Limitations of Animal Tissue Cultures - (Mar/16/2009 )
Animal tissue cultures can help to create many possibilities in medical advancement for now and in the future. Besides the ethics problems that
encountered many scientists, what are the other major limitations that scientists will face when performing animal tissue cultures especially for medical purposes such as organ transplantation, etc. ? 
This is an interesting question, even possibly a students college assignment?
So maybe you should try the old fashion way of answering a question by doing some research and reading some books for yourself.
Maybe then you can leave a reply telling us all the answer.
cotchy on Mar 17 2009, 01:14 AM said:
So maybe you should try the old fashion way of answering a question by doing some research and reading some books for yourself.
Maybe then you can leave a reply telling us all the answer.
Actually I am now trying my best to find the possible answers. I also hope that I can share the answers that I will get with all of you very soon. Just want to post it here so that we all can think about it. Thanks for your comments. I appreciate it.
think about patient response, cell replication etc.
bob1 on Mar 18 2009, 08:41 AM said:
Thanks for your suggestions. I am still in the progress of searching the best answers.
Hello friends,
I have figured out some of the limitations in animal tissue culture for medical advancement which as listed as below:
1. Cross-contamination of the cell lines
2. Instability of the continuous cell lines due to chromosomal instability
3. The differences between in vitro and in vivo system during drug testing and organ transplantation
4. Origin of the explants
Do you think the limitations stated above can be totally overcome in the next future with all the developments of advance technology and techniques?
Good work, those were some of the issues associated with the original question.
I would add patient responses to the list, especially rejection of the tissue/cells implanted. I would also add the risk of generating some foreign tumour type - many cell lines are very very aggressive in culture and are likely to be so in patients also, so if they escape the implant, they could cause cancers, especially if the patient is on immuno-suppressant drugs. There is also the risk of infection from the implants, many cell cultures have been transformed with/by viruses, and some even still shed live virus, though this can be easily tested for.
With regards to overcoming the problems - the answer is no, we can't over come the genetic instability of cells yet, and it isn't really feasible in the near (20+ years) future.
bob1 on Mar 30 2009, 08:53 AM said:
I would add patient responses to the list, especially rejection of the tissue/cells implanted. I would also add the risk of generating some foreign tumour type - many cell lines are very very aggressive in culture and are likely to be so in patients also, so if they escape the implant, they could cause cancers, especially if the patient is on immuno-suppressant drugs. There is also the risk of infection from the implants, many cell cultures have been transformed with/by viruses, and some even still shed live virus, though this can be easily tested for.
With regards to overcoming the problems - the answer is no, we can't over come the genetic instability of cells yet, and it isn't really feasible in the near (20+ years) future.
Thanks for your information. I appreciate a lots. I would like to find out more on genetic instability of the cells. Do you have any resources regarding this issue that you can recommend to me for my additional readings?
Thanks.
Look out for papers regarding the end-replication problem/telomere shortening and the mechanisms involved.
bob1 on Mar 31 2009, 09:12 AM said:
Thanks!