Tag Archives: stem cells cloning

Yet More Adult Stem Cell Advances

bLogicus has a few posts on recent advances in adult stem cell technology, namely that some Taiwanese scientists have isolated stem cells from placentas, that rats injected with human umbilical cord stem cells after having heart attacks regained nearly normal function, and Stem Cells Inc. has filed with the FDA to start a study on using adult stem cells to treat Batten disease, which affects children’s central nervous systems. To judge from Stem Cell Inc.’s website, it looks like this program would only help recover neurons destroyed by Batten’s disease, not eradicate the root cause itself.

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New Embryonic Stem Cell Sources

The Washington Post reports that there are two new ways to isolate embryonic stem cells. The first involves recovering useable cells from hopelessly damaged embryos that were frozen in IVF clinics. The researchers at Columbia compare this to taking organs from brain-dead patients. Of course, if one considers IVF inherently wrong, this still doesn’t get you off the hook.

The second type is trickier: there is a method of cloning called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), where the nucleus of a non-genital region of one’s body (usually a gut cell, but it can be anything other than an ovum or sperm cell) is transferred to an egg cell whose own nucleus was destroyed. The trick to getting stem cells in the second method is to somehow interfere with this procedure so that the new hybrid cell does not become an embryo, but can in fact still produce some totipotent embryonic stem cells.

I am skeptical of the second method. One, somatic cell transfer has a lot of problems. It took 227 tries to clone a sheep before Dolly was born, and she became a medical mess afterwards. Now we are supposed to take SCNT, interfere with it somehow so it doesn’t make an embryo, and think that maybe this’ll create something that we can cure things with? Secondly, the scientists claim that no embryo is made, but scientists and physicians have been retroactively redefining human life for about 30 years now in order to make abortion and destructive human research convenient. E.g., they invented the term "preembryo" so that they could make embryonic stem cell research legit because they weren’t really killing a true human being. I have yet to track down the literature on this second method, so I am still unsure of whether a complete organism (embryonic or otherwise) is in fact never created and killed by this method. Stay tuned.

Some Developments in Biomedicine

  • Thanks to Wired,
    I was tipped off on an article published in Nature about a type of stem
    cell that
    seems to be at the heart of the most advanced
    brain tumors in adults and children
    . It is considered stem-cell like
    since its
    chief marker, CD133, is a protein associated with embryonic nerve cells,
    and because
    it has tremendous ability to reproduce. In one dramatic experiment, 16
    of 19 mice
    injected with CD133-positive human tumor cells developed tumors. Of the
    15 that
    received tumor cells negative for CD133 markers, none developed tumors,
    though traces
    of the cells were still found in the mouse brains during dissection,
    implying that
    while these human cells could live in the mouse, they could not develop
    a tumor
    on their own. This opens a new dimension into how cancer develops (and
    where these
    so-called “stem cells” really come from), and also hints that
    a CD133
    blocker may be a new weapon against cancer. Considering that an advanced
    brain tumor
    right now is more or less a death sentence within a year, this could be
    quite important!
    Dysfunctional stem cells were previously known to be at the
    heart of leukemia
    , but this is the first solid tumor with a stem
    cell as its
    apparent source.
  • There’s some interesting Type I diabetes research where Harvard
    researcher Denise
    Faustman seems to have suppressed the autoimmune reaction against
    beta-cells in
    the pancreas which leads to insulin depletion and diabetes. What’s
    really neat is
    that beta cells seem to spontaneously regenerate when the autoimmune
    reaction is
    suppressed, promising a knock-down cure for that disease. I read about
    this on the
    NY Times, but it’s now no longer open for free access, so check out this
    blurb from
    Do
    No Harm
    about the research and Lee Iacocca’s funding initiative for
    Dr. Faustman.
  • Check out the
    Public Library of Science
    , an organization that publishes
    peer-reviewed scientific
    journals that are free to the public and entirely online.

Time to Deliver

Part of what got Bush elected was his pro-life stance. Now he has to deliver something to those who elected him and, more broadly, all those who hope to end abortion and prevent ESCR and cloning. Will he? Can he?

Pro-life leader questions Bush’s commitment to ending abortions
Pro-life group urges Bush to take immediate action against abortion
Senator Tells President Bush Not to Appoint Pro-Life Judges to Supreme Court
Key Senator Denies Warning Bush on Abortion Issue

Getting Our Facts Straight

Here's a relatively neutral summary of the stem cell debate that even the liberal gadflies in Evangelical Outpost's comment boxes approve of.

The New York Times, known for it's painfully obvious liberal bias, has surprised me by publishing an even-handed, if a bit skimpy, appraisal of Bush and Kerry campaign statements regarding stem cell research.