XMRV & Xenotransplantation -Correction

[Guest guest]

Re: XMRV -Science Journals

Scarier than Science Fiction

This piece by Kent Heckenlively confirms that a little

bit of knowledge can be dangerous!

The problem with the piece is that he got the wrong

definition of " xenotransplantation " .

Xenotransplantation refers to transplantation of cells

between species, not just from mice to humans, as

Heckenlively quotes.

In fact, the report he discusses deals with

xenotransplantation of human cells into mice, not the

reverse.

This procedure is used to coax human cancer cells to

grow outside of humans for further study.

Surprisingly, human cancer cells are often difficult to

grow in cell culture, outside of a human, but are more

easily grown in nude mice.

While mouse cells have been transplanted into a few

humans, this procedure is very rare and could in no

way explain chronic fatigue syndrome or autism.

A. Dusty , PhD

Member

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center