From the Courier-Journal, August 22, 2005 SKIN CELLS MADE INTO STEM CELLS
Scientists for the first time have turned ordinary skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells –without having to use human eggs or make new human embryos in the process, as has been required, a Harvard research team announced yesterday. The new technique uses laboratory-grown human embryonic stem cells-such as the ones President Bush already has approved for use by federally funded researchers-to "reprogram" the genes in a person's skin cell, turning that skin cell into an embryonic stem cell itself. Moreover, since the new stem cells made this way were essentially rejuvenated versions of a person's own skin cells, the DNA in those new stem cells matches the DNA of the person who provided the skin cells. In theory, that means that any tissues grown from those newly minted stem cells could be transplanted into the person to treat a disease without much risk that they would be rejected, since they would constitute an exact genetic match. The approach, which is to be published later this week in the journal Science, but was made public on the journal's web site, is still in an early stage of development. But if further studies confirm its usefulness, it could offer an end run around the heated debate that has for years over-shadowed the field of human embryonic stem cell research. The researchers emphasize in their report that the technique is still far from finding application in medicine. Most important, they note that because it involves the fusion of a stem cell and a person's ordinary skin cell, the process leads to the creation of a hybrid cell. While that cell has all the characteristics of a new embryonic stem cell, it contains the DNA of the person who donated the skin cell and also the DNA of the initial embryonic stem cell. At some point before these hybrid cells are coaxed to grow into replacement parts to be transplanted into a person, that extra DNA must be extracted, the researchers write. The team describes this task as a "substantial technical barrier" to the clinical use of stem cells made with the new technique. Until now, the only way to turn a person's ordinary cell into a "personalized" stem cell such as this was to turn that ordinary cell into an embryo first and later destroy the embryo to retrieve the new stem cells growing inside—a process widely known as "therapeutic cloning.
More immediately, the new work is likely to have an impact on Capitol Hill, where the Senate is poised to vote on legislation—already passed by the House—that would loosen President Bush's restrictions on human embryonic research.
From the Courier-Journal, August 2, 2005 UofL STUDY SHOWS STEM CELLS MAY HELP WITH SPINAL CORD INJURY By Marcus Wohlsen
Keith Becht, 43 of Floyds Knobs, Ind., was going to pick up a volleyball when he fell over a fence at a friend's house and hit the ground face-first 21 years ago. He hasn't walked, or had the use of his arms since. But new research into stem cells at the University of Louisville makes him think that one day he will. Becht and several others with spinal cord injuries attended a news conference yesterday in support of a UofL study that shows that embryonic stem cells may have the potential to treat spinal cord injuries. "The stem cell is where there's going to be a cure," Becht said. Genetically engineered stem cells helped paralyzed rats move their legs again, according to the study, published last week in the Journal of Neuroscience. The rats' spinal cords, partially severed in the lab, began to heal after receiving stem cell grafts from rat embryos, the report said. "This type of approach definitely has applicability to human injury," said Scott Whittemore, scientific director of the University of Louisville Spinal Cord Injury Research Center and a lead researcher on the stem cell project. A new $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will help UofL, Whittemore said. The UofL study has attracted national media attention as the controversy over federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research heats up again in Congress. Clinical trials using embryonic stem cells to test new treatment on people are likely several years away, Whittemore said. Alexander Rabchevsky, a spinal cord injury researcher at the University of Kentucky, called the UofL results, "encouraging." Rabchevsky, 38, lost the use of his legs after a spinal cord injury 20 years ago.
