Stem Cell Research | Medical Students for Life

Brief Facts

- Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research (hESC) is ethically wrong because it destroys human persons at the embryonic stage of development. - Adult Stem Cell Research is ethically justifiable because it does NOT destroy lives. - hESC Research has found no treatments or cures, rather ESCs cause tumors and cancer. Adult Stem Cell Research has found 77 treatments/cures. - We now have amazing new technology that is quickly making hESC research extinct and obsolete: Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC). iPSCs have the advantages of hESCs, but do NOT kill humans at the embryonic stage of developmental. iPSCs are cells that possess the same pluripotent characteristics of embryonic stem cells; however, they are not obtained from embryos, nor using eggs or cloning. They are obtained by taking an ordinary somatic (body) cell, like a skin cell, and reprogramming it to an embryonic-like pluripotent state.

History

Stem cell research began in the mid 1800s with the discovery that some cells could generate other cells. In the early 1900s the first real stem cells were discovered when it was found that some cells generate blood cells. The history of stem cell research includes work with both animal and human stem cells. A prominent application of stem cell research has been bone marrow transplants using adult stem cells. In the early 1900s physicians administered bone marrow by mouth to patients with anemia and leukemia. Although such therapy was unsuccessful, laboratory experiments eventually demonstrated that mice with defective marrow could be restored to health with infusions into the blood stream of marrow taken from other mice. This caused physicians to speculate whether it was feasible to transplant bone marrow from one human to another. Among early attempts to do this were several transplants carried out in France following a radiation accident in the late 1950s.

Performing marrow transplants in humans was not attempted on a larger scale until a French medical researcher made a critical medical discovery about the human immune system. In 1958 Jean Dausset identified the first of many human histocompatibility antigens. These proteins, found on the surface of most cells in the body, are called human leukocyte antigens, or HLA antigens. These HLA antigens give the bodys immune system the ability to determine what belongs in the body and what does not. Whenever the body does not recognize the series of antigens on the cell walls, it creates antibodies and other substances to destroy the cell.

In 1998, James Thompson (University of Wisconsin Madison) isolated cells from the inner cell mass of early embryos, and developed the first embryonic stem cell lines. In the same year, John Gearhart (Johns Hopkins University) derived germ cells from cells in fetal gonadal tissue (primordial germ cells). Ethical concerns over this type of embryonic stem cell research has been expressed in the following US legal regulations:

In 1973, a moratorium was placed on government funding for human embryo research. In 1988, a NIH panel voted 19 to 2 in favor of government funding. In 1990, Congress voted to override the moratorium on government funding of embryonic stem cell research, which was vetoed by President George Bush. President Clinton lifted the ban, but changed his mind the following year after public outcry. Congress banned federal funding in 1995. In 1998, DHHS Secretary Sullivan extended the moratorium. In 2000, President Bill Clinton allowed funding of research on cells derived from aborted human fetuses, but not from embryonic cells. On August 9, 2001, President George W. Bush announced his decision to allow Federal funding of research only on existing human embryonic stem cell lines created prior to his announcement. His concern was to not foster the continued destruction of living human embryos. In 2004, both houses of Congress asked President George W. Bush to review his policy on embryonic stem cell research. President George W. Bush released a statement reiterating his moral qualms about creating human embryos to destroy them, and refused to reverse the federal policy banning government funding of ESC research. http://www.allaboutpopularissues.org/history-of-stem-cell-research-faq.htm

Types

There are three types of stem cells: Embryonic, Adult, and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells. Adult Stem Cells are generally limited to differentiating into different cell types of their tissue of origin. However, evidence suggests that adult stem cell plasticity may exist, increasing the number of cell types a given adult stem cell can become.

Large numbers of Embryonic Stem Sells can be relatively easily grown in culture, while adult stem cells are rare in mature tissues and methods for expanding their numbers in cell culture have not yet been worked out. With Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells, the supply is unlimited because of the ability to reprogram different cells already present in a persons body. This is an important distinction, as large numbers of cells are needed for stem cell replacement therapies.

The rest is here:

Stem Cell Research | Medical Students for Life