Stem Cell Research Breakthru ????
My personal opionion of the "ethical question " concerning stem cell research ( as well as the other "break through" technologies ) is that it is NOT primarily about the ethics- it's about the money.
Finding instant cures to devastating diseases -tho it would save countless lives- would send a LOT of rich people straight to the poor house.
I predict "ethical questions " and other delays to abound until it is figured out how to make a lot of money from these break through technologies.
From a health/fitness ezine:
Real Progress in Use of Stem Cells
While the politics and ethics of embryonic stem cell research is debated, there is a potential alternate source that may be nearly as promising but far less controversial -- stem cells derived from the umbilical cord blood of newborns. Research on it is actively taking place, but it's hardly as simple as "oh, let's do that instead." Any kind of stem cell research is extremely complex, including cord blood stem cell research.
A highly simplified walk through stem cell research...
Embryonic stem cells are valued because they are unspecialized. In other words, their use is not yet determined (they are pluripotent) and they could develop (differentiate) into a cell for one of 130 different tissues in the body.
The idea behind regenerative and reparative medicine is for science to allow stem cells to develop into specific types that can be used for specific treatments -- for example, insulin cells for treating diabetes, brain (neuron) cells for treating Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, and the like -- and then transplant them into humans. Furthermore, embryonic stem cells also have the ability to self-regenerate or make many identical copies of themselves for a period of time. Scientists already are using the cells' self-regeneration to create what are called stem cell lines, large single-source reservoirs of the cells. However, much more research remains to answer challenges of how to keep embryonic stem cells in their unspecialized state for long periods... how to identify and replicate the signals that will cause them to differentiate into the specialized cell type desired... and how to avoid potential cell transplant rejection once transplanted into a human body.
THE STATE OF CORD CELL USE
David McKenna, MD, is assistant professor of laboratory medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School and the assistant medical director of the American Red Cross Cord Blood Program. I called him to find out more about stem cells derived from cord blood and if it appears that these cells will deliver at the hoped-for level. He tells me that cord blood stem cells have been used medically for more than a decade, but for one purpose only -- transplantation into bone marrow of patients with blood cancers (leukemia and lymphoma) as well as rare blood disorders. Indeed, the first cord blood stem cell transplantation took place in the late 1980s, on a young boy in France being treated for a rare blood disorder. (He survived and is still alive.) It didn't take long for cord blood stem cells to become more popular than traditional bone marrow for transplantation, and in the early 1990s, cord blood banks began, the private ones appealing to parents to "bank" their newborn's blood in case of a future dread illness. (Dr. McKenna suggests all women who deliver in hospitals and are capable of collecting cord blood consider donating it to public banks if they are not interested in paying for years of storage in a private bank).
DO CORD CELLS HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?
Although promising, two questions continued to exist about cord cells' broadscale usefulness...
Are cord blood stem cells immature such that they are capable of eventually differentiating into a wide variety of tissues?
Do cord blood stem cells have the ability to turn into cells or tissue representative of all three layers of the blastocyst? Only cells that have this ability can differentiate into the complete range of cells, including fat cells, bone cells, muscle, neural stem cells, liver and pancreas precursor cells.
The answer came recently when a Minnesota biomedical research firm called BioE isolated a type of cell in the cord blood called a multi-lineage progenitor cell (MLPC). MLPCs are immature enough to be used for differentiation and -- another bonus -- they have the ability to differentiate into cells/tissue representing all three layers. This finding gives cord blood stem cell research an important boost, says Dr. McKenna.
While embryonic stem cells continue to be the gold standard, there is now reason to think that cord stem cells might have some additional advantages over embryonic cells in addition to resolving ethical issues. Within cord stem cells there are some that have just begun the process of differentiating. Differentiated cells were long thought to be a serious hindrance to cell therapy, but scientists are discovering that they might, in fact, be advantageous. Dr. McKenna says that if more mature cells exist in the mix -- they are already starting to differentiate into the desired cell line, such as cardiac, pancreatic islet or many others -- this may work in the patient's favor. However, it remains to be determined in further preclinical studies.
In the meantime, the potential use of cord stem cells grows. At the University of South Florida, researchers administered human cord blood cells to rats two days after they had a stroke. This greatly curbed inflammatory response in the brain, reduced size of the stroke, and improved recovery -- the rats began to function normally again despite the damage their brains had incurred. Dr. McKenna notes that stroke and other neurodegenerative problems are areas that are ripe with possibility for cord blood therapy and adds that other centers around the country are actively researching cord blood stem cell use for other physiological problems and pharmaceutical drug testing purposes as well. He anticipates that we may well see a wider application of these cells' use in humans in a few years' time.
Finding instant cures to devastating diseases -tho it would save countless lives- would send a LOT of rich people straight to the poor house.
I predict "ethical questions " and other delays to abound until it is figured out how to make a lot of money from these break through technologies.
From a health/fitness ezine:
Real Progress in Use of Stem Cells
While the politics and ethics of embryonic stem cell research is debated, there is a potential alternate source that may be nearly as promising but far less controversial -- stem cells derived from the umbilical cord blood of newborns. Research on it is actively taking place, but it's hardly as simple as "oh, let's do that instead." Any kind of stem cell research is extremely complex, including cord blood stem cell research.
A highly simplified walk through stem cell research...
Embryonic stem cells are valued because they are unspecialized. In other words, their use is not yet determined (they are pluripotent) and they could develop (differentiate) into a cell for one of 130 different tissues in the body.
The idea behind regenerative and reparative medicine is for science to allow stem cells to develop into specific types that can be used for specific treatments -- for example, insulin cells for treating diabetes, brain (neuron) cells for treating Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, and the like -- and then transplant them into humans. Furthermore, embryonic stem cells also have the ability to self-regenerate or make many identical copies of themselves for a period of time. Scientists already are using the cells' self-regeneration to create what are called stem cell lines, large single-source reservoirs of the cells. However, much more research remains to answer challenges of how to keep embryonic stem cells in their unspecialized state for long periods... how to identify and replicate the signals that will cause them to differentiate into the specialized cell type desired... and how to avoid potential cell transplant rejection once transplanted into a human body.
THE STATE OF CORD CELL USE
David McKenna, MD, is assistant professor of laboratory medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School and the assistant medical director of the American Red Cross Cord Blood Program. I called him to find out more about stem cells derived from cord blood and if it appears that these cells will deliver at the hoped-for level. He tells me that cord blood stem cells have been used medically for more than a decade, but for one purpose only -- transplantation into bone marrow of patients with blood cancers (leukemia and lymphoma) as well as rare blood disorders. Indeed, the first cord blood stem cell transplantation took place in the late 1980s, on a young boy in France being treated for a rare blood disorder. (He survived and is still alive.) It didn't take long for cord blood stem cells to become more popular than traditional bone marrow for transplantation, and in the early 1990s, cord blood banks began, the private ones appealing to parents to "bank" their newborn's blood in case of a future dread illness. (Dr. McKenna suggests all women who deliver in hospitals and are capable of collecting cord blood consider donating it to public banks if they are not interested in paying for years of storage in a private bank).
DO CORD CELLS HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?
Although promising, two questions continued to exist about cord cells' broadscale usefulness...
Are cord blood stem cells immature such that they are capable of eventually differentiating into a wide variety of tissues?
Do cord blood stem cells have the ability to turn into cells or tissue representative of all three layers of the blastocyst? Only cells that have this ability can differentiate into the complete range of cells, including fat cells, bone cells, muscle, neural stem cells, liver and pancreas precursor cells.
The answer came recently when a Minnesota biomedical research firm called BioE isolated a type of cell in the cord blood called a multi-lineage progenitor cell (MLPC). MLPCs are immature enough to be used for differentiation and -- another bonus -- they have the ability to differentiate into cells/tissue representing all three layers. This finding gives cord blood stem cell research an important boost, says Dr. McKenna.
While embryonic stem cells continue to be the gold standard, there is now reason to think that cord stem cells might have some additional advantages over embryonic cells in addition to resolving ethical issues. Within cord stem cells there are some that have just begun the process of differentiating. Differentiated cells were long thought to be a serious hindrance to cell therapy, but scientists are discovering that they might, in fact, be advantageous. Dr. McKenna says that if more mature cells exist in the mix -- they are already starting to differentiate into the desired cell line, such as cardiac, pancreatic islet or many others -- this may work in the patient's favor. However, it remains to be determined in further preclinical studies.
In the meantime, the potential use of cord stem cells grows. At the University of South Florida, researchers administered human cord blood cells to rats two days after they had a stroke. This greatly curbed inflammatory response in the brain, reduced size of the stroke, and improved recovery -- the rats began to function normally again despite the damage their brains had incurred. Dr. McKenna notes that stroke and other neurodegenerative problems are areas that are ripe with possibility for cord blood therapy and adds that other centers around the country are actively researching cord blood stem cell use for other physiological problems and pharmaceutical drug testing purposes as well. He anticipates that we may well see a wider application of these cells' use in humans in a few years' time.
posted by Jack Savage at 7:18 PM
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