A Stem Cell Potpourri

The stem cell debate is apparently done and over with on the Left Coast. California has “quietly” stopped referring to embryonic stem cells when it reports progress, and now refers to the more generic term “stem cells”. In this guise it is able to claim the progress from adult and induced pluripotent stem cells in its releases, even though the $ billions of taxpayers dollars it spent went straight into embryonics. The problem is that embryonic stem cells produced nothing. Zero, zip, nada.

From Investors.com:

“Bioethics: Five years after a budget-busting $3 billion was allocated to embryonic stem cell research, there have been no cures, no therapies and little progress. So supporters are embracing research they once opposed.

“California's Proposition 71 was intended to create a $3 billion West Coast counterpart to the National Institutes of Health, empowered to go where the NIH could not — either because of federal policy or funding restraints on biomedical research centered on human embryonic stem cells.

“Supporters of the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative, passed in 2004, held out hopes of imminent medical miracles that were being held up only by President Bush's policy of not allowing federal funding of embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) beyond existing stem cell lines and which involved the destruction of embryos created for that purpose.

“Five years later, ESCR has failed to deliver and backers of Prop 71 are admitting failure. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state agency created to, as some have put it, restore science to its rightful place, is diverting funds from ESCR to research that has produced actual therapies and treatments: adult stem cell research. It not only has treated real people with real results; it also does not come with the moral baggage ESCR does.

“To us, this is a classic bait-and-switch, an attempt to snatch success from the jaws of failure and take credit for discoveries and advances achieved by research Prop. 71 supporters once cavalierly dismissed. We have noted how over the years that when funding was needed, the phrase "embryonic stem cells" was used. When actual progress was discussed, the word "embryonic" was dropped because ESCR never got out of the lab.”

There have, indeed, been many advances in NON-embryonic stem cell research, many of which I have recorded on this blog. Here are some more, just for the record.

At Northwestern University, new cartilage has been grown in animal joints using an injectable gel that automatically forms a lattice substrate, upon which stem cells which are already present in the bone marrow induce growth of new collagen: cartilage tissue.

At Clemson U., an injectable gel has been used to reverse brain damage, by exciting the activity of stem cells already present.

“In a follow-up study, Dr. Zhang loaded the gel with immature stem cells, as well as the chemicals they needed to develop into full-fledged adult brain cells. When rats with severe brain injuries were treated with this mixture for eight weeks, they showed signs of significant recovery.

“The new gel could treat patients at varying stages following injury, and is expected to be ready for testing in humans in about three years.”

And at Kyoto University:

” Last November, two teams of scientists turned ordinary adult skin cells into pluripotent stem cells—capable of becoming any kind of tissue—a feat that could solve the ethical problem forever. Here’s how one group did it.

“The scientists, led by Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan, identified 24 genes that are active in embryonic stem cells but not in adult cells. They deposited combinations of the 24 genes into the DNA of adult mouse skin cells.

“They found that just four of the original 24 genes will turn adult cells into stem cells. The scientists aren’t quite sure what the genes do. They think two of the genes code for proteins that encourage further protein synthesis.

“The scientists repeated their experiment on human adult skin cells using the same four genes as in the mouse model. The human cells also turned into stem cells and then differentiated into brain and heart cells.”

UPDATE (2.10.10):
Here's another one. This one is from Stanford U, where pluripotency is acheived without the use of viral transport:

"It is the first example of reprogramming adult cells to pluripotency in this manner, and is hailed by the researchers as a major step toward the use of such cells in humans. They hope that the ease of the technique and its relative safety will smooth its way through the necessary FDA approval process.

"'This technique is not only safer, it's relatively simple,' said Stanford surgery professor Michael Longaker, MD, and co-author of the paper. 'It will be a relatively straightforward process for labs around the world to begin using this technique. We are moving toward clinically applicable regenerative medicine.'

"The Stanford researchers used the so-called minicircles - rings of DNA about one-half the size of those usually used to reprogram cell - to induce pluripotency in stem cells from human fat. Pluripotent cells can then be induced to become many different specialized cell types. Although the researchers plan to first use these cells to better understand - and perhaps one day treat-human heart disease, induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, are a starting point for research on many human diseases.

"'Imagine doing a fat or skin biopsy from a member of a family with heart problems, reprogramming the cells to pluripotency and then making cardiac cells to study in a laboratory dish,' said cardiologist Joseph Wu, MD, PhD. 'This would be much easier and less invasive than taking cell samples from a patient's heart.' Wu is the senior author of the research, which will be published online Feb. 7 in Nature Methods."