Comment by markkat | Hacker News Reader

Comment by markkat | Hacker News Reader

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1. There may be few pluripotent cells in what we collect, but the majority of stem cells collected are multipotent (mesenchymal and hematopoietic lineages).

2. We haven't been cryopreserving stem cells for 60 years, so that is impossible to know. However, there is evidence that bone mesenchymal stem cells can be stored for more than 20 years: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22280954 In my own experience, I have used cell lines that were stored more than 30 years, and primary cells stored more than a decade. Evidence suggests that the freezing and thawing process have the greatest impact, and that time in liquid nitrogen does not.

3. Once collected, you have a dashboard where you can log in and see/request your cells. We are working on rejuvenation therapies that employ these cells, so such a roadmap might develop should we have success.

4. I would not venture a guess.

In response to answer 2: how do you account for the risk of storage invalidating stem cells after 60 years, if you've only experienced useful 30 year-old cell lines? Put another way, why would I pay $7,000 if neither you nor I knew if my cells would still be useful to treat disease when I'm 80, assuming I stored them at 20? Do you have a method of propagation in intervals, ex. thaw, expand each set of cells every 10 years, and re-freeze? You mentioned in an above comment[0] that you'd need a clinical trial to have the legal ability, so perhaps not?

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15386671

We aren't propagating at intervals currently. However, it's something that could be done; batch samples could be set aside for that purpose alone, also, one control sample could be divided and tested every 5 years. It's an interesting question: if I culture my cells after 20 years, then preserve them for 20 more, is the viability higher than 40 years of preservation alone?

Thanks for the question.

Thanks, great answers.

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