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R/£ Marrow stem cells to take heat off embryos
April 29, 2003 Edition -1
Steve Connor
London - New evidence suggesting bone marrow can regenerate damaged nerve tissue could mean the controversial use of embryonic stem cells to treat debilitating disorders is now obsolete.
Regenerating nerve cells was once thought to be impossible, hence the intense excitement in the scientific community about the latest breakthrough using marrow stem cells.
Anti-abortion groups and the Vatican have fiercely opposed the use of human embryos in stem cell research because the embryos are discarded after use.
The study also represents a vital breakthrough in the treatment of illnesses like Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's.
It is the latest evidence to emerge from several lines of research that have pointed to the power of adult marrow stem cells to "reinvent" themselves rather than to be narrowly predestined to develop into just one type of body tissue.
The findings, published in the journal Cell Transplantation, will reopen the debate over the ethics of experimenting on stem cells taken from human embryos, given that adult stem cells appear to possess the same all-round ability to develop into specialised tissues.
Stem cells have become one of the most exciting areas of medical research because of their ability to be cultured in the laboratory and stimulated with chemicals to become any one of the scores of specialised tissues of the body.
Scientists envisage a day when stem cells can be used to repair damaged organs, such as heart, brain or kidney, rather than having to opt for potentially toxic drugs, a transplant operation or palliative care for the terminally ill.
Several sources of stem cells have been identified, such as "spare" in-vitro-fertilisation embryos less than 14 days old or adult bone marrow which is constantly regenerating to produce fresh blood cells. The question has been whether adult stem cells are just as versatile as embryonic stem cells.
However, the latest research by the University of Minnesota Medical School demonstrates that bone marrow extracted from adult mice can actually develop into fully functioning, specialised brain cells.
Scientists injected bone marrow cells from a mouse into early embryos which were implanted into other mice who gave birth to live young. The offspring were found to have taken up the "foreign" bone marrow stem cells to make cells in all regions of the brain.
The transplanted stem cells developed into nerve cells; glial cells, which provide support to the nerve cells; and cells that produce the fatty myelin sheath around the nerve cells. - Independent Foreign Service
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