Witness all the debate about stem cell research lately. Same holds for doping in sports. Now the two can be merged: stem cells for athletes.
This forward looking article from Forbes, discusses the possible uses of athletes doping with stem cells.
"There's a spin-off technology from stem cells that could produce super-athletes," said Paul Griffiths, managing director of CryoGenesis International, which stores umbilical cord blood in its bank for potential later therapeutic use.
He believes that injecting stem cells into healthy muscles might increase their size and even restore them to their youthful capacity.
"You could potentially find a 40-year-old man with 20-year-old legs," Griffiths said.
I am for it. I would take a 50 year-old man with 30 year-old legs!
Like gene doping, which involves transferring genes into human cells to blend directly into an athlete's own DNA, it is thought that an athlete's stem cells could be injected back into the body. The regenerative powers of stem cells offer countless sporting possibilities, such as increasing endurance, speed, flexibility and strength.
Griffiths' company counts five professional soccer players as clients who have frozen stem cells from their children's umbilical cords in their bank. While Griffiths says the unidentified players' primary goal is to have a type of "biological insurance" for their children, other potential uses cannot be ruled out.
Experimental studies in the United States found that stem cells successfully regenerated all the ligaments in the knees of goats - their knee structure is believed to be similar to that of humans - within 12 weeks. Were such techniques possible in humans, athletes would certainly have reason to be tempted.
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