Fwd: Daily News - Thursday, January 16, 2003

[Guest guest]

did they think that they would be able to mess with nature and nothing bad

happen - and they call us stupid....

 

 

> Daily News from Healthypages

> Thursday, January 16, 2003

> _______________________________

>

> IVF and cloning “increase chances of childhood diseaseâ€

>

> Babies born through IVF are more likely to suffer from a rare childhood

> illness, a finding that could have major implications for human cloning,

> say UK scientists.

>

> A study funded by Cancer Research UK shows that babies born through IVF are

> more likely to suffer from Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome – a condition that

> predisposes them to birth defects and cancer.

>

> The experts say their findings have major implications for children who are

> cloned. Cloning is a far more radical technique than IVF and has recently

> come under scrutiny following claims by a cult that it has produced several

> cloned children.

>

> Scientists are worried that children born through this technique could

> suffer from the syndrome, which is linked to a genetic phenomenon known as

> imprinting.

>

> Under the process of imprinting certain genes act differently, depending on

> whether they are inherited from the child’s mother or father.

>

> If, for example, imprinted genes are inherited from the father, the baby is

> encouraged to grow bigger, while equivalent genes from the mother keep the

> growth in check.

>

> Cloning destroys normal imprinting and could increase the risk of

> Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome and similar conditions, say the scientists.

>

> Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome normally affects between two and five children

> out of every 100,000 and makes infants particularly likely to suffer not

> only from birth defects, but also childhood cancers like Wilm’s tumour,

> which affects the kidney.

>

> The researchers, from the University of Birmingham and Cambridge’s Babraham

> Institute, reached their conclusions after looking at 149 children with

> Beckwith-Wiedmann syndrome and finding that 4 per cent were born either

> after IVF or intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

>

> Normally, techniques such as these account for only about 1 per cent of

> children born, prompting the scientists to conclude that the syndrome is

> four times as common in babies born through IVF as among those conceived

> naturally.

>

> Dr Wolf Reik, of the Babraham Institute, says, “Imprinting controls how

> active the gene is. If the imprinting goes wrong control is lost and this

> can result in unregulated growth.

>

> “Evidence is emerging that imprinting is also faulty in cloned animals, so

> it’s not unreasonable to think that human cloning would put children at

> risk of this condition and others like it.â€

>

> Sir Paul Nurse, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, says, “Cancer

> Research UK is opposed to reproductive cloning and this research highlights

> just one of the severe problems that may result.â€

>

> The findings are published in Journal of Medical Genetics.

>

> © HMG Worldwide 2002

>

>

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 16/01/03 17:12:26 GMT Standard Time,

healthy.pages writes:

 

 

> Health checks of GM crops “flawedâ€

> Scottish politicians say procedures for assessing the risk that genetically

> modified (GM) crops pose to public health are flawed.

> Full story: http://www.healthypages.net/news-1.asp?newsid=2652

>

> Depressed women at risk of early onset menopause

> Women with a lifetime history of major depression may be more likely to

> experience early perimenopause – the transitional stage before complete

> cessation of the menstrual period – than women with no depressive history,

> according to US researchers.

> Full story: http://www.healthypages.net/news-1.asp?newsid=2651

>