RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events No embryos were harmed in the production of these stem cells...

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Poverty Lad said:
You don't have to be dying to get excited about stem cell research, or disheartened by the Culture's attempts tp quash it.

Having a chronic illness that might benefit from stem cell therapies and having to watch any practical applications possibly pushed out of my lifetime by the pro-lifers is beyond frustrating.

Remember when Rome thought the world was flat, the center of the Universe, and actively persecuted any who believed otherwise?

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Come on. This is the G-man we're talking to. Why use reason when you can be snarky?

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magicjay38 said:
Tell us how 'controversial' stem-cell research is when you're wasting away with Parkinson's or waiting for that organ tranplant. Maybe you should talk to the real Diva of the conservative movement, Nancy Reagan, for an enlightened point of view.

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In a discovery that has the potential to change the face of stem cell research, a University of Louisville scientist has identified cells in the adult body that seem to behave like embryonic stem cells.

The cells, drawn from adult bone marrow, look like embryonic stem cells and appear to mimic their ability to multiply and develop into other kinds of cells, said Mariusz Ratajczak, director of the stem cell biology program at U of L’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center, who led the research project.

The finding, presented at the 47th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology in Atlanta, was announced Dec. 12 at the society’s news conference.

Stem cells are naturally-occurring living cells that haven’t yet developed into the specialized cells that form body parts.

A study by Ratajczak’s team published last year in the journal “Leukemia” was the first to identify a type of stem cell in adult bone marrow that acts differently than other marrow stem cells. The newly-identified cells, called “very small embryonic-like” (VSEL) stem cells, have the same structure and protein markers as embryonic stem cells.

Ratajczak and several other researchers from U of L will present a paper Dec. 13 showing that VSEL stem cells mobilize into the bloodstream to help repair damaged tissue following a stroke.

His team also has grown VSEL cells in a lab and has stimulated them to change into nerve, heart and pancreas cells. If other scientists can duplicate the process on a larger scale, it could reduce the need for embryonic stem cells in research and eliminate rejection problems associated with using stem cells from an outside donor.

“We are very excited about the tremendous implications of this discovery,” Ratajczak said. “Our preliminary success in growing and differentiating these cells is very encouraging.”

Researchers worldwide have said that various types of stem cells hold great promise for understanding and treating a wide variety of diseases. They also could become a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues that could be used to treat such illnesses, conditions and disabilities as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, burns, spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and arthritis. The use of embryonic stem cells, which can evolve into any type of cell in the body, has been surrounded by controversy.

Men’s testicles may provide an “ethical” source of embryonic stem cells (ESCs), suggest new experiments in mice.

A team in Germany has successfully grown mouse ESC-like cells from spermatagonial stem cells which normally turn into sperm. The ESC-like cells can be grown into all tissues of the mouse body, suggesting that if the same could be done in men, it would provide patients with a source of tissue-matched cells for repairing any damaged organs or tissue.

So far, all existing colonies of human ESCs have been derived from surplus human embryos, leftover from infertility treatments. Because a human embryo is sacrificed in the process, many religious groups oppose such research, especially in the US where President George W Bush has placed heavy restrictions on federal stem cell researchers.

The discovery that cells which behave like ESCs can now be obtained from adult mice may now open up the possibility of a similar “ethical” source from grown men.

“We’re in the process of doing this in humans, and we’re optimistic,” says Gerd Hasenfuss of the Georg-August University of Göttingen, Germany, and head of the team which pioneered the breakthrough.

He told New Scientist that his team is already taking testicle-tissue samples under consent from patients undergoing operations for other conditions, such as cancer.

“It’s rather painful, and is usually done under general anaesthetic, but it’s routinely done to gain sperm for IVF, for example, so it’s a well-known procedure,” says Hasenfuss. He notes that the cells would not be obtainable from a sperm or semen sample. “It has to be a biopsy.” Leap to humans

Although forbidden by law in Germany from obtaining ESCs from embryos, or even working on ESCs derived from the same source in other countries, Hasenfuss backs research on both sources – from adults and embryos.

To circumvent the ethical objections, his team has attempted for years to derive ESCs from adult tissues, and the testicular source is only success so far. ESCs were obtained from embryonic mice in 2004 by Mito Kanatsu-Shinohara and his colleagues at Kyoto University, Japan, but Hasenfuss says he is the first to get them from adult mice.

Other researchers welcomed the findings. “On the basis of what I see, I couldn’t discount what they say they’ve achieved,” says Paul de Sousa at the University of Edinburgh, UK. “The real news is the capacity to sustain these cells in culture and retain their ability to turn into all tissue,” he says.

“But it may be a leap of faith to apply it in humans,” de Sousa cautions. “I would be wary that things in humans would be as simple.”

Stem cells are vital throughout life because they can develop into specialized tissue. Recently, however, scientists have discovered that damaged or altered stem cells may be the driving force behind some kinds of cancer when their specialization takes a malignant turn for the worse.

Stem cells were first identified in leukemia in 1997. Since then, they have been found in breast cancer and certain brain tumors, including glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive brain malignancy in adults. Although it was widely thought that most cells in a tumor could cause it to grow, researchers now believe that in some cancers, a small population of stem cells gives rise to all the other cells. When tumor cells are transplanted into experimental mice, only the stem cell variety spurs new cancer growth

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the G-man said:
Scientific American

Stem cells are vital throughout life because they can develop into specialized tissue. Recently, however, scientists have discovered that damaged or altered stem cells may be the driving force behind some kinds of cancer when their specialization takes a malignant turn for the worse.

Stem cells were first identified in leukemia in 1997. Since then, they have been found in breast cancer and certain brain tumors, including glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive brain malignancy in adults. Although it was widely thought that most cells in a tumor could cause it to grow, researchers now believe that in some cancers, a small population of stem cells gives rise to all the other cells. When tumor cells are transplanted into experimental mice, only the stem cell variety spurs new cancer growth

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As he promised he would do, President Bush vetoed a bill that would have lifted restrictions on federally funded human embryonic stem cell research:

"This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others," Bush, speaking at the White House, said after he followed through on his promise to veto the bill. "It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect. So I vetoed it."

The reality of the matter is that embryonic stem cell research hasn't been able to get past a single fundamental hurdle that of unrestricted cell division, so that "promise" is nothing but a pipe dream:

Cell division is the biological basis of life. For simple unicellular organisms such as the Amoeba, one cell division reproduces an entire organism. On a larger scale, cell division can create progeny from multicellular organisms, such as plants that grow from cuttings. But most importantly, cell division enables sexually reproducing organisms to develop from the one-celled zygote, which itself was produced by cell division from gametes. And after growth, cell division allows for continual renewal and repair of the organism.

But cell division must be regulated by the body, and a great deal of the genetic code we carry makes sure that growth is regulated and eventually terminated.

Embryonic stem cells, as noted in earlier posts, have a problem with unrestricted cell division.

There is another name for that problem, and many scientists seem to agree that it could take a decade or longer to fix that problem in embryonic stem cell research, if it is ever fixed at all.

In addition, Bush didn’t ban any research whatsoever, he merely banned the federal funding of dubious embryonic research. Bush actually increased federal funding of stem cells obtained from adults, umbilical cords, placentas and animals during his presidency.

Frankly, while I support research, I'm with the President in opposing expanded government funding for embyonic stem cell research, when adult stems cells are already clinically proven to work.

Some award-winning local research is shedding light on what causes of brain tumors. Doctors believe they could be linked to so-called “stem cells gone bad”.

Dr. Steven Goldman and his team at the University of Rochester Medical Center have worked for years with stem cells. They've been trying to get them to turn on and start regenerating tissue. That's something very important to spinal cord injury patients.

In the meantime, Goldman has also focused on finding a way to turn off the cells, especially when they start generating cancers. Targeting stem cells and their offspring, called progenitors, may be the key.

“What we're finding out though is that both the stem cells and the progenitor cells can cause tumors.” Goldman explained, “and so in some cases, as in many primary brain tumors, it appears that different stem and progenitor cells may be involved in the tumor. So, we need to target both at the same time to basically kill the tumor."


Brain tumors affect 17,000 people each year. The survival rate for this type of cancer has not improved much in decades.

Scientists reported Sunday they had found a plentiful source of stem cells in the fluid that cushions babies in the womb and produced a variety of tissue types from these cells — sidestepping the controversy over destroying embryos for research.

Researchers at Wake Forest University and Harvard University reported the stem cells they drew from amniotic fluid donated by pregnant women hold much the same promise as embryonic stem cells. They reported they were able to extract the stem cells without harm to mother or fetus and turn their discovery into several different tissue cell types, including brain, liver and bone.

However, the scientists noted they still don't know exactly how many different cell types can be made from the stem cells found in amniotic fluid. They also said that even preliminary tests in patients are years away.

• Scientists have made ordinary human skin cells take on the chameleon-like powers of embryonic stem cells, a startling breakthrough that might someday deliver the medical payoffs of embryo cloning without the controversy.
  
  Laboratory teams on two continents report success in a pair of landmark papers released Tuesday. It's a neck-and-neck finish to a race that made headlines five months ago, when scientists announced that the feat had been accomplished in mice.
  
  The "direct reprogramming" technique avoids the swarm of ethical, political and practical obstacles that have stymied attempts to produce human stem cells by cloning embryos.
  
  Scientists familiar with the work said scientific questions remain and that it's still important to pursue the cloning strategy, but that the new work is a major coup.
  
  "This work represents a tremendous scientific milestone — the biological equivalent of the Wright Brothers' first airplane," said Dr. Robert Lanza, chief science officer of Advanced Cell Technology, which has been trying to extract stem cells from cloned human embryos.