Stem-cell ambivalence

It’s easy to forget that stem-cell research is still in its infancy, considering all the reports that predict it could provide treatments — perhaps even cures — for life-threatening diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and diabetes.

But Charles Jennings, executive director of Harvard University’s Stem Cell Institute, says there already have been some breakthroughs.

Researchers in Sweden and the United States have demonstrated, using dopamine transplants, “clear clinical” evidence of the promise stem-cell research holds for Parkinson’s patients, he said.

And in a study by Japanese scientists, published last week in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, stem cells taken from monkey embryos and implanted in the brain reversed some Parkinson’s symptoms in other monkeys. The researchers say their work supports arguments that stem cells taken from days-old embryos can be used to replace tissues damaged by a variety of diseases.

Mr. Jennings acknowledges that this progress has come amid controversy, especially in the United States.

“In some cases, the dopamine transplanted came from aborted fetuses,” and embryonic stem cells were used in some animal studies, he said.

Embryonic stem-cell research is fraught with moral controversy because it requires embryos to be destroyed, which many see as killing.

Some U.S. stem-cell researchers also expressed optimism about a study published in the December issue of the Journal of Cranio-Maxilliofacial Surgery. In the study, German scientists reported how stem cells from fat tissue were used to help grow bone to repair the damaged skull of a 7-year-old girl.

Dr. Roy C. Ogle, a stem-cell researcher and specialist in skull-reconstruction surgery at the University of Virginia, called the report a “landmark study.”

Meanwhile, Canadian researchers are working to show olfactory stem cells, those taken from deep inside the nose, can repair damaged spinal function in rats and mice.

Jane Roskams, a neuroscientist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, said the stem cells she is testing are like those derived from the embryo, but they exist in the noses of adult rats and mice. When the cells are grown in culture and transplanted into the damaged spinal cords of rodents, those injuries are repaired and the nerves regenerated, she said.

“When it comes to the nervous system, a rat is not a human. So we have to have safety and efficacy studies in animals first, and next there will be primate studies,” Miss Roskams said.

She said she recognizes many paralyzed patients are desperate for relief and that some have responded to ads on the Internet for unproven nose-to-spine transplants available in Portugal and China at prices ranging from $50,000 to $100,000.

“People are desperate. They hear the hype and the hope, and they go for it … but we have to prove first that these procedures are safe. We have to do it right,” Miss Roskams said.

In October, the Harvard institute stirred controversy when some of its scientists asked the university’s ethics committees for permission to clone human embryos in order to create stem cells for disease research. If the request is granted, Harvard researchers would be the first in the United States to do so.

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