Hwang convicted of fraud in cloning ruse

A South Korean court has convicted the perpetrator of the 2005 cloning fraud. Information here. 

Texas Legislators Seek to Limit Funds for Human Embryo Destruction

Senator Steve Ogden is a Texas Hero!

Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, though, said critics exaggerate what his 24-word "budget rider" would do. He said it simply assures that the budget's $700 million for research doesn't underwrite destruction of embryos.

"There is a significant moral concern amongst many Texans that a human embryo really meets every scientific definition of human life that's out there and that we shouldn't be using human embryos for scientific experiments," Ogden said.

The dispute flared early last week. The Senate Finance Committee, which Ogden heads, took only two minutes late Monday to consider his rider. It says, "No funds appropriated under this act shall be used in conjunction with or to support research which involves the destruction of a human embryo."

The provision was adopted, 6-5, with Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, joining four Democrats against.

The Dallas Morning News reports (free registration required) that some Texas embryonic research advocates claim this move will "embarrass" Texas. Of course, they also claim that embryonic stem cell research only involves "embryos that would be discarded, any way" Since we know that much of the research involves specially created, "disease specific" embryos, the latter is false.

And so is the first objection. Every week, we are reading about new ways to reprogram adult cells to achieve the stem cells that are needed to study and treat disease without ever going near an embryo. Former proponents of embryonic research and producers of new embryos for stem cell research like George Daley are switching their focus toward non-embryonic research. Texas researchers have been early stars in this research, among the first to using umbilical cord blood for stem cell research.

Texas doesn't need to waste our money following the false trail of embryonic stem cell research when there is so much promise in more treatments, sooner, from non-destructive and non-embryonic research.

Clues to how blood stem cells become activated (adult stem cells)

The National Institute of Health has a news release about research done with NIH funding. The researchers explored how hematopoietic or blood cell producing adult stem cells are activated. The NIH article is very detailed, but easy to read and understand. An adaptation of the press release is at Science Daily.

The research article was published in Nature Cell Biology. (The abstract is free, the article can be purchased by non subscribers, for $18. I think this will be one of the articles that will eventually be published for free, since the research was Federally funded.)

From the NIH Press release:

For Immediate Release
Wednesday, March 25, 2009

E-mail this page
Subscribe Contact:
Robert Bock or Marianne Glass Miller
301-496-5133

Researchers Decipher Blood Stem Cell Attachment, Communication
Finding Has Implications for Leukemia Treatment, Artificially Culturing Blood Cells

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have deciphered a key sequence of events governing whether the stem cells that produce red and white blood cells remain anchored to the bone marrow, or migrate into the circulatory system.

An understanding of the factors that govern migration of blood stem cells might lead to improved treatment of leukemia, a cancer that affects circulating white blood cells. The findings also have implications for culturing infection-fighting immune cells outside the body, where they could be temporarily held in storage during chemotherapy and other treatments which suppress the immune system. Moreover, the findings could contribute to a strategy for growing large quantities of red blood cells in laboratory dishes outside the body, to reduce the need for blood donations.

Previously, researchers thought that the cellular environment in which the stem cells reside produced the chemical signals that determined whether the cells would be stationary or free–floating. The current study provides evidence that the stem cells produce chemical signals of their own that may, in turn, influence the chemical signals they receive from their environment.

"This important discovery will advance our understanding of how blood cells and immune cells are generated," said Duane Alexander, M.D., director of the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

The findings were published on line in Nature Cell Biology. The study was conducted in the laboratory of Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, Chief of the NICHD Section on Organelle Biology. The study’s first author was Jennifer Gillette, also of the Section on Organelle Biology. Other authors were Andre Larochelle and Cynthia E. Dunbar of the Hematology Branch of NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Dr. Gillette explained that hematopoetic progenitor stem cells — the cells which give rise to red blood cells and immune cells — travel between the bloodstream and the bone marrow. Within the bone marrow, they anchor themselves in place by attaching to bone marrow cells called osteoblasts.

Other studies have shown that osteoblasts secrete a substance that acts as a chemical signal that regulates the attachment of the stem cells. Large amounts of the chemical, which is known as SDF-1 (stromal cell derived factor-1), cause the stem cells to leave the bone marrow and enter the bloodstream. A small, continuous pulse of SDF-1, however, attracts the stem cells and results in their attachment to the osteoblasts.

In laboratory cultures, Dr. Gillette and her coworkers incubated unattached stem cells with osteoblasts. As the stem cells approached the osteoblasts, they developed long, tentacle-like projections, called uropods. The uropods attached to the surface of the osteoblasts. Then, a small portion of a uropod was absorbed inside an osteoblast. The uropod material was eventually sealed inside an endosome — a tiny balloon–like structure within the cell. After the osteoblasts absorbed the uropod material, they began producing SDF-1.

Dr. Gillette noted it appeared to be the stem cell material that stimulated the osteoblast to produce SDF-1, the substance that causes the stem cell to remain attached to the osteoblast or migrate into the blood.

"Our study indicates that stem cells may actually be able to manipulate the signals that they receive from their environment," Dr. Gillette said. "Stem cells seem to have a little more control than we thought."

Obama will fund more losing embryonic stem cell research (New Yellow Brick Award to the President)

Just days after we hear about functioning induced Pluripotent stem cells from adult skin cells, cells that can produce dopamine, the proteins missing in Parkinson's disease, we read that President Obama is going to overturn the limits on funding for embryonic stem cell research. Despite the fact that these cells match the patient because they come from the patient, that they will be cheaper, more accessible and we believe have less risk of causing cancer, this Monday morning, the 9th of March, 2009, the White House plans a quiet ceremony to sign the Executive Order.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road, Mr. President. The great embryonic Oz will get you home. Do not look behind the curtain, ignore that little man.

"Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kinda cool!" (Thank you, Paul Begala.) We've been trying to spend a Trillion dollars every 10 days in the Obama administration. Let's just throw more good money after bad.

Typical of the news articles, is this one, from the US News and World Report, entitled (sigh)"Obama to End Stem Cell Ban Monday
Researchers applaud his action, which is expected to kick-start efforts to unlock therapeutic potential."

I recommend that you read that link above, in order to compare reality with what the proponents of destructive embryonic stem cell research believe.

The article is so full of holes. The title and first paragraph say "ban." There never was a ban. Ask Daley and Melton of Harvard who have been creating embryos for destruction to harvest the parts.

And then, there's this gem of an emotional non sequitor, I'm afraid from my State of Texas:

"It's going to remove an embarrassment for American science," said Dr. Darwin Prockop, director of the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Scott & White Hospital in Temple, said in February. "It's a statement that we're going to again believe in science."

Prockup must have been teased too much about his name as a child. Seriously, who among us stopped and now started to believe in science again?

We are not behind, we are not embarrassed, unless it's in imposing regulations. Even the "Progressives" are calling for more restrictions. The UK has more regulations on regenerative medicine and embryonic research than the US. France, Germany and Israel have similar limits on funding. Germany, at one time had criminal charges and fines attached to their ban.

CIRM has $3 Billion which must be spent on cloning and embryonic stem cell research. Their "Strategic Plan?" (This is a pdf, for a review, read this article at the CIRM website.) One cure and 2 trials in ten years. Who thinks the US is going to top their billions in embryonic research, when results with induced Stem Cells are bounding ahead?

Oh, I know, CIRM thinks the NIH should buy their $400 Million in bonds, this year. No one else wants the losing proposition.

Non-embryonic stem cells to cure Parkinson's?

The journal, Cell, has published an article (free abstract, full article and supplements for purchase) on patient-derived induced Pleuripotent Stem Cells (iPSC's) that appear to be brain neurons that produce dopamine, which is lacking in Parkinson's patients.

Besides being derived from the patient's own skin cells (they won't be rejected and are cheaper and more accessible to more of us than embryonic), and being non-destructive (no embryos destroyed - and, did I say, cheaper and more accessible?), these iPSC's were derived using viruses that can be purposefully, and apparently, fully removed from the culture.

The plans apparently are to use the cells to study the disease. However, with the history of the debate over this disease, I wouldn't be surprised to see them used to treat the donors' Parkinson's disease very soon. Parkinson's is so devastating to patients and their families that several attempts to use brain transplants of aborted embryonic and fetal tissues have been used on real patients, with disastrous results. These iPSC's should be safer than fetal tissues.

AMA: "People aren't going to waste time on Embryonic Stem Cells, anymore"

A member of the "lobby group Comment on Reproductive Ethics" maintains that there are "some scientists who like to hold on to what they've got, but" she doesn't "think people are going to waste time on embryonic stem cells any more."

(Josephine Quintanelle, quoted in the Guardian, 3/1/09)

The American Medical Association sends its members a "Morning Rounds" email with the latest headlines on science and medicine. The articles have more links than my posts and the editors seem to choose that days' big story.

Today's big story is that the Washington Post (free registration required) reports on a from a Letter to the journal, Nature. Two groups of scientists, one from Toronto (Andras Nagy, from the University of Toronto) and another from Edinburgh (Dr Keisuke Kaji, at the Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh) have found a way to make skin cells transform into embryonic-like stem cells without using viruses.

This should lead to a cheaper way for people to have their own cells transformed into therapies. Farther down the line, it could help us treat disease and injury -and aging - in place, by inducing repair where it's needed and without transplants. On the other hand, if we use embryonic stem cells, it would be necessary to make a clone of each person or find some sort of universal donor cell that would not be rejected. The previous way of reprogramming cells to an embryonic stage used viruses that could not be removed and which have the potential to cause cancer if left in the DNA of the cells.

The scientists used human fibroblasts - a type of skin cell - which were treated with a "jumping gene" from a cabbage looper moth, that inserts itself into chromosomes along with the genes that "reprogram" the fibroblast -- then, the extra gene can be removed.

From the Post, a very clear description.

The alternative cells, known as induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, appear to have many of the same characteristics as embryonic stem cells but are produced by activating genes in adult cells to "reprogram" them into a more primitive state, bypassing the moral, political and ethical issues surrounding embryonic cells. Until now, however, their use has been limited because the genetic manipulation required the use of viruses, raising concerns the cells could cause cancer if placed in a patient. That has triggered a race to develop alternative approaches.

"These viral insertions are quite dangerous," Nagy said.

In the new work, Nagy and his colleagues in Toronto and at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland instead used a sequence of DNA known as a transposon, which can insert itself into the genetic machinery of a cell. In this case, the researchers used a transposon called "piggyBac" to carry four genes that can transform mouse and human embryonic skin cells into iPS cells. After the conversion took place, the moth gene, called "piggybac" lost its ability to insert itself into the chromosomes of the cells and "disappear" or can be removed.

"PiggyBac carries the four genes into the cells and reprograms the cells into stem cells. After they have reprogrammed the cells, they are no longer required, and in fact they are dangerous," Nagy said. "After they do their job they can be removed seamlessly, with no trace left behind. The ability for seamless removal opens up a huge possibility."

Unfortunately, for some reason the scientists used (non-stem) fibroblast cells from embyros as the cells that are reprogrammed, so the research is being repeated in cells from non-embryonic sources.

Other news articles on the breakthrough are at BBC News, Nature News,
AFP, Financial Times, the Candian Press, the Guardian and the Globe and Mail.

Human-animal embryos don't work for stem cell production

The New Scientist has a good review article that explains a new research report from Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology, that attempts with "thousands" of embryos created by placing human DNA into the oocytes or eggs of animals have failed to produce stem cells. NatureNews, the news arm of the journal, Nature discusses the report, here.

The abstract of the article, "Reprogramming of Human Somatic Cells Using Human and Animal Oocytes" published in Cloning and Stem Cells, is available here. The list of researchers is very long and they are from several different laboratories.

Each of the news articles above includes statements from researchers who do not believe that human-animal cloned embryos are a dead-end for stem cell researchers. However, the confirmation of the outcome from several labs, with different researchers, is strong evidence that it is unlikely that this technique is a reasonable way to produce "patient specific" stem cells - those that are an exact match for the donor of the DNA.

I have not read the actual article, yet, but from the news articles and the abstract, it appears that the "cybrids" do express the genes of the donor DNA and are clones of the donor. However, while enucleated human oocytes are able to reprogram the DNA of the donor to result in embryos that divide to the stage at which it is possible to harvest embryonic stem cells, the emptied eggs of cows and rabbits do not. The cybrids only divide to about the 16 cell stage and do not turn on the genes responsible for pleuripotency, or "stem-cell-ness."

See my Update, written after I read the report.

Adult stem cells in MS for reversal

In Multiple Sclerosis (MS), the immune system of a patient turns on his or her nervous system, destroying the myelin sheaths that serve as insulation around nerves, disrupting the transmission of nerve signals. The myelin damage often occurs in a patchy manner, at first. See the Medline Plus page from the National Institutes for Health for more information, including a patient tutorial in English and in Spanish. The Journal of the American Medical Association has a similar patient education page in pdf.

There have been trials using adult stem cell treatments in the form of bone marrow transplants and injection of adult stem cells in different manners for several years. (See ClinicalTrial.gov for some of these - if my search lapses, search "stem cell multiple sclerosis.)

The March issue of Lancet Neurobiology reports (Free access to the abstract) success from research at Northwestern University using the patients' own bone marrow stem cells, after harvesting those cells, preserving them, and then using chemotherapy to destroy the immune system before replacing the patient's stem cells. A review of the study is at the Science Daily and at this blog, Science Codex.

Here's the information on this trial from Clinical Trials.gov.

Any sort of bone marrow transplant is dangerous due to the lost red blood cells, platelets (to make blood clots), and the white blood cells that function as the immune system. This trial was set up to preserve all but the immune system. While it's still not a procedure to take lightly, it appears that the researchers at Northwestern have made it safer.

Fox builds hen house

In the same set of news alerts that notified me of the Vatican's condemnation of cloning and embryonic stem cell research, I read that Insoo Hyun is the lead author of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Guidelines for the Clinical Translation of Stem Cells.

The Guidelines are also published on line at Cell Stem Cell and, along with a patient handbook and other supporting material, is available at the ISSCR website. Here is the link to the page containing links to pdf of the Guidelines, patient handbook, and other materials. That page also links to the Stem Cell Cell article.

The story in the Australian blurs the differences between destructive embryonic stem cell research and the non-destructive, ethical forms such as induced pluripotent stem cell research and adult stem cell research. The focus is on the former, detailing long anticipated (but not yet begun) phase 1 embryonic stem cell research, without mentioning on-going trials or previous achievements using the non-controversial cells.

The ISSCR in general and Dr. Hyun in particular, are very much advocates of embryonic stem cell research and cloning for research. Also on his task force were Laurie Zoloth and George Daley, both strong advocates of embryonic stem cell research. Daley has worked to create embryos slated for destruction in his own Harvard lab, although he has focused on non-destructive research, recently.

Dr. Hyun has a Ph.D. in bioethics and is on the faculty at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio. He has focused on cloning research, and his early work included assisting the Clinton Administration's National Bioethics Advisory Committee (that would have been along with Obama transition team members, Jonathan Moreno and Robin Alta Charo) on their "secular" article on cloning. He went to South Korea with Hu Suk Wu in order to study the effects of cloning research on the Koreans - before the Korean was exposed as a fraud.

I wonder whether there was even one member of the ISSCR team who considers embryonic stem cell destruction unethical? And how soon will Dr. Hyun join his former colleagues in DC?

"Tea-bag" Adult Stem Cell Treatment for Stroke

British researchers report an amazing recovery for a 49 year old man who suffered a hemorrhagic stroke on October 15, 2008. The researchers at the company, "Biocompatibles," used adult stem cells from a healthy donor. The cells had been engineered to cause them to produce a protein that helps prevent "programmed" cell death (even after the bleeding stops and the pressure is removed) and embedded in tiny beads that had been sewn up in a cloth "tea-bag."

From the press release, published on the Medical News Today Neurology and Neuroscience website:

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death in the elderly population in the developed world. The incidence rate has been reported as 145 per 100,000. Hemorrhagic stroke is responsible for ~15 to 20% of all stroke and it is the least treatable form of stroke. It is associated with the highest morbidity and mortality rate of all stroke with only 44% of affected patients surviving the first 30 days. Only 20% of these survivors regain functional independence. The cascade of events starts with the sudden rupture of a blood vessel in the brain, causing haemorrhage and pressure inside the skull. Surgery may be used to relieve the pressure; but the haemorrhage causes a longer-term process of programmed cell death, or apoptosis, and it is this that causes the lasting neurological damage.

The CellBeads™ are delivered directly to the injury site during the surgery. They are programmed to deliver CM1, a proprietary version of a naturally occurring protein, GLP-1, which has been shown to have powerful anti-apoptotic effects. The delivery mechanism is a cluster of human adult mesenchymal stem cells obtained from a healthy donor and encapsulated in alginate beads. The cells are genetically engineered to produce the protein, which is delivered continuously, directly to the injury site. The alginate beads protect the stem cells from the body's immune system, which would otherwise destroy the foreign cells. CellBeads™ are transplanted within a retrievable mesh device and are removed completely after a treatment period of 14 days. Retrieval of the implant prevents possible long-term side effects from the transplanted cells.

The research is a "Phase I/II" trial, which means that the doctors and scientists are actually testing the safety of the treatment, and not the actual effectiveness of the treatment, itself. In other words, "does the treatment do more harm than good."

The CEO of Biocompatibles, Crispin Simon (that name is as British as tea bags), spoke to a Reuters reporter for a story published at Forbes online, stressing that the patient is young and other wise healthy, and had the standard of care for hemorrhagic strokes, surgery to relieve the pressure from the blood on the cells around the stroke. 10% to 20% of patients have similar recovery, without the Biocompatible beads.

Still, the report is a welcome source of hope for anyone who has watched and waited helplessly after a patient or a loved one had a hemorrhagic stroke.

Trash from Reuters on Stem Cells

Just read the first two sentences of this article.

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Stem cells from tiny embryos can be used to restore lost hearing and vision in animals, researchers said Tuesday in what they believe is a first step toward helping people.

One team repaired hearing in guinea pigs using human bone marrow stem cells, while another grew functioning eyes in tadpoles using frog cells.

What a disgrace! The second sentence/paragraph tells us the sources of the stem cells: (mesenchymal) bone marrow stem cells, which are adult stem cells and frog cells. There are no embryos or embryonic stem cells used in either experiment.

Here is a much better article on the frog's eye cells from pleuripotent (not embryonic) stem cells, at Science Daily:

Under normal conditions, pluripotent frog cells form only skin tissue. The scientists were able, however, to convert the pluripotent cells to retinal cells by forcing them to express the eye field transcription factor (or EFTF) genes. The reprogrammed cells formed all seven classes of retinal cells normally found in the eyes, including the retinal ganglion cells, which have axons (optic nerves) that extend to the brain.

Furthermore, these new cells eventually formed into functioning eyes. When tested, tadpoles used their induced eyes to detect light and to engage in a vision‑based behavior. The scientists also found a population of self‑renewing cells in the periphery of the induced retinas, suggesting that EFTF‑induced cells also formed adult retinal stem cells.

Click here to let the Reuters editors know they need to fix this story.

Many Adult Stem Cell Treatments in the News

This week, we've heard about a the new "bandages" for torn knee cartilages and hope for a collagen fibers made using nanotechnology.

Animal treatments for joint disease and injury are common in horses and the treatments for dogs are now being advertised by private veterinarians in Oklahoma.

The research is ongoing in humans, too.

From the BBC, an article on the first organ regenerated from the patient's own stem cells and transplanted

Scientists in Spain have carried out the world's first tissue-engineered whole organ transplant - a windpipe - made with a patient's own stem cells.

The groundbreaking technology also means for the first time tissue transplants can be carried out without the need for anti-rejection drugs.

Five months on the patient is in perfect health, The Lancet reports.

Osiris, a company that has been developing treatments developed from adult stem cells, announced earlier this month that it is making a profit and that the rights to sell 2 treatments:

Prochymal is being evaluated in Phase III clinical trials for three indications, including acute and steroid refractory Graft versus Host Disease and also Crohn's disease, and is the only stem cell therapeutic currently designated by FDA as both an Orphan Drug and Fast Track product. Osiris also has partnered with Genzyme Corporation to develop Prochymal as a medical countermeasure to nuclear terrorism and other radiological emergencies. Furthermore, Prochymal is being developed for the repair of heart tissue following a heart attack, the protection of pancreatic islet cells in patients with type 1 diabetes, and the repair of lung tissue in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The Company's pipeline of internally developed biologic drug candidates under evaluation also includes Chondrogen for arthritis in the knee.

(There's more on Osiris from the Washington Post, here.)


Way back in 2006, we heard about bladders grown for patients from adult stem cells and transplanted. The transplants were actually done in 1999 but the news came out about the time that Dr. Ayala was in the news for his work with Umbilical Cord stem cells.

The (manufactured) Stem Cell Debate at Dartmouth

I don't believe I've ever seen a report on a presentation that allowed half the space for "debate," after the fact.

The Stem Cell Debate at Dartmouth

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D. was recently invited to give a lecture entitled “Stem Cells and Cloning: Understanding the Scientific Issues and the Moral Objections” at Aquinas House, in observance of the Feast of St. Luke, the patron saint of medical professionals. Pacholczyk, or Father Tad as he encourages his audience members to call him, is the Director of Education for the National Catholic Bioethics Center. He arrived at this position after receiving degrees in philosophy, biochemistry, molecular cell biology, and chemistry, a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Yale University, and years of research in molecular biology, bioethics, and dogmatic theology. In a free public lecture lasting more than two hours, Pacholczyk outlined both the scientific and ethical considerations of human embryonic stem cell research and to a lesser extent cloning, giving justifications for the Catholic Church’s positions on these technologies.

After giving an in depth layman’s version of the science involved in stem cell research and a history of both scientific milestones and relevant policy decisions, Pacholczyk corrected what he believed were some of the most pervasive myths about stem cell research. He believes that individuals and organizations within the media and others who engage in expensive advertising campaigns have deliberately misled the American people in an effort to reframe the debate over the use of human embryos for research.

**************
The Dartmouth Review understands that this is an issue on which reasonable moral people can disagree, and so Michael S. Gazzaniga ‘61, Ph.D., Director of the Sage Center for the Study of Mind at the University of California, Santa Barbara was asked to explain some of the ethical justifications. He indicated that, “The handling of human tissue has always commanded the respect of the biomedical community and always will.” However, Gazzaniga does not consider an embryo to be in possession of the same moral status as an adult human, while acknowledging that the issue has “deep meaning to millions of people.”

The Review has raised several ethics questions regarding the virtual debate they created by interviewing Dr. Gazzaniga after Dr. Pacholczyk's talk.

Will they seek out opposing views in the future or is it only Catholic priests who require such answers? Will they now give Dr. Pacholczyk an opportunity to respond?

In addition, Dr. Gazzaniga finds the determination as to when a human being becomes a human being fairly simplistic:

Asked the basic question underlying this debate and that about abortion, when a human embryo becomes a human being, Gazzaniga called it a “social decision, not unlike the kind a society makes about when to call someone legally blind.”

Does Dr. Gazzaniga's emphasis on contrasting "adult" human beings with embryonic human beings indicate that he finds differing moral values in the lives of infants, children, and "adults," does he extend these differences to the state of function of the brain, and can he justify these variations at least as well as we can our culture's definition of "legally blind?"

Charo: No "Presidential sleight of hand" on stem cells

"The Wicker-Dickey Amendment cannot be changed by Presidential sleight of hand or wave of pen."

R. Alta Charo, World Stem Cell Summit, Madison Wisconsin, September, 2008 See video, at time marker 11:18/01:01:29.

John Podesta, the founder of the Center for American Progress and the leader of the transitional team for the newly invented "Office of the President Elect,"
told Chris Matthews of Fox News Sunday (transcript here) that Barack Obama intends to do what he can to change the US policy on "stem cells" by the use of the Presidential Executive Order (EO).

In light of current law (the Dickey Amendment) and regulations that seem to require legislation such as that vetoed by President Bush last year, some may join me in wondering how much the new President will actually be able to accomplish by the use of EO's.

In fact, according to one of the original members of the CAP's Progressive Bioethics initiative, R. Alta Charo, a lawyer with quite a bit of experience in this sort of law, it won't be as easy as Mr. Podesta said. Ms. Charo made the statement above as a keynote speaker for the program at that World Stem Cell Summit that I mentioned in September.

Videos of much of the program can be found here.

While searching for information on the current laws on embryonic stem cells, I found this blog, "World Stem Cell Summit 2008," . Blogger Kate Willet summarized the proceedings in an unofficial capacity. From the parts I've watched, her impressions on the program and speakers as it happened are fairly accurate.

The real-time video of R. Alta Charo's talk is here, and the paraphrased report is here.

Induced Pluripotent stem cells without viruses

"The adenovirus will infect the cells but then will clear themselves from the cells. After a few cell divisions there are no traces of the virus in the cell," Hochedlinger said. "You can't tell the virus was ever there."

Science Magazine has published a report on induced Pluripotent (iPS) stem cells from liver cells (hepatacytes) that do not show any trace of the viruses initially used to cause the regression from adult cells to embryonic-like stem cells. The report, by Hochedlinger's group at Massachusetts Gener al Hospital and Harvard, is behind a pay-wall, but there is a review here at the Washington Post.

The simple explanation is that viruses are used to carry copies of genes that turn on proteins which cause the cells to divide and produce embryonic-like stem cells. Prior research used viruses that might become permanently inserted into the DNA of the cells. These viruses did not cause an infection in the culture because the viruses used were not good at causing themselves to be reproduced or inserting themselves into neighboring cells. However, because they inserted themselves into the DNA, there was a risk that the cells could become mutated or even cause tumors due to the abnormal DNA that resulted. In the case of Hochedlinger's cells, the adenovirus used does not insert into the DNA nearly as often, and when it does, the cell is able to repair the DNA in subsequent copies of the DNA as it reproduces the nucleus of the cell in order to divide to become two cells.

The cells are infected, they change because of the infection, but their granddaughters are able to get rid of the infection, while continuing to act like embryonic stem cells instead of grown up liver cells. The new "adeno-iPS" cells pass all the tests for "stemness."

Just think, no need for egg cells, no cloning, no destruction of embryos, and we're one step closer to healing within the body - to learning how to heal without transplant rejection or tumors due to the treatment. One day, we may be able to regenerate organs and tissues in place, as needed.

The Stem Cell Debate Heats Up

Here's a great review about those new "induced pleuripotent stem cells" (iPS) we've been hearing about. iPS's are truly "patient specific stem cells" since they come from the patient himself or herself. The cells are manipulated in the lab, using viral particles and specific environments to make the able to become many different types of cells.

It would be very difficult, in my opinion, to make these cells become embryos, with all the structures that would allow them to function as individual organisms. From what I understand, the cells return to a state that allows them to become tissues with several different types of cells and cell groups, but they are never organized.

In my opinion (again), the induction process can't be more of a problem than the risk of immune rejection and the manipulations that embryos derived from In Vitro fertilization go through or the changes that are bound to be inherent with cloned cells derived through Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. On the other hand, volunteers and tissue samples for IPC experiments ought to be abundant.

And no one has to die for it.

Meningitis damage repaired with adult stem cells

A 20 year old young man from Bedford, Texas was about to lose his arms and legs due to the clotting of blood in his vessels caused by meningitis but no longer.

The treatment involved doctors and technicians at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Florida, Israel and the Dominican Republic, and one aunt with a computer search.

(While it's wonderful that this young man was rescued, I can't help but wonder how many other experiments are going on in other countries, led by US doctors. Remember that Dr. Wilkerson of Houston did his first experiments using adult stem cells in Brazil.)

From the Fort Worth Star Telegram (Free subscription required):

Lampkin's medical odyssey has taken him from his home in Bedford to a hospital in an island country for a treatment the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved.

Sudden onset
It began when Lampkin, a freshman attending Cisco Junior College on an athletic scholarship, returned home for spring break.

That Friday he was fine. But on Saturday while visiting friends, he complained of having a headache and went to bed early, said Michelle Gideon, Lampkin's godmother.

The next morning -- Easter Sunday -- she found him lying on a bedroom floor.

"One side of his face looked totally normal, but the other side was swollen and looked like he had chickenpox," she recalled.

Lampkin was rushed to Harris Methodist H.E.B. Hospital, where he was treated for bacterial meningitis. Those chickenpoxlike spots were signs of clots cutting off blood flow.

Antibiotics helped stabilize Lampkin, who was transferred to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas.

There doctors planned to amputate his legs at the knees and his arms at the elbows.

But an aunt searched the Internet for other treatments and found Grekos, who was using adult stem cells to stimulate tissue regrowth, improve circulation and reduce diabetic amputation rates. Grekos, director of cardiology and vascular disease at Regenocyte Therapeutic in Florida, flew to Dallas to escort Lampkin and his mother to the facility.

"If there was any hope of helping this young man we wanted to offer it," he said.

Once Lampkin was in Florida, his blood was drawn and sent to a lab in Israel.

Although it was Passover and the lab staffers were on vacation, they agreed to process the blood, Grekos said. The cells were then replicated into millions of super cells that Grekos' company has branded "Renocytes." The cells can become almost any type of new cell or tissue, he said.

Stem cell video collection

Here's a video featuring Scotland's Dr. Colin McGuckin, who has been doing research on cord blood stem cells. Dr. McGuckin has worked with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and NASA to produce embryonic-like stem cells from umbilical cord blood cells. His lab has gone on to stimulate those embryonic-like stem cells - that no one had to die for - into functional liver cells, masses of liver cells and pancreatic cells that produce insulin and the other hormones vital to the regulation of diabetes.

The video is part of a collection on YouTube, by "Stem cells that work." Visit the YouTube page with great collection of videos about stem cells, including the excellent 50 minute "Google" video, "Everything you wanted to know about stem cells."

Nature Reviews Stem Cell Heart Treatments

The journal, Nature, has published a review article, "Stem-cell therapy for cardiac disease,"
about treatment of heart disease with stem cells, focusing on the many types of cells that are being used in research, including bone marrow derived stem cells and progenitors and "resident" cardiomyocyte stem cells. The latter are actually found in the heart and can be harvested from the patient who needs them and used to repair damaged heart disease.

The abstract promises more than I ever thought I'd read in a "First tier" journal.

Heart failure is the leading cause of death worldwide, and current therapies only delay progression of the disease. Laboratory experiments and recent clinical trials suggest that cell-based therapies can improve cardiac function, and the implications of this for cardiac regeneration are causing great excitement. Bone-marrow-derived progenitor cells and other progenitor cells can differentiate into vascular cell types, restoring blood flow. More recently, resident cardiac stem cells have been shown to differentiate into multiple cell types present in the heart, including cardiac muscle cells, indicating that the heart is not terminally differentiated. These new findings have stimulated optimism that the progression of heart failure can be prevented or even reversed with cell-based therapy.

Myths on Myths about stem cells

There's a new Public Broadcasting System (your tax dollars at work) television show on "stem cells," "Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita."

You don't have to go any farther than the top of the home page, with its picture of a girl in a wheelchair and this quote,

"Some people consider stem cell biology to be the Holy Grail of Regenerative Medicine, while others view embryonic stem cell use as morally wrong."

to see that it's propaganda for embryonic stem cell research and cloning for embryonic stem cells. The authors immediately begin the pattern of using the term "stem cells" for both of the two basic kinds of stem cells: those that require the destruction of a human life and those that don't.

Here are the first three points from the "Myths and Realities" page, with my comments in Bold after each.

MYTH
Stem cell research uses aborted fetuses.
REALITY
Stem cells can be totipotent (a fertilized egg with the “total potential” to give rise to all different types of cells in the body), multipotent (stem cells that can give rise to a small number of different cell types), or pluripotent (stem cells that can give rise to any type of cells in the body except those that are needed to develop a fetus). While pluripotent stem cells could be developed from fetal tissue or even adults, they are best derived from early-stage embryos, a mass of cells that is only a few days old—not aborted fetuses.

The authors skip over the significance of the fact that embryronic stem cells come from destroyed human embryos in the lab, it is true that most stem cell research does not use tissues obtained from abortions. Nowadays, however, the term "fetus" is too often used by the media (and even researchers who ought to know better) for all pre-born human beings. The proper definition of human embryo is the organism from fertilization or the beginning of the first cell division to 7-8 weeks of age. The term "fetus" in humans is properly used from 8 weeks until birth.

More on the claims about what is the "best" source of stem cells and about "embryonic-like stem cells," below.

MYTH
Somatic cell nuclear transfer using human cells involves the use of fertilized eggs.
REALITY
Somatic cell nuclear transfer, the process in which the nucleus from an adult cell is removed and then transferred to an egg whose nucleus has been removed, is the first step in cloning and can be used to create an embryonic stem cell line. However, an egg cell does not need to be fertilized to be used in this procedure—an unfertilized egg cell can be used.

Here, the authors avoid using "embryo" and throw around the terms "unfertilized egg" and "fertilized egg." An embryo is not a "fertilized egg" - once an egg is fertilized, it becomes an embryo. In Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (cloning), the embryo is produced artificially by inserting the DNA of a donor cell and stimulating division and organized development that occurs with natural reproduction. When human DNA is used to produce human embryonic cells in an organized embryo, there can be no doubt that what we are talking about is a human embryo. No matter how he or she is created - or produced - or how severely handicapped by the intentions and actions of the producers, a human embryo is a very young human being.

MYTH
Researchers can use adult stem cells instead of embryonic stem cells. Other treatments using adult stem cells are available to treat conditions such as Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injuries.
REALITY
Adult stem cells lack the versatility and flexibility of embryonic stem cells, making them less likely to lead to medical breakthroughs. Embryonic stem cells have a far greater developmental potential and are more likely to be pluripotent, while adult stem cells are thought to be merely multipotent, or restricted to only certain cell types.

In November 2007, Japanese and American research teams reported new ways to obtain stem cells that behaved like embryonic stem cells from human skin cells—without having to use human embryos. This breakthrough holds great promise in solving the ethical dilemmas of stem cell research, but scientists currently still face technical hurdles and the challenge of finding ways to use these stem cells successfully in medical treatments and therapies.

The biggest lie of all is that embryonic stem cells are more useful in treatments for human beings. Just ask the 20,000 plus in the US alone who have been treated with adult and umbilical cord stem cells or go looking for even one human who has been treated with embryonic stem cells.

While it is true that most ethical, adult stem cells are not "pluripotent," there are many kinds of "multipotent" stem cells and precursor cells in the body. In fact, these are the cells that we probably will use in the future, because they are the cells the body uses to repair itself and because they are less likely to grow out of control or cause tumors.

We are also learning that the desired development of stem cells and precursor cells is influenced by the environment and all sorts of "factors," or chemical and physical signals present in the part of the body where they grow into cells, tissues and organs. The key to future treatment for most disease will probably come from learning to stimulate these conditions and factors.

Besides the ethical dilemma of destroying early human life, embryonic stem cell research has every problem or hurdle that could be cited for adult stem cells: they are difficult to grow, found in small numbers, the cultures may be contaminated with different, undesirable cell lines, and are difficult to control to produce for the exact stem cell line that is needed.

Moreover, no one wants to transplant embryonic stem cells into people. What we want is to produce adult stem cells for treatments.

The last paragraph mentions embryonic-like stem cells. There are several ways to produce stem cells that behave in every way that the unethical stem cells do.

These cells are being used in research to replace the unethical cells produced by destruction of embryos.

The goal of all stem cell research is to have a source of "patient-specific" stem cells from the patient or to find ways to stimulate stem cell production in the body of the patient, when and where they are needed.

The producers of this program are advocating for outdated research methods.While researchers have learned a lot from human embryo research in the past, most of what we use has been developed from research in animal models. The production of new embryonic stem cell lines from human embryos and from cloning is no longer necessary to carry out this research.


(Thanks to Janet, of the Bedford County Citizens Concerned for Human Life, for sending me the link to the website on the show.)