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Thank you to the little boys and parents of the US  

post #1 of 9
Thread Starter 
For providing the entire world with biotechnology products.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6236282.stm

http://www.intercytex.com/icx/

It doesn't mention anywhere on the site exactly where these "young cells" come from, but it's got the magic words, "fibroblast" and "keratinocyte", all over the place, and facilities in the US and Canada, as well as the UK, so they're likely to be neonatal as they are with all the other, US manufactured, similar products.

I guess the babies of the US are going to supply the world with human tissue, hair regrowth products and a new range of cosmetic fillers, aren't you just proud of your country's commercial acumen?
post #2 of 9
:Puke


post #3 of 9
Thread Starter 

Further Information:

I'm still following this one around to get more information, but the founder of this firm is from Organogenesis Inc....(I thought the product looked rather familiar).

http://www.siliconfenbusiness.com/viewcomp.php?id=50

"Paul Kemp BSc, PhD
Founder and Chief Scientific Officer

Paul founded Intercytex in 1999 and is its Chief Scientific Officer. He has over 17 years of experience in the commercial development of cell therapy. Prior to founding Intercytex, he was VP Research at Organogenesis Inc (connective tissue research). He is a principal inventor on several patents related to various regenerative medical therapeutics including wound repair stimulant Apligraf®."
post #4 of 9
Thread Starter 

Got It!!

Thank you to the Intellectual Property people, who provide such useful information.

http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?wo=2006097701

"Publication Number: WO/2006/097701 International Application No.: PCT/GB2006/000890
Publication Date:21.09.2006 International Filing Date:14.03.2006
Int. Class.:C12N 5/06 (2006.01), A61L 27/60 (2006.01)
Applicants:INTERCYTEX LIMITED [GB/GB]; Innovation House, Oaks Business Park, Crewe Road, Wythenshawe, Manchester, M29 9QR (GB) (All Except US)."

"Title: SKIN EQUIVALENT CULTURE
Abstract:
Methods of forming soft connective tissue compositions such as skin equivalents, compositions made by the methods and their uses. In particular, a method of forming a connective tissue equivalent, comprising the steps of: (i) incubating collagen-producing cells in or on a support matrix; (ii) inducing and/or enhancing collagen production by the collagen-producing cells to form a collagenous construct and degradation and replacement of the support matrix; (iii) freeze-drying the construct; and (iv) re-populating the freeze-dried construct with collagen-producing cells and/or epithelial cells and/or endothelial cells and/or mesenchymal cells, thereby forming a connective tissue equivalent, wherein: (a) the collagen-producing cells are substantially fibroblasts; for example human neonatal dermal fibroblasts; (b) the support matrix is a provisional support matrix in which the support matrix is a fibrin matrix, for example formed by thrombin-mediated polymerisation of fibrinogen; and (c) as a result of the collagen production by the collagen-producing cells the provisional fibrin support matrix is digested by the cells and is replaced by collagen, thereby essentially replacing the provisional fibrin matrix with a collagen matrix synthesised in situ by the cells."

and:

http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?...1&DISPLAY=DESC

"Medium components

......."number (p6-pl5) was another parameter tested in our constructs. Similarly, although the constructs were usually composed with HDFs and culture conditions used in the experiments favoured the growth and survival of these cells, it is possible that a component of other cell types might influence the ability of HDFs to make and deposit collagen and other ECM. Normally, the HDFs used in the constructs are derived from human neonatal foreskin. A mixture of cells exist in the intact tissue and in order to isolate the HDFs from the other cell types a combination of enzymatic digestion and growth medium is used to favour outgrowth of HDFs. After six passages, the majority of cells (>90%) thus treated are HDFs. In order to include other potentially beneficial cell types in the constructs, human neonatal foreskins were enzymatically digested to yield a suspension of cells and, rather

than putting these into tissue culture, they were cast immediately into fibrin based constructs....."

http://www.cosmeticconference.co.uk/...Info.asp?ID=43
"Presentation Outline
Intercytex is the world’s leading cell therapy company focussing on skin and hair. It is developing a number of products to replace cells lost from the skin either through disease (chronic ulcers), trauma (acute skin excisions, thermal damage, scars) or aging (hair loss, reduction in skin quality and texture).

The facial treatment is a suspension of cultured allogeneic neonatal human fibroblasts in a defined transport media that provides a 7 day 2-8C shelf life in the clinic. Cultured neonatal human fibroblasts have been used for many years to produce Cosmoderm™ and Cosmoplast™ collagen fillers and the cells themselves have also been used in approximately 200,000 patients to treat a variety of skin disorders with a tremendous safety record. Extensive testing by numerous investigators has shown that these fibroblasts although allogeneic do not illicit an immune reaction even after multiple applications. The reason for this appears to be due to a natural feature of the fibroblast in that they don’t express Class I MHC and only express class II MHC after stimulation but without co-stimulatory molecules that are necessary for T cell activation. This means that these young, metabolically active cells can be used very effectively."

Oh YUK, they really are injecting foreskin cells into old women to remove wrinkles, that is SO gross!
post #5 of 9
Quote:
"But this skin replacement system has the potential to dramatically reduce scarring and help heal chronic wounds in aged patients to give them a better quality of life."
It's all about quality of life for those with a voice. Babies...you're screwed. If you can't complain, then we must not be doing anything wrong. The only counter to this argument (since gross human rights violation apparently is insufficient) is for grown men with a voice to rise up and demand that these babies deserve protection.

Seriously, with technology being what it is, can't we generate these fibroblasts in a lab? Without cutting them off of babies? Could we make them out of stem cells derived from cord blood or that other place that we get stem cells from?
post #6 of 9
Quote:
Originally Posted by christifav View Post
It's all about quality of life for those with a voice. Babies...you're screwed. If you can't complain, then we must not be doing anything wrong. The only counter to this argument (since gross human rights violation apparently is insufficient) is for grown men with a voice to rise up and demand that these babies deserve protection.

Seriously, with technology being what it is, can't we generate these fibroblasts in a lab? Without cutting them off of babies? Could we make them out of stem cells derived from cord blood or that other place that we get stem cells from?
but they do complain, its just that nobody is listening. : i wonder if they women who are beautiful again are aware of the price that was paid. its all so very sad and just plain messed up.
post #7 of 9
Ok, although I know I will never have any of my children circumcised, I keep reading about how the skin cut during circumcisions is used for research like this.

How do these companies obtain the skin? This may sound obtuse, but the hospitals then turn around and sell the skin after the procedure?!?

I guess in my mind's eye, I would think the flesh they cut would get tossed into one of those "biohazard" trash cans or something.

Do the parents sign a form allowing the hospital to do this? I'm so confused : !
post #8 of 9
Quote:
Originally Posted by cbemish View Post
Ok, although I know I will never have any of my children circumcised, I keep reading about how the skin cut during circumcisions is used for research like this.

How do these companies obtain the skin? This may sound obtuse, but the hospitals then turn around and sell the skin after the procedure?!?

I guess in my mind's eye, I would think the flesh they cut would get tossed into one of those "biohazard" trash cans or something.

Do the parents sign a form allowing the hospital to do this? I'm so confused : !
Whenever you have any kind of procedure performed in a hospital that involves the removal of tissue you sign consent forms. If you read the consent thoroughly they state that the hospital gets to dispose of any tissue removed as they see fit. In the case of neonatal foreskin they may choose to dispose of the tissue by selling it to a bio-tech company.
post #9 of 9
When my husband had his foot amputated, they told us we could take it home if we wanted to. I know a friend who has his finger in a jar. I would like to think that the tissue removed is your property (or your baby's, in the case of circ) and therefore you could take it if you wanted...but most people don't ask.

If women can take their placentas home from the hospital, and people can keep their amputated limbs, can't parents keep their sons' foreskin? Not that it makes circumcision any less terrible, but at the very least, it can't be used in cosmetics. It might (in the grand scheme) help the cause...

1. Parents decide they don't want the foreskin used in cosmetics.
2. Parents keep the foreskin and take it home.
3. Cosmetics companies and therefore doctors stop making as much money from foreskin.
4. Doctors stop pushing the procedure.
5. Less parents opt for circ.

Yeah...I'm being too optimistic. Docs will just lie to parents. ("We can't let you have it, it is a biohazard and MUST be put in the incinerator")
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Mothering › Forums › Health › The Case Against Circumcision › Thank you to the little boys and parents of the US