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UK Scientists Find Alternative to Embryo Research

Scotsman.com
Thu 18 Aug 2005

Cells from the umbilical cord of newborn babies may be used to derive stem cells.
Picture: Gareth Easton.
Alternative to embryo research found

LOUISE GRAY


Key points
• UK scientists find new method of deriving stem cells from umbilical cord
• Discovery may end the need to clone human embryos to combat disease
• Alternative method sidesteps ethical dilemma over destruction of embryos

Key quote
"We had a major breakthrough in finding embryonic like cells in cord blood and growing them in large enough numbers to do something interesting. For the first time we have a way of harvesting cells that have a lot of the characteristics of embryonic stem cells but do not come from embryos, so we do not have any ethical problems" - DR COLIN MCGUCKIN


Story in full

SCIENTISTS have found a way of deriving stem cells from umbilical cords which may end the need to clone human embryos in an attempt to cure diseases.

The discovery of stem cells in umbilical cord blood with the potential to transform into a wide range of other cell types - in the same way as those in an embryo - could allow scientists to sidestep the ethical issues that surround the creation and destruction of embryos.

The British scientists behind the work have also found a way of multiplying the new cells using NASA technology to ensure there are enough to repair tissue damage caused by injury or disease, such as spinal cord injuries and Alzheimer's disease.

They said the breakthrough could enable doctors to repair liver damage without the need for an organ transplant within ten years. The research team has already managed to create liver tissue in the laboratory.

Pro-life and religious groups have argued that human life should not be created and then destroyed to provide new ways of treating patients, but this method avoids this ethical dilemma completely.

However, specialists warned the research was still at an early stage and pointed out cloning still has a role helping scientists to understand the development of life and how to treat genetic diseases.

The new technique was a result of a study at Kingston University in London funded by the Department of Trade and Industry.

Dr Colin McGuckin, one of team leaders, said: "We had a major breakthrough in finding embryonic like cells in cord blood and growing them in large enough numbers to do something interesting.

"For the first time we have a way of harvesting cells that have a lot of the characteristics of embryonic stem cells but do not come from embryos, so we do not have any ethical problems.

"Also because there are 100 million babies born every year you have a much higher chance of finding a stem cell to match you."

Stem cells are immature cells that can go on to develop into different kinds of tissue. There are two kinds - embryonic and adult.

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) have the potential to become any part of a human being. But human embryos are destroyed in the process of obtaining the ESCs.

Adult stem cells present none of these ethical difficulties, but they have much more limited potential.

The umbilical cord cells discovered by the Kingston team are adult stem cells that appear to behave like embryonic stem cells.

An advantage of using these cells in treatments is that they are relatively plentiful. Around the world there are public and private "banks" storing an estimated one million units of umbilical cord blood containing stems cells that could theoretically match many different patients.

Dr McGuckin said the discovery also supported the need to bank a child's umbilical cord blood if possible when it is born for future in stem cell treatment.

"If I had a child, I would be doing it," he added.

Four or five millilitres of cord blood will yield about 10,000 of the stem cells, but that is nothing like enough to be of any use as treatments. First they must be reproduced in the laboratory, to generate cultures of millions of cells.

The second major breakthrough by the team was to use a "bioreactor" developed by NASA to mass produce cells.

Cells produced by the Kingston team have already spontaneously formed into pieces of liver tissue.

"The idea is there is enough cord blood stored across the planet you should be able to find a match to your body, then we can take the blood, find the early cells we have discovered, expand them into enough cells for an adult and grow them into the tissue we need," Dr McGuckin said. "If you can do that it has amazing consequences for replacing organs and curing disease like diabetes."

A collaborating team at the University of Texas in the United States is also growing pancreatic tissue. "My estimation is that within ten years somebody will have benefited from this big-time," said Dr McGuckin.

"We are now closer than we have ever been to finding a real clinical use for human stem cells. We have for the first time the possibility of reversing the impact of organ damage as we get older."

Dr McGuckin said cloning would still be useful for researching genetic disease, but adult stem cells, using the new technique, were a more viable option for future treatment.

However, Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, the head of genetics, at the National Institute of Medical Research, said: "To make claims that these adult stem cells are like embryonic stem cells requires much more evidence than this paper provides. There are a whole range of questions that they didn't ask and claims that they didn't prove.

"The claim that they can get cells that just look a bit like liver cells is not evidence that they can do the same as embryonic stem cells."

Dr Calum MacKellar, the director of research at the Scottish Council on Bioethics, said: "We would welcome any procedure that would sidestep the ethical controversy. The problem with embryonic stem cells is they destroy embryos and for a lot of people in the UK this is considered as unethical."



This article:

http://www.scotsman.com/?id=1801832005

Cloning & stem cell research:

http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=10

Websites:

Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority
http://www.hfea.gov.uk/

Cambridge University Stem Cell Institute
http://www.stemcells.cam.ac.uk/

Comment On Reproductive Ethics
http://www.corethics.org/

European Consortium for Stem Cell Research
http://www.eurostemcell.org/index.htm

Institute of Stem Cell Research, Edinburgh University
http://www.iscr.ed.ac.uk/

Nuffield Council on Bioethics
http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/go/ourwork/stemcells/introduction

Roslin Institute
http://www.roslin.ac.uk/

posted by Annamarie at 1:21 PM