the method of making them also led to vaccines that have protected billions of people around the world from polio, rabies, chicken pox, measles, hepatitis A, shingles and adenovirus. Meredith Wadman’s masterful account recovers not only the science of this urgent race, but also the political roadblocks that nearly stopped the scientists. She describes the terrible dilemmas of pregnant women exposed to German measles and recounts testing on infants, prisoners, orphans, and the intellectually disabled, which was common in the era. These events take place at the dawn of the battle over using human fetal tissue in research, during the arrival of big commerce in campus labs, and as huge changes take place in the laws and practices governing who “owns” research cells and the profits made from biological inventions. It is also the story of yet one more unrecognized woman whose cells have been used to save countless lives. With another frightening virus--measles--on the rise today, no medical story could have more human drama, impact, or urgency than The Vaccine Race.
Two leading advocates for modern vaccines answer parents' numerous questions about the underlying science of modern vaccines and the value of childhood immunization, while addressing parents' concerns about vaccine safety.
The most recent scientific and clinical developments and techniques in fetal tissue transplants are presented, including both the transplantation of fetal tissue into mature recipients, and the grafting of donor cells into fetuses that are known to be carrying genetic disease.
Bovine Reproduction is a comprehensive, current reference providing information on all aspects of reproduction in the bull and cow. Offering fundamental knowledge on evaluating and restoring fertility in the bovine patient, the book also places information in the context of herd health where appropriate for a truly global view of bovine theriogenology. Printed in full color throughout, the book includes 83 chapters and more than 550 images, making it the most exhaustive reference available on this topic. Each section covers anatomy and physiology, breeding management, and reproductive surgery, as well as obstetrics and pregnancy wastage in the cow. Bovine Reproduction is a welcome resource for bovine practitioners, theriogenologists, and animal scientists, as well as veterinary students and residents with an interest in the cow.
As much a model for future research as a study of the status of the fetus, this book offers an examination of one of the most divisive and complex issues of American life."--BOOK JACKET.
