Stem cells on the First
Life is in a cageSusanna Alperina, Rossiyskaya Gazeta – Nedelya, 03.06.2010.
TV producer and TV presenter Kirill Nabutov will present his new documentary "The Golden Cage" on June 6 at 17.20 on Channel One.
The film is not about the mansions of rich Russians, and generally not about glamour, as it may seem at first glance. The theme of the film is stem cells.
Almost every day the news flies around the world: scientists have begun to grow organs from stem cells, change their appearance, prolong life... Is it so?
Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Kirill Viktorovich, why did you make a film specifically about stem cells?
Kirill Nabutov: Stem cells are a matter of life and death. What worries everyone – women, men, old, young, people of different faiths and skin colors, living anywhere, any professions, any affluence. Everyone is talking about stem cells today. That one escaped, that one was killed by their use, it is generally unknown what was injected there – the person began to go bald, lose weight, and so on. This topic is on everyone's lips.
RG: So tell me, is it really like this – is it possible to be cured, rejuvenated? Or is it all the inventions of charlatans?
Nabutov: There is certainly charlatanism in the concept of "stem cells": in some individual cases, when scammers use this name. But there is also something absolutely phenomenal in terms of the impact on a person – so it seemed to everyone who made the film.
RG: The picture tells that five people were allegedly saved with stem cells. Who were victims of a fire in the club "Lame Horse"...
Nabutov: The story of the "Lame Horse" is a tragedy in which a lot of people were victims of fire. Death from burns is very scary. I have seen people dying from burns, in particular, in the clinic of the Sklifosofsky Institute with Professor Smirnov. Combustiologists are special doctors. As they say, we have a special profession: we often treat a person and at the same time we know that he will die. A person is lying, conscious, talking, on a special bed of liquid sand, which allows you to constantly blow the burned skin... And the doctor, talking to him, knows that in two weeks he will be gone.
And the "Lame Horse" is a monstrous case when dozens of people turned out to be in such a state. Many died, some continued to die later, due to the effects of the burn. And this is where the adherents of stem cells (those who are for them, because there are also those who are against, and there are many of them) are trying to prove that with the help of stem cells, you can grow large areas of your own new skin. And they show in our film what is being done for this purpose and how.
There's another pretty big episode in the movie. Producer Elena Metelitsa found the hero. The young man was in a monstrous fire (not in the "Lame Horse"), and 2 percent of the living skin remained on him (!). Such an area of burns is incompatible with life. But he's alive! And when, in the process of preparing the material, Elena arrived after the first conversation with this young man, she was simply not herself. Although she is an experienced professional. Then she walked away, told us everything. We did the filming, and, I must say, they make an impression.
RG: I looked at the list of those who participate in the film. Doctors, professors, doctors of sciences... Why they take part is understandable. It is unclear why – Tatiana Totmyanina, Olympic figure skating champion.
Nabutov: Because she, like some others, together with her husband Alexey Yagudin decided that at the time of the birth of their daughter, stem cells from the umbilical cord blood fluid should be taken and placed in a cryobank. So that they are at hand, in case they are needed.
I have a friend who drinks heavily, a famous artist who, knowing that my colleagues and I are making such a film, asked: "Make a deal, let them take my stem cells. And is it possible to save me from a heavy hangover with their help?"
RG: And can I? Is there an answer to this question in the film?
Nabutov:Unfortunately, no. Not proven. The role of stem cells in the fight against a severe hangover is still being investigated by scientists.
RG: They didn't take off about the most basic. We'll have to do a sequel.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru03.06.2010