Chapter 604: This technology should also be put on the agenda
In a normal human body, after the embryonic development is complete, there are no longer any totipotent stem cells in the body.
In theory, if totipotent stem cells always exist in the human body, cells can be replaced all the time and the human body will no longer age.
Of course, this is just the most ideal situation in theory. It is actually very difficult to truly achieve such a perfect situation.
How to control these totipotent stem cells to differentiate in the appropriate direction is a very difficult problem to solve.
After thinking for a while, Xu You said to Gao Mi:
"Professor Gao, please arrange a new experimental topic. The goal is to cultivate a complete animal individual in the laboratory without the help of reproductive cells . There is also another experimental topic, which is to use totipotent stem cells to differentiate into the cells we need and develop into complete organs."
"Okay, I understand, Academician Xu."
These two experimental topics are of great significance both in biology and in medicine.
The first experimental topic seems somewhat similar to cloning, but the principles are actually different.
Simply put, in addition to animal somatic cells, cloning also requires the help of animal egg cells, and the embryo needs to develop and grow in the mother's body.
However, the use of totipotent stem cells does not require any germ cells, and theoretically does not require development in the mother's body.
The second experimental topic can be seen as an upgraded version of therapeutic cloning.
Although therapeutic cloning will not develop into a complete individual, it will actually develop into a complete embryo during the treatment process.
If we can induce pluripotent stem cells to undergo directed differentiation, we can skip the embryonic development process and directly cultivate the organs we need.
This approach is undoubtedly more efficient than therapeutic cloning and will completely avoid any ethical issues.
"With Gao Mi's ability to teach them, solving these experimental topics should only be a matter of time."
Xu You has considerable trust , and can safely leave many problems that are not particularly difficult to them.
As for those more complicated problems, Xu You can only solve them personally.
At this time, Xu You thought of a topic with even greater significance.
That is, how to achieve eternal life.
Simply achieving the reversal of totipotent stem cells only provides a possibility for immortality.
There are still many problems to be solved in order to increase this possibility.
Thinking of this, Xu You activated his brain simulation skills and began to simulate a specific environment in his brain.
These days, Xu You has not only learned a lot of knowledge related to biology and medicine, but also had close exchanges with many experts, which has enabled Xu You to rapidly improve his academic level in these fields.
A solid academic foundation supports Xu You in accurately simulating these processes.
Xu You first simulated a totipotent stem cell in his mind and tried to make this totipotent stem cell develop into a complete embryo.
"Without the protection of the mother, totipotent stem cells are more likely to die. However, as long as the number of cells is sufficient and the environment of the cell culture room is as suitable as possible for cell differentiation, there will be no problem in developing into an embryo."
In terms of embryo survival rate, the totipotent stem cell method is not only lower than that of normal germ cells, but also far lower than the embryo survival rate of cloning technology.
However, totipotent stem cell technology does not require egg cells after all, which allows the technology to use a large number of cells at one time. Even if the success rate is lower, it is not a problem.
As long as the technology of stem cell reversal is mature enough, theoretically we can obtain totipotent stem cells continuously.
Next, Xu You continued to simulate the experiment of directed differentiation of totipotent stem cells.
As long as the totipotent stem cells are induced to become various pluripotent and unipotent stem cells, they can then develop into the various organs, tissues, etc. that we need.
Such technology can completely solve the problem of organ transplant donor shortage.
As long as the patient can provide his or her own somatic cells, we can reverse these somatic cells into the stem cells we need and then cultivate the corresponding organs.
Because one's own cells are used, there will not be any problem of receptor rejection. Once the organs are mature , they can be transplanted.
Compared with artificial organs, it will be more suitable for the patient's body, and there is no need to worry about any radiation, interference and other problems that may exist in any electronic equipment.
However, these successful simulation processes alone were not enough to satisfy Xu You.
After all, even if the organs are developed from one's own cells, they still require a long culture time, and the transplant surgery itself has certain risks.
Xu You hopes that the ultimate goal will be to enable the totipotent stem cells in the human body to automatically repair cells according to the body's conditions.
In this way, you can keep your body young forever and will not age with age.
However, this vision was not realized during the simulation process.
"No... Even if you inject totipotent stem cells into the body, they cannot automatically control the direction of differentiation, but will differentiate almost randomly. This will not only not be conducive to the repair of body cells, but may also cause disorders in the body."
This feeling is like having a group of elite soldiers but no wise general, resulting in a leaderless situation, like a pile of loose sand.
Because totipotent stem cells are not supposed to exist in the bodies of fully developed animals, it is almost impossible to expect them to repair body cells autonomously.
"What if... there is something that can give orders to totipotent stem cells?"
At this time, Xu You thought of another possibility.
If there is some way to globally control all totipotent stem cells so that they can automatically detect the body and automatically update the cells that need to be updated according to the body's condition, then the problem will be solved.
And this kind of technology is not completely impossible to implement.
"Nano robots...it's time to put this technology on the agenda."
The so-called nanorobot refers to a very small robot that can perform various microscopic operations at the nanoscale.
In some novels and movies, as long as the patient takes the "nanorobot", the robot can automatically carry out various medical operations in the human body.
