RNS:Five things you should know about stem cell research
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RNS: Stem Cell 101, Oct. 13, 2008
U-M Health Minute: Today’s top health issues and medical research
Five things you should know about stem cell research
U-M experts offer “Stem Cells 101” to help clear up confusion in advance of Michigan ballot initiative vote and other national debates
Suggested lead: Michigan voters soon will decide whether to change a Michigan law that currently restricts research using embryonic stem cells. And U-M scientists want to make sure voters are well-informed on this issue before heading to the polls in November. Here’s Andi McDonnell with more.
In just a few weeks, Michigan voters will have an important decision to make when casting their ballots. And it’s not just who they want to be president. They will need to vote on a ballot measure called Proposal 2 to determine the fate of a Michigan law that currently restricts research using embryonic stem cells. Meanwhile, in other states, stem cells are emerging as a key issue in many races.
University of Michigan stem cell scientist Dr. Sean Morrison (Ph.D.) tells us…
“There are also state restrictions that differ from state to state. Some states, like California and New Jersey and Connecticut and Illinois and Wisconsin, have decided that embryonic stem cell research is so important for the future welfare of their citizens that they’re actually funding the derivation of new embryonic stem cell lines in their studies. On the other hand, there are other states, like Michigan, that have restrictions on the ability to derive new embryonic stem cell lines. So we in Michigan can study lines that are created outside of the state but we can’t derive our own new lines within the state and that’s a crippling problem because most of the lines that we would like to be able to study, in order to study the diseases that effect the people of Michigan, don’t exist yet.”
To cast an educated vote on stem cells, voters in Michigan and beyond must understand a complex, fast-emerging new field of medicine – no easy task. Stem cell research is generating great interest and business investment worldwide because it could lead to possible treatments for spinal cord injuries, Parkinson’s disease, juvenile diabetes and other diseases.
U-M experts say there are five key things that citizens should keep in mind as they navigate through a flood of often conflicting information about stem cell research:
First, scientists generally agree it’s crucial to push forward rapidly in all three key areas of stem cell research: embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells.
Around the world, these three kinds of stem cells are under intense study for possible treatments for conditions from spinal cord injuries to juvenile diabetes.
Morrison observes that much of the attention has focused on embryonic stem cells. He explains…
“Embryonic stem cells are one type of stem cell that people are very excited about because these are cells that come from the very earliest stages of embryonic development, from only microscopically small clumps of cells. And these cells have the capacity to make every cell type in the body in unlimited quantities. And so when you’re really trying to cure a major public health problem like juvenile diabetes or Parkinson’s disease the capacity of embryonic stem cells to make any cell type in unlimited quantities is an extraordinary, powerful advantage.”
Next, embryonic stem cells that scientists study come from early-stage embryos. Morrison tells us…
“The embryos that are used for research are microscopically small clumps of cells, smaller than the period at the end of a sentence on a piece of paper. They have no specialized tissues of any type; there’s no nervous system, there’s no heart, there’s no limbs. These are clumps of cells that oftentimes in a fertility clinic don’t develop in a healthy manner and that doctors would not be willing to implant in patients.”
Third, adult stem cells are like supporting actors in the quest for stem cell treatments. Morrison explains…
“There are also many different types of adult stem cells that are present throughout our tissues. They differ from embryonic stem cells in that they’re already partially specialized so that blood forming stem cells in the bone marrow can give rise to all types of blood cells but not to cell types in other tissues. So adult stem cells are still useful but they’re more specialized than embryonic stem cells and they don’t have the same capacity to give rise to unlimited numbers of specialized cells.”
Fourth, induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, are adult cells reprogrammed to behave like embryonic stem cells. According to Morrison, the discovery of iPS cells demonstrates the promise of embryonic stem cell research to lead to breakthroughs that would change the future of medicine…
“There has been a recent exciting advance where scientists in Japan and the United States discovered that it was possible to reprogram adult human skin cells by putting genes into those cells that turn those cells into cells with properties very similar to embryonic stem cells. And this is exciting because it will really enhance our ability to study particularly inherited human diseases, but these cells aren’t ready for prime time in terms of clinical use because the reprogramming process involves the use of viruses, which predispose those cells to cancer, and so none of the reprogrammed lines that we have so far at least would ever be useable in patients.”
Lastly, if the Proposal 2 ballot initiative passes, the law would change to allow Michigan scientists to do what they currently cannot: develop new embryonic stem cell lines using early-stage embryos from fertilization clinics that would otherwise be discarded.
Morrison tells us…
“The things that people should know to really make up their own mind about how they feel about embryonic stem cell research are that there are thousands of embryos that are routinely discarded by fertility clinics in the state and throughout the country. Those embryos for a variety of reasons could never be used for fertility treatment but they could be used to derive new embryonic stem cell lines that represent the best hope for thousands of patients in our state and in the country.”
More information on stem cells can be found at www.umich.edu/stemcell and stemcells.nih.gov .
Andi McDonnell, U-M Health System News.
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