Stem Cells

On September 6, 2005, in Stem Cells
Acceleration in the number of news stories about stem cell therapies and related issues warrants a section to itself this month.

  • The looming elderly boom will overwhelm society’s ability to care for them as they deteriorate. Either we let them rot, or we delegate the task to robots, or we find ways to halt, retard, or reverse the deterioration. This latter miracle has just been achievedin cows, but the therapy is unlikely ever to be done in humans in Canada, Australia, Germany, and those US states that have outlawed human therapeutic cloning.
  • A newly discovered potential “master” adult stem cell may work to repair the damage from degenerative brain diseases. Another study in mice has shown that glial cell therapy appears to help repair damaged spinal cords.
  • The scholarly disquiet about adult stem cell treatments in China and Portugal has erupted into outrage over embryonic stem cell treatment trials for heart patientsconducted between Barbados and Ecuador. As Sun CEO Scott McNealy said in a different context (loss of privacy): Get used to it. In point of fact, the Barbados research appears to be trying for a modicum of scientific respectability; but at the end of the day, patients who, rightly or wrongly, feel they have something to gain and nothing to lose will venture out to the bleeding edge.
  • That politicians would misrepresent the science of stem cells, through ignorance or design, is hardly surprising given the political stakes and the complexity of the science. Perhaps a primer would help.

ESC Fountain of Youth

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Bovine embryonic stem cells injected into cows age-equivalent to 80-year-old humans boosted the animals’ immune systems and rejuvenated blood vessels. The scientists who performed the study — from Advanced Cell Technology, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Mayo Clinic — believe injections of human embryonic stem cells would do the same for elderly humans. The technique seems to “reboot” the immune system, said one of the researchers, “which could help patients with autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile diabetes, lupus and inflammatory bowel disease, among others,” reports Wired News.

The embryonic stem cells were obtained from the old animals by cloning them and extracting stem cells from the resulting embryos. In the case of the cows, the embryos were grown by implanting them in host cows; for humans, the same could be achieved in a petri dish, except in Canada, Australia, Germany, and those US states that have outlawed human therapeutic cloning.

Mother of All Stem Cells

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University of Florida scientists think they have identified “the mother of all [adult] stem cells,” in mice at least. Using live-cell microscopy to watch living cells in the brain over long periods of time they were able to identify master cells and then — using a method that could eventually help patients with degenerative brain diseases like Parkinson’s and Huntington’s grow their own brain tissue transplants — they grew the master cells in large batches.

Through the live-cell microscope they actually witnessed the stem cell give rise to new neurons. They can extract and freeze a few cells until needed, then “thaw them, begin a cell-generating process, and produce a ton of new neurons” that could then be used to treat brain disease — and, potentially, cancer.

Stem Cells Mend Spinal Cords in Rats

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Glial restricted precursor cells (stem cells destined to become nerve cells) taken from rat embryos, genetically engineered to produce multineurotrophin growth factor, and implanted into the severed spines of lab rats helped two-thirds of the rats regain some hind limb movement, by stimulating the growth of myelin around the nerve fibers.

Globalization of Stem Cell Research & Treatment

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In June of this year the Institute of Regenerative Medicine in Barbados released results of a study of embryonic stem cell therapy in 10 heart patients. BusinessWeek reported that a US surgeon who helped fund the study described it as “absolutely a milestone.” All 10 patients were said to be showing signs of rapid recovery three months after the treatment, which actually was performed in Ecuador. Compared to treatment with autologous bone marrow cells, the fetal cells appeared to be more effective.

The Institute for Regenerative Medicine supplied the cells and funded the study. It offers fetal stem cells for a US$25,000 fee for indications from aging to spinal cord injury.

Outrage by some in the US medical community at their compatriots and colleagues involved in the offshore work is clear in this outburst by one researcher: “I regard them [the people involved in the Barbados/Ecuador work] as intellectually weak and reckless at best and cowards and exploiters at worst,” and “Until they are published in a peer-reviewed mainstream journal, they do not exist.”

Polemics evidently does not stop them. Wired News reports that “A handful of similar clinics are operating in underdeveloped countries, including Medra in the Dominican Republic.” The Barbados institute intends to fund trials in spinal cord injury, diabetes and diabetic retinopathy over the next year, its CEO told Wired.

ESC vs. ASC

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According to a May article in Wired News, US Congressional opponents of research into embryonic stem cell therapy, including Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Florida) and Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Georgia, a physician), have been mis-attributing to adult stem cells the promising but scientifically unproven results of treatment of spinal cord injuries with injections of nasal mucosa. The evidence in fact points to olfactory glial cells as the likely agent.

Such tactics were not enough, however, to prevent 50 Republicans from breaking with President Bush and House leaders and voting with an overwhelming number of Democrats to repeal the Bush restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, by a 238 to 194 vote. The bill has strong Senate support, but Bush has said he would veto the bill.

A Primer

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What are embryonic stem cells? Why do scientists want to use stem cells? What’s the difference between adult and embryonic stem cells? etc. Wired News has provided a “crash course,” in the form of frequently asked questions and their answers, about stem cells that is well worth reading if you don’t know much about them.

 

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