Conference 7.286::space

100.0. "McDonnell Douglas Space Drug" by PYRITE::WEAVER () Wed Nov 20 1985 18:05

Associated Press Mon 18-NOV-1985 13:57                             Space Drug

            Magazine Says Mystery Drug Is Erythropoietin
                         By HARRY F. ROSENTHAL
                        Associated Press Writer
   WASHINGTON (AP) - A mystery drug produced on the space shuttle
and said to have the ability to help millions, was identified by a
trade magazine Monday as erythropoietin, a substance for people who
have lost their ability to produce red blood cells.
   The McDonnell Douglas Corp., which has sponsored the research,
refused to confirm or deny the report in the magazine Aviation Week
and Space Technology.
   ``A commercial space market worth several hundred million
dollars is foreseen for the drug erythropoietin,'' the magazine
said.
   McDonnell Douglas spokeswoman Susan Flowers also declined to
confirm that the 3M Corp. is joining McDonnell Douglas in the
venture. 3M's Riker Laboratories Division will market the product
in place of Johnson & Johnson's Ortho Pharmaceuticals Division,
which recently dropped out of the program, the article said.
   ``We are working on an agreement to agree,'' Miss Flowers said.
   McDonnell Douglas has used the space shuttle six times for an
experiment called electrophoresis, which separates substances in
biological materials by passing an electric current through them.
An engineer from the firm, Charles D. Walker, has twice flown on
the shuttle to work the device and is scheduled to do so again
later this month.
   People who are anemic or have a variety of disorders in which
red blood cell levels are a factor could benefit from
erythropoietin. The drug is not widely used because Earth-bound
production techniques can't filter out byproducts harmful to the
body.
   One use for the space-processed drug would be for patients who
are within a few days of surgery, to allow them to build up red
blood cells. Another would be for people unable to generate such
cells and need frequent transfusions to stay alive.
   Red blood cells are normally generated by kidneys, so that
people with certain forms of kidney disease often lack the natural
hormone to stimulate a continual replenishment.
   McDonnell Douglas has refused to identify the drug for
proprietary reasons. It has said only that the substance is a
hormone.

 Now I'm not a doctor,but I've believed all my life that red blood cells are
produced by the marrow in the (long bones),and that kidneys were for filtration 
of the blood.Am I right or just part right?

I believe that you are right, however I also think that the kidneys
remove aged red blood cells, so that new ones can take their place.  If
this function is inhibited, then the marrow probably can't produce the
replacement red blood cells.  So it is probably an indirect effect that
the reporter didn't understand (not that I claim to understand it
either).  Did I get it right? 

						-Dave

FWIW, much of the color of feces is due to dead RBCs dumped into the
small intestine via the bile duct.  I think they are filtered out of
the bloodstream by the liver (one of whose biological roles is to be
a filter, although of different things than the kidneys, no doubt).
				/AHM

    This is how I remember it from AP Biology:
    
    Red blood cells (RBCs) are made by the bone marrow.  When blood is
    filtered by the kidneys, dead RBCs are removed.  Under ideal conditions
    all of the collected material is recycled to the bone marrow.  However,
    when there is a large scale destruction of RBCs, the bone marrow
    can not accept all that is to be recycled and the excess is dumped
    into the bladder.  This is why your urine is yellow.  The next time
    you get a bad bruise or sickness check the color of your urine.
    In most cases it will be darker (unless you've had large quantities
    of fluids in which case it will be diluted)