Posted on 11/24/2006 6:27:10 AM PST by presidio9
A company scolded in Congress and criticized by religious groups for an experiment involving human embryonic stem cells clarified its work on Wednesday and said it had demonstrated an acceptable alternative to producing the controversial cells.
Advanced Cell Technology of Worcester, Massachusetts published additional details that showed the work had yielded human embryonic stem cells without the need to harm any embryos, although several embryos were destroyed in this particular experiment.
"We've done this experiment several times now, and the embryos remain frozen in liquid nitrogen. We plan to maintain them just like they do with leftover embryos at IVF (in vitro fertilization) clinics," said Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientist at the company.
The journal Nature published the extra details, along with a commentary calling the experiment both an advance and a potential way around objections to working with human embryonic stem cells.
Such stem cells are considered enormously powerful, because they might one day be used to regenerate body parts to treat diabetes, cancer or other conditions.
But opponents say it is unethical to experiment on human embryos. In July, U.S. President George W. Bush vetoed an expansion of federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research.
In August, Lanza's team published their study showing they had used a method already employed in fertility treatments to remove one cell from a human embryo without harming it.
When an embryo has just eight to 10 cells, one cell can be removed without harming it, and the rest can be implanted into a mother's womb to develop. Embryonic stem cells are usually taken from a later-stage embryo and the process destroys it.
BYPASSING OBJECTIONS
Lanza's team presented their work as a way to bypass objections to the research, but critics, including Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, denounced it.
And supporters in the U.S. Congress also criticized the work, saying the company had done harm to its own case.
Lanza said he hoped publishing the details would clear up any discrepancies that critics had raised.
Dr. Joe Leigh Simpson, an expert on stem cells and human obstetrics at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, said the company had demonstrated that it could get stem cells without destroying embryos. "They clearly did it," he said.
"We need to get stem cells. We need to get them in the most efficacious manner," Simpson added in a telephone interview.
Simpson wrote a commentary on the work in Nature in which he said he believed most of society would eventually accept human embryonic stem cell research.
"People always oppose these kinds of technical advances at first," he said.
The method Lanza used is called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), and it is used when a would-be parent carries a genetic disease and wants to conceive a child without it.
Egg and sperm are united in a lab dish and if an embryo starts growing, one cell is removed and tested for the genetic defect. If it is missing, the embryo is then implanted in a woman's uterus to develop normally.
Lanza hopes cells removed using this method could be used to create batches, or lines, of stem cells.
"We're also working with a couple of teams to do this in the clinical setting in conjunction with PGD," he said.
"But one of our first goals is to apply for an NIH ( National Institutes of Health) grant with our collaborators to see if the government is willing to fund researchers using stem cell lines generated without destroying the embryo.
Embryonic stem cells have yet to show any successes at all. Adult stem research on the other hand is very successful. If the one is so very successful, you have to wonder at the continued attempt to research the embryonic stem sell – is cloning the real reason? Embryonic stem cell research is fraught with problems, moral and other wise. Adult stem cells are readily available plus making enormous strides in health care/healing.
ping
Yes. The debate is centered on the wrong point, and I'm afraid we'll lose by death from a thousand cuts.
bump
And if it's not missing? What happens to the embryo then?
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