Researchers Create Embryonic Stem Cells By Stimulating Unfertilized Eggs
Main Category: Stem Cell Research NewsArticle Date: 03 Jul 2007 - 6:00 PDT
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Researchers from Walkersville, Md.-based Lifeline Cell Technology recently announced that they have created human embryonic stem cells by stimulating unfertilized eggs, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports. The research is published online in the journal Cloning and Stem Cells. According to the AP/Chronicle, the technique is a "significant step" toward creating transplant tissue that is matched genetically to women.
Jeffrey Janus, president of Lifeline, and colleagues stimulated unfertilized eggs from women to begin embryonic development. The researchers said they produced six lines of embryonic stem cells, one of which had chromosome abnormalities. The eggs were donated from five women who were undergoing in vitro fertilization procedures, the AP/Chronicle reports.
According to Janus, stem cells produced by stimulated unfertilized eggs could be useful for patients other than the egg donor when used in combination with anti-rejection therapy.
Reaction
The research is a "big deal, it's a very nice advance" in stem cell research, Kent Vrana of Pennsylvania State University
who was not a part of the study said, adding that it provides an
"additional tool" beyond therapeutic cloning. George Daley of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute
called the work interesting. "It's a new type of embryonic stem cell
line from a different kind of embryo," Daley said, adding, "We just
don't know whether these cells will be as good as embryonic stem cells
from naturally fertilized embryos." One question is whether the lack of
a male's DNA would impair the performance of the stem cells, Daley said.
Ronald Green, a Dartmouth College
ethicist, said the method does not use "anything biologically or
morally like a human embryo, and it's a very good way of trying to
provide human embryonic stem cells that does not involve the
destruction of an embryo. However, Tad Pacholczyk of the National Catholic Bioethics Center
said if the stem cells "grow as organized embryos for the first few
days and then arrest, they may just be very short-lived human beings."
He added, "One is very possibly dealing with a defective human being.
And at a minimum, the benefit of the doubt should be given here, and
these embryos should not be created for the purposes of destroying
them" (Ritter, AP/Houston Chronicle, 6/28).
The study is available online. Note: You need Adobe Acrobat to view this report.
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