New device collects menstrual blood

[barbara]

May 19, 2010
Condom meets tampon to extract stem cells
by Elizabeth Armstrong Moore


If the thought of menstrual blood makes you squirm, click the back button now. Consider yourself warned. A senior at Parsons The New School for Design, Chelsea Briganti, says the device she's designed is for "young, exuberant, active, strong, empowered" women anyway.
The device, essentially a menstrual stem cell collector, looks like an extra thick, artsy condom and functions much like a tampon; it is inserted, and its purpose is to sop up menstrual blood. Only Briganti's device, named the Mademoicell, is intended to be shipped to a lab, where the stem cells could help create such things as new heart tissue.

The Mademoicell collects menstrual stem cells.
(Credit: Chelsea Briganti/Parsons The New School for Design)
"The stem cells found in menstrual blood possess embryonic stem cell markers, which means that they can differentiate between nine different types of cells," Briganti tells Fast Company. "These are more potent than bone marrow."
So far trials indicate that menstrual blood could be one of the most renewable and non-invasive (this term is certainly relative, I mean look at the length of these things) sources of "endometrial" stem cells--the endometrium being the lining of the uterus that regenerates monthly in menstruating women.
Collecting menstrual stem cells is not without controversy, but so far the main concern is not a moral one but rather a practical one: Are the most valuable stem cells actually shred during menstruation, or does the menstrual fluid contain only dying, useless cells?
Whether menstrual stem cells prove widely useful remains to be seen, but it seems to be only a matter of time before the Mademoicell, slated to cost $75 for a set of three, will be joined by an entire industry of easy-to-use stem cell collectors. In fact, similar services already exist, including C'elle, which back in 2007 already claimed 140,000 clients.
For women who suffer through severe menstrual cramps without any intention of bearing children, their monthly pain could soon serve a larger purpose, and the term "giving blood" could take on a whole new meaning.

 

[Everett]

Fda

And I wonder what the FDA will say about this one!!!!!!!!!
They have their nose stuck into everything else.

 

[CherieC]

Now they are using Menstrual blood for stem cells.

Barb when I read the above article I couldnt help but think I would have been a perfect stem cell cow!

MENSTRUAL BLOOD STEM CELL BANKING IN INDIA
In STEM CELLS IN THE NEWS on March 31, 2011 at 10:24 am

Menstrual blood stem cell banking being launched in India
March 2011 – 12:24pm India News


New Delhi : Menstrual blood stem cells can now be easily collected, processed and harvested in an affordable, painless and non-invasive manner.

This unique stem cell banking is being launched in India for the first time at Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu state, as LifeCell Femme menstrual blood stem cell banking service.

Until now, menstrual blood was discarded as unsanitary waste. Menstrual blood contains a large number of self-renewing stem cells that multiply rapidly and can differentiate into many other types of cells such as neural, cardiac, bone, fat, cartilage and possibly others, demonstrating great potential for cell therapy, statesman reported quoting the recent research.

Every month during a woman’s menstrual period the uterine lining, endometrium, is shed along with the extra blood and tissues. This lining of the uterus contains a large number of mesenchymal stem cells and several thousand fold high concentration of stem cell growth factors. These cells from the endometrium are unique because they have many properties and characteristics similar to both bone marrow and embryonic stem cells.

Although menstrual stem cell technology has not yet been utilised to date in human therapies, the collective body of ongoing research may potentially change the types of therapies used to diagnose or treat a host of significant medical conditions in the future affecting hundreds of millions worldwide like Alzheimer’s disease, atherosclerosis, diabetes, heart disease, inflammatory bowel disease, Parkinson’s disease, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and many others.

“Stem cell technology is the future of medicine. Experiments performed at the Keio University school of medicine have succeeded in growing sheets of heart muscle from connective tissue cells harvested from menstrual blood When it comes to growing heart muscle, however, the connective tissue cells in menstrual blood have a success rate 100 times higher than the 0.2 – 0.3 percent for stem cells taken from human bone marrow,” said the chief scientific officer, LifeCell International, Dr Ajit Kumar.

Once collected the menstrual blood stem cells are dispatched to LifeCell’s state of the art laboratory facility at Chennai for processing. The stem cells are then harvested and the menstrual stem cells are frozen in liquid nitrogen storage container for cryogenic preservation at sub-zero minus 196 degrees centigrade. This procedure will enable the stem cells to retain their potency and viability for an indefinite period of time.

Menstrual blood stem cell banking being launched in India | TwoCircles.net.

How to Donate Menstrual Blood for Stem Cell Research
By an eHow Contributor
The use of menstrual blood as a resource for stem cells has been an interesting development in the field of bioresearch. The idea of collecting stem cells has been a controversial one at times. With this new method, there is no moral dilemma for anyone involved. In the future, people will benefit from the open availability of these types of stem cells. Currently, one company has the market cornered in the collection and storage of menstrual blood for stem cells. The company is called C’Elle. Collecting and storing your menstrual blood for its stem cells is easy.

Instructions-things you’ll need:

•Collection package
1.
•1
Order your collection kit from C’Elle through their company website (see Resources).

•2
Freeze the cooling packs that arrive with your C’Elle collection kit immediately upon arrival and continuously until you are ready to package your collections and send them back via FedEx.

•3
To collect your menstrual blood, insert the provided menstrual cup in place of a tampon. This cup needs to be left in for three hours to collect your first of two specimens.

•4
Take the menstrual cup out. It should have about a teaspoon of fluid in it. Carefully place this fluid into the provided vials of solution.

•5
Refrigerate your first specimen while you collect your second.

•6
Replace your menstrual cup for another three hours and repeat the collection process for your second vial. One vial will be used for storage and the other will be used for infectious disease testing.

•7
Remove your cooling packs from the freezer; the first specimen from the refrigerator and package both specimens and the cooling packs in your original collection kit box after you have collected both specimens.

•8
Ship your collection kit back to C’Elle using the provided airbilled FedEx box.

Read more: How to Donate Menstrual Blood for Stem Cell Research | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_4587255_menstrual-blood-stem-cell-research.html#ixzz1Ia5iwhot

 

[Mary-Anne]

Do I understand this right, that in some time, when stem cell treatments will be more researched and widely used as a treatment (hopefully for hearing loss, too and with success) I could profit from my own..well..menstruation blood to heal myself? That'd great!

 

[barbara]

You can be treated with your own stem cells now. No need to use menstrual blood. The same technology is achievable with other methods. There is a frenzy of research going on trying to extract stem cells from every part of the body it seems. Stem cell research and therapy is still in its infancy so expect to see lots of articles like this as researchers experiment with all kinds of things.

 

[Mary-Anne]

Well...I think I can wait a bit longer if it will be more effective later. I don't want to get a stem cell treatment and then it won't help as much as it might in the future when it's thoroughly researched or something... and if the stem cells in my menst. blood are more powerful and work better...I really hope for it.

 

[CherieC]

I agree with you!

I have to say I agree that I can wait a bit longer. I just posted that article or website to say............"its already here", I had the most unusual conversation with my 17 year old daugther when I was looking at this "idea". She was very "grossed out" her words by the thought of this being part of anyones life. I guess one would have to be able to just focus on stem cells to be able to stomach collecting them this way.