Linda and lobster pots
Newfoundland, , 2001
Are you old enough to remember the cartoon strip Li’l
Abner? It was drawn by Al Capp and was
one of the funniest things around; often it was the only compelling reason to
open the Sunday Riverside Enterprise of
my youth. Anyway, for a time it
featured the most benign creature ever conceived – the Shmoo.
The Shmoo was a small, round, smiling creature that existed only to
ascertain the wishes of humans (seemingly by mental
telepathy), then happily turning into whatever was wanted. If you were hungry, for instance, the Shmoo
would suddenly become a hamburger.
Presumably if you were vegan it would become a vegi-burger, with a
certified organic, gluten-free, whole wheat bun.
Well, there aren’t any Shmoos in this world, but there ARE
laboratory mice. The laboratory mouse has given its life to benefit humans for
many decades. More have just died to
give us important information about cancer stem cells. They may not have died gladly, but no doubt
they went straight to mouse heaven with no pause to clear purgatory.
So, anyway, the British journal Nature has published an important paper about the role of stem-like
cells in epithelial ovarian cancer. The
principal author appears to be A. Nikitin to whom the Marsha Rivkin Center gave
a nice grant in 2011. The gist of the
matter is that his research team seems to have shown that there are stem-like
cells lurking in “niches” in the epithelium of ovaries. They have a positive role; they repair small
tears caused by ovulation. However, this
research also points out that they are particularly susceptible to
cancer-causing mutations. (This may
account for the fact, that the more you ovulate, they greater your chance of
contracting ovarian cancer.) They
investigated this hypothesis by first detecting and then isolating mouse epithelial cells with
stem-like properties, then injecting them into eight lady mice that previously
had several tumor-suppressor genes “knocked out”. (How this is done is just as much a mystery
to me as it is to you, of course.) Anyway,
seven of these unlucky mice developed ovarian cancer.
I can’t actually discern any immediate applicability of this
discovery to human OVCA, but the more we know about the enemy, the sooner we
can defeat him. I got that quotation
from The Art of War. Not really, but I’m sure it’s in there
somewhere.
I previously blogged about cancer stem cells on 8/22/12 and
again on 8/26/12
Do you want to read more about ovarian cancer stem cells?
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/257367.php
Do you want to know more about Dr. Nikitin?
Do you want to learn more about Shmoos?
I do not understand human nature. In the seven weeks this little blurb has been in existence, exactly seven people have read it: one per week. Contrast that with the9/24/13 blurb, which has accumulated 71 hits in three weeks: nearly 24 per week. Sure the newer one introduced Evelyn, the first of my many great grandchildren. However, this blog introduced the Shmoo: not as cute as Evelyn but interesting, I would have thought. Also, this one talks about something important: cancer stem cells. And it has a nice picture of my lovely wife. So, go figure. Beats me.
ReplyDeleteDid your count just go up? I'm here and have been before so I'm a shmoo reader.
ReplyDeleteYup, just went up to 8. And two of them are you! Who are the other faithful six, I wonder?
ReplyDelete