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Strategies & Market Trends : Roger's 1998 Short Picks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Keith J who wrote (529)	1/9/1998 6:16:00 PM
From: DeWAVE	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18691

Frozen baboons returned to life by Lois Rogers Medical Correspondent SCIENTISTS have unlocked the secret of suspended animation by successfully reviving baboons hours after their bodies were packed into crates of ice. The breakthrough, which holds huge implications for the battle against disease and ageing, will allow humans to preserve their ice-cold bodies in suspended animation and wake up years later in the same physical condition. It has aroused the interest of space scientists investigating the possibility of interstellar travel, allowing human exploration of galaxies many light years away. Military clinicians are also attracted by the prospect of allowing critically injured troops to be near-frozen on the battlefield and preserved for later treatment. The key to the technology is Hextend, a revolutionary plasma replacement fluid which is poured into the body through a vein in the upper thigh as blood is drained and the anaesthetised body is cooled to 1C. As the clear fluid permeates the tissues, it prevents the deterioration caused by extreme lowering of body temperature. The results from the baboon studies, carried out at Biotime, a California research company, were announced at the annual meeting of the American Association of Anti-Ageing Medicine. Hal Sternberg, Biotime's head of research, said work on the mechanisms of animal hibernation had provided much of the basic information on suspended animation. One type of North American frog can partially freeze its body while it shuts down during the winter months. Hamsters have been kept alive at 1-2C with no heartbeat in Biotime laboratories for up to seven hours before being successfully rewarmed. The long-term objective is to add freeze-protectant chemicals to the Hextend solution so human bodies can be stored at -196C, the temperature of liquid nitrogen. The principal barrier, however, is popular opinion. "It is like the public attitude to early organ transplants," said Sternberg. "Although everyone will love us when we announce we have reversibly frozen a human being, at the moment this area is not considered socially acceptable. "There is a limit to how far people think you should go to save a life: but we already have children being born from frozen embryos. If you are extending the beginning of life, why shouldn't you also extend it later on?" Sternberg and his colleagues expect to use their new techniques to put themselves into long-term hibernation while they await the development of life-extending techniques to cure and prevent cancer, heart failure and Alzheimer's disease. Doctors believe the technique can immediately be used in complex surgery, where best results can be obtained by cooling the body to a level which would otherwise cause brain damage. Clinical trials of Hextend led by Michael Mythen, a consultant anaesthetist who worked on the project in America, are to begin at University College hospital, London, this year. It will be used in complex orthopaedic, gynaecological and stomach operations where there is a danger of catastrophic blood loss and where better results can be obtained at low temperatures. Kelvin Brockbank, a British-born scientist in South Carolina who has received funding from the American government for his research work in the allied field of preserving transplant organs, said deep-freezing of human tissue would be possible within a year. "There will be a whole range of applications for the technology," he said. "It will be up to people to decide how to use them."

To: Keith J who wrote (529)	1/10/1998 11:55:00 AM
From: Jim Roof	Respond to of 18691

I might chime in here as a long on BTIM that the misinformation is coming from the short side - not the longs. We have known for a long time that Hextend is not a blood subtitute while articles still appear in major publications poo-pooing the notion of a 'blood substitute'. Hextend's merits are not nearly as esoteric as such a holy grail. But you are wise I think to view a short position with caution. With probably about 15-20% of BTIM's share currently short you are even wiser. Jim