Ok, forgive me if this idea sounds really dumb, I'm not a molecular biologist. But i had an idea for a way that someone could theoretically create stem cells that have long telemores, like embryonic stem cells, and also the persons original DNA, which avoids the likelihood that the stem cells will be rejected.
I was recently reading an article about a topic, reported on by several sources, about how japanese researchers had induced adult stem cells to become sperm cells and use them to fertilise other mice and create offspring. You can read about it here:
http://www.latimes.c...0,4755339.story
So this got me thinking...
Say you have a man, and he needs some quality stem cells to repair say, some damaged cartilage. Here is how i hypothesise it could be done.
1. Take an embryonic stem cell and remove the chromosomes. So you have a young cell with no intracellular junk and no DNA.
2. Take two of the man's top quality sperms, one X and one Y (to have a full set) and remove the chromosomes. Sperm chromosomes have full length telemores, unlike other body cells. This is where their advantage lies.
3. Take the chromosomes from the sperm and introduce them into the embryonic cell. You then induce the cell do divide, giving you the necessary supply of stem cells.
Problems that i see with this method:
Chromosomes in sperm cells may be packaged in a way that transferring them into other cells is so difficult that it makes this method impractical.
Gene expression patterns in sperm cells may be a problem.
