No, I do not revere PETA.
It's already/only a Wednesday. I'm already beat. The days are going by pretty fast and there's always something Mfest related to do everyday. There's just SO much to do even without assignments piling up.Anyway, I just found out how Mouse Feeder Cells are really produced. Backtrack a little. Mouse Feeder Cells are a layer of cells you put at the base of your Petri dish when you're trying to clone specific organs from stem cells. They're basically there to provide a mix of nutrients, hormones and growth factors for the stem cells. Like I said, I just found out how they make that layer. Look away if you find these things offensive. It might get a little graphic, I'm warning you....Firstly, you dissect a pregnant female mouse. You then take out her uterine horns. After that, you slice it open carefully and unload all the embryos to a Petri dish. What are embryos you ask? Those are BABIES. Ok, so they're not a fetus yet and thus don't really resemble finished baby rats but you can see its spine and head. Where was I? Oh yes. Next, you carefully separate any uterus lining or amniotic sacs from the babies, I mean embryos. Then, you cut them open and separate the spleen, liver and intestines and cut off its head. You then take the body, put it into a fresh plate and start mincing and mashing them to make a homogenous solution. Finally, you put them into fresh medium to make them proliferate. TADA! Feeder cells!I felt quite disturbed as I looked at the slides just now. I know they're just rats but I couldn't help thinking how wrong it was to do that. With the embryonic stem cells, even though they were using humans, the embryos used are still in the blastocyst stage and thus do not resemble human babies at all. In Islam, they haven't even had their 'Roh' put in by Allah yet as it is only 1-2 weeks after fertilisation.Yea I lost my train of thought due to some gossip. Crud, I'm such a sucker for other people's business. Yea, cos my life is uninteresting. Anyway, enough gore. Good luck to my dating friends. And a huge slap to AFIR HAMIDI. One day, you will LET ME kick your ass. Labels: Science Geekery
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