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Stem Cell News
Adult Stem Cells > Embryonic - Media and
Scientific Journals have Misled Public
By Gailon Totheroh, CBN News, March 28, 2007
Passing a bill to allocate more money for stem cell
research is again on the table at the U.S. Congress.
But it’s not about just any sort of stem cells;
it’s about stem cells from human embryos
Embryonic stem cells have yet to provide proven
human benefit, so many critics doubt the research
needs fewer restrictions or more funding.
But many people think a bill that is pro embryonic
stem cell research could help to provide a cure for
your uncle’s diabetes, sister’s Parkinson’s
disease, or your mother’s Alzheimer’s disease.
Nigel Cameron, an expert on emerging medical
technologies, said, "They have the idea that stem
cells are miracle cures and if only we were able to
work on them, we would cure incredible diseases in the
next year or two's time."
Cameron says that people think the answer can be
found with stem cells derived from destroyed human
embryos.
But more and more evidence is proving that the only
human success stories involving stem cells come from
the “adult stem cell” category; from sources such
as umbilical cord blood.
Umbilical cord stem cells have been turned into
pancreas cells for possible diabetic treatments by
Colin McGuckin and his team at the University of
Newcastle in England.
"Twenty years ago," said McGuckin,
"the first umbilical cord blood transplant took
place -- and was actually treating people with serious
diseases like leukemia. Today, we've actually got over
75 diseases and conditions which are treatable using
cord blood stem cells."
McGuckin and his team are also leading the way in
making cord blood cells into other specific human
cells.
He said, "We can make liver from cord blood
stem cells, but it's not really large enough to
transplant into real people. But what we can do is
produce small blocks of liver tissue on which we can
test drugs."
Side effects can be apparent in humans even after a
treatment works without incident in mice, so the
tissue for drug testing is a great benefit.
Another benefit: just a small amount of liver
tissue can possibly save a life if for instance, you
child gets into the medicine cabinet and overdoses on
drugs like Tylenol which can cause liver damage.
"The second main advance we're trying to make
is developing a sort of mini-liver that we could
dialyze the blood of children who've taken an overdose
of household drugs," said McGuckin, "and it
would instantly double the size of their liver in
removing those toxins from their blood."
Blood would flow through an external human liver
and provide a sort of organic kidney dialysis since it
wouldn’t require a machine.
But using a child’s own saved cord blood is now
delivering results. Last summer, cerebral palsy was
reversed in a young boy named Ryan. With his brain
affliction now remedied, he can now talk, eat, and
play like other children his age.
How about heart failure? In the case of a woman
named Mary, her cardiac health improved dramatically
when stem cells from her blood, as opposed to
umbilical cord cells, were processed and injected into
her heart.
Results like this are becoming more common says
policy analyst and scientist David Prentice.
Prentice said, "One way to measure it is --
how many different diseases have you already seen some
results with, in human patients? And if you look at
it, the score is at least 72 to zero -- adult has 72,
embryonic has zero."
But the most versatile and best treatment may
eventually come from embryonic stem cells someday
argue some scientists.
To that Cameron says, "I certainly wouldn't
say embryo stem cells will never cure anybody.
Certainly what seems to be the case is that it will
take a long time before we know whether they will cure
people. And the question, of course -- which is the
ethical question -- is how you get the embryo stem
cells?"
Billions of tax dollars are being invested in
embryonic stem cell technology by states like Missouri
and California despite all the doubts.
Money is such great amounts can lure scientists
towards the research despite any issues or beliefs
they may have.
"There's unfortunately an economic factor
involved -- the embryonic stem cell lines -- the
dishes of cells -- can be and even have been
patented," Prentice said. "That there's
licensing and royalty fees -- there's a competition
for limited research dollars."
Scientific journal editors provide another hurdle
says McGuckin. Many have recent adult stem cell
focused research because they favor embryonic
research.
"Some journals have really started to polarize
themselves towards promoting one aspect of medical
research rather than others," McGuckin said.
"I think this is a sad direction of peer review
in scientific and medical research."
Cameron says that the media has misled the public
and skewed reality, giving embryonic stem cells some
sort of pseudo-glamorous image. The underlying problem
is the public confusion.
"Whenever you see a report of stem cells
curing anybody, you can be absolutely 100-percent
certain that these are so-called adult stem cells;
they're not stem cells from embryos," Cameron
explained.
Prentice said, "What becomes very clear,
though, is that hope is distant, at best, with
embryonic stem cells."
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