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Stem cell research in India Benzene in beverages? Prof Yash
Pal THIS UNIVERSE |
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Stem cell research in India India, which has made spectacular strides in space research and nuclear power generation, is now all set to repeat its success story in stem cell research. While in the areas of nuclear power and space research India was able to make significant breakthroughs on account of the sustained support provided by the government, in stem cell research private initiative remains a key factor. India’s first bank for storing cord blood, the repository of stem cells, was set up by the Chennai based entrepreneur Abhay Kumar about two years aback. Though Life Cell did not launch a publicity blitz while setting up the facility, it was surprised to find a citizen from Pakistan, where it did not have any presence, handing over the cord blood of his newly born child for cryo storing for a fee. “We are also getting enquiries from Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Dubai” says Kumar. Spurred on by good response, Life Cell is planning to set up collection centres in SAARC countries. Franchises would run the collection centres supported by Life Cell. Incidentally, the cryo storage of umbilical cord blood, the richest source of stem cells, is gaining in popularity. Described as a bioinsurance, the stored umbilical cord stem cells can be used to set right many of the diseases and disorders. Normally, cord blood is collected before the placenta is delivered. A baby’s umbilical cord blood, which is otherwise discarded, is a rich source of stem cells endowed with the capability to regenerate and replace a variety of tissues. Interestingly, the cord blood bank which stores a baby’s cord in liquid nitrogen for a period of 21 years for a fee is considered a bioinsurance since the child from whose umbilical cord the blood was collected would stand to benefit from it at any stage of life. As pointed out by Dr A. Ramdoss, India’s Health and Family Welfare Minister, human stem cell banking in India could receive a boost if the 25 million otherwise discarded umbilical cord are cryo frozen and later used for stem cell research. “There is a need to stop this wastage” he says. The embryonic stem cells are capable of developing into any of more than 200 cell types that make up the human body. Stem cells grow into virtually and kind of tissue in human body when properly nurtured. Not surprisingly then the stem cell types can replace the old and worn out cells in the human body. To bring the fruits of stem cell research to the hospital beds, CryoCell is planning to set up India’s first stem cell transplantation centre at Chennai with a focus on treating a range of diseases, including leukemia, stroke, diabetes and crippling spinal cord injuries. Patients suffering from hematological and neurological disorders will be treated using stem cells from various sources — adult bone marrow, umbilical cord and peripheral blood. “Stem cell therapy is fast emerging as a revolutionary form of treating various diseases and injuries with wide ranging medical benefits” says Anthony Finch, Advisor, LifeCell. Incidentally, four out of a group of five seriously ill Brazilian heart failure patients no longer needed a heart transplant after they were treated with stem cells. And New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), which is working on treating cardiac disorders using stem cells had sometime back subjected 30 patients suffering from heart related ailments to stem cell treatment and found that in majority of the cases the dead heart tissue stood revived. The AIIMS is now focusing on the use of stem cell therapy for treating diabetes which is recent years has assumed epidemic proportion. On the other hand, Dr Balkrishna Matapurkar of New Delhi’s Maulana Azad Medical College has pioneered a stem cell based technique for the regeneration of tissues and organs. Bangalore’s Manipal Stem Cell Research Centre has initiated clinical trials using stem cells to treat diseases like myocardial infraction, spinal cord injury and neurological disorders. The focus of these trials is on the use of mesenchymal stem cells which are endowed with the capacity to mature cells that produce fat, cartilage, bone tendons and muscles. As pointed out by Satish Totey, Research Director of the Manipal Stem Cell Research Centre, the mesenchymal stem cells have a tendency to differentiate into skeletal and fibrous cells more easily. Totey says that they are also more easily accepted by the body and have far fewer chances of getting rejected. The Bangalore based Cryostem Karnataka Pvt Ltd, which is both a cord stem cell bank and a research centre, has entered into an agreement with Malayasia’s StemLife to expand the scope and reach of its research activities. This tieup is expected to pave the way for the opening up of stem cell transplantation facilities into various parts of South and South East Asia. “this tieup with StemLife is very important and will strengthen our endeavour in fighting the diseases that don’s have a cure”, says Dr S.G.A. Rao, Chairman ad Managing Director of CryoStem Karnataka. |
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Benzene in beverages? There are more than 50 additives classified as preservatives. Some additives and preservatives are essential to keep foods quality and freshness. In fact they are so essential that even organic foods may contain them. Preservatives help food to retain its quality in a very specific way. In order to help food from going off very quickly, preservatives are added to inhibit or stop the growth of micro-organisms in/on the food. A loaf of bread would grow mouldy much more quickly without preservatives. Some preservatives may cause a reaction in certain people although it is rare. Sulphur dioxide and sodium benzoate often cause tight chests in individuals who have asthma. Many people also complain of a scratchy feeling at the back of their throats. Although these are the common reactions, others such as rashes may also occur. Sulphur dioxide may be labelled as sodium metabisulphite, potassium metabisulphite, sodium or potassium bisulphate or sulphite. — Foods that may contain sulphur dioxide include some fruit juices, concentrated soft drinks, wine, beer, some sauces, pickles, hamburgers ,patties, etc. — Foods that may contain sodium benzoate include fruit juices, soft drinks, foods with fruit. The industry has covered up benzene contamination in soft drinks for quite some time. Reports of benzene in soft drinks have been confirmed in the US, UK and Australia. However, it is said that the levels found to date pose no health risk. It is also possible that some beverage firms might not know the potential for sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid to cause benzene formation in drinks. |
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PROF YASH PAL If we throw a stone upwards it comes down because of the gravitational force. What will happen if the stone crosses the air boundary? Will it move or be steady in space? AIR
does not shield gravity. It only provides a frictional drag to a moving object. So let us forget about the air boundary for a while. If there were no air the ball will keep moving up, slowing down bit by bit. As it goes away from the earth the force of gravity also decreases, essentially inversely as the square of the distance from the centre of the earth. Finally the stone will come to a stop and start falling down. It will come down with the speed at which it was thrown up. The kinetic energy lost on the way up is regained on the way down. It cannot stop and become steady. However you can throw it in such a way that it also has a forward motion. It is like a goalkeeper kicking soccer ball high and towards the opponent’s goal. The ball follows a curved path. Suppose there was no air to provide friction and the goalkeeper was a super man. He could kick the ball with such a speed that its parabolic path would never hit the round earth. The ball would be continuously falling towards the earth but, because of its forward motion, it would keep missing it. The ball would have become a satellite of the earth! Of course it is possible to give the ball such a velocity that it completely escapes the confines of the earth gravitational field. Not only that, we could send it outside the solar system. In practice these things are not done by giving a single large kick, because that would wreck the ball. We use rockets that increase the speed more gradually. Incidentally, the orbital velocity of a near earth satellite of the earth is 7.9 kilometers per second, while the escape velocity is 11.3 kilometers per second. These values depend on the mass of the earth. |
WITH conservative Christians in the US succeeding in influencing the Bush administration into putting hurdles in the path of stem cell research on “flimsy moral ground”, Asian countries, including India and Singapore, may well emerge as the “futuristic front-runners” in this frontier area of research that holds the hope of providing an effective cure for many of the hitherto incurable ailments afflicting the humanity.
ADDITIVES
and preservatives in foods were considered a helpful thing when food first began to be mass-produced, but time has shown that not all additives and preservatives are good for people to ingest. They can cause harmful side-effects and allergies that the same food without the additives and preservatives normally would not cause.