3 ms·

Why isn't the procedure used anymore, since they stopped using it before this was discovered?

bemusedthrow75 3y ago
Because it was shown to also spread a prion disease (CJD, though not the variant kind as far as I have understood)
Reubend 3y ago
As the article says, there is now a synthetic hormone which is given to the patients. We don't need to extract the hormone from dead people anymore.
- bemusedthrow75 3y ago
  Yes, but that just would cause the derived product not to be needed, when it was actually actively banned because it was proven to have caused some cases of CJD.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
skissane 3y ago
We worked out to produce these hormones (or equivalent compounds) synthetically, so we no longer need to extract them from the brains of deceased humans, a procedure which risks transmitting disease. Not just human growth hormone, also other hormones used to be derived this way, e.g. those used to induce ovulation in fertility treatment. I know someone who received cadaver-derived fertility hormones in the 1980s. She has a small risk of developing CJD and dying from it. It hasn't happened yet, and probably never will, but no one can say for sure if she is infected. If you don't develop symptoms (some people are infected but never progress, others suddenly develop symptoms one day after decades of being asymptomatic), the only way to know for sure if you had it is at autopsy, through destructive testing of brain tissues.
munificent 3y ago
Second paragraph of the article: >In the interim, scientists had discovered that that type of hormone treatment they got could unwittingly transfer bits of protein into recipients’ brains. In some cases, it had induced a fatal brain disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD — a finding that led to the banning of the procedure 40 years ago. In other words, it gave people mad cow disease.
- MathMonkeyMan 3y ago
  That's not to mention the zombies. There was a huge cover up.
- bemusedthrow75 3y ago
  Not “mad cow disease”, but CJD. “Mad Cow Disease” specifically refers to the variant form that is said to have been caused by prions from infected animals turning up in beef products. Though in fact all we know for sure about the link there is that it’s the same prion in the cattle and human cases; the suggestion that there’s a direct food chain connection is still only considered very likely, not proven.
jjtheblunt 3y ago
Did you even try reading? It's made super clear at the start.
- jollyllama 3y ago
  Yes, I read the whole thing but I missed the second half of the last sentence of the second paragraph. The fact that one poster replied that it's due to the advent of synthetic hormones and others replied about the spread of CJD indicates it's not super clear, but sibling replies got me the insight I was looking for.

Because it was shown to also spread a prion disease (CJD, though not the variant kind as far as I have understood)

As the article says, there is now a synthetic hormone which is given to the patients. We don't need to extract the hormone from dead people anymore.

bemusedthrow75 3y ago
Yes, but that just would cause the derived product not to be needed, when it was actually actively banned because it was proven to have caused some cases of CJD.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

skissane 3y ago

We worked out to produce these hormones (or equivalent compounds) synthetically, so we no longer need to extract them from the brains of deceased humans, a procedure which risks transmitting disease. Not just human growth hormone, also other hormones used to be derived this way, e.g. those used to induce ovulation in fertility treatment. I know someone who received cadaver-derived fertility hormones in the 1980s. She has a small risk of developing CJD and dying from it. It hasn't happened yet, and probably never will, but no one can say for sure if she is infected. If you don't develop symptoms (some people are infected but never progress, others suddenly develop symptoms one day after decades of being asymptomatic), the only way to know for sure if you had it is at autopsy, through destructive testing of brain tissues.

munificent 3y ago

Second paragraph of the article: >In the interim, scientists had discovered that that type of hormone treatment they got could unwittingly transfer bits of protein into recipients’ brains. In some cases, it had induced a fatal brain disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD — a finding that led to the banning of the procedure 40 years ago. In other words, it gave people mad cow disease.

MathMonkeyMan 3y ago
That's not to mention the zombies. There was a huge cover up.
bemusedthrow75 3y ago
Not “mad cow disease”, but CJD. “Mad Cow Disease” specifically refers to the variant form that is said to have been caused by prions from infected animals turning up in beef products. Though in fact all we know for sure about the link there is that it’s the same prion in the cattle and human cases; the suggestion that there’s a direct food chain connection is still only considered very likely, not proven.

jjtheblunt 3y ago

Did you even try reading? It's made super clear at the start.

jollyllama 3y ago
Yes, I read the whole thing but I missed the second half of the last sentence of the second paragraph. The fact that one poster replied that it's due to the advent of synthetic hormones and others replied about the spread of CJD indicates it's not super clear, but sibling replies got me the insight I was looking for.