LANSING -- A group seeking to expand medical research using embryonic stem cells in Michigan announced Tuesday that it has submitted language for a proposed constitutional amendment that would end the state's prohibition on the destruction of human embryos for research purposes.
The Stem Cell Ballot Question Committee in Michigan wants to authorize the use of excess or unsuitable embryos from fertility clinics that "would otherwise be discarded unless they are used for research." In contrast to legislation aimed at opening up research on stem cells, the ballot proposal affirms Michigan's law prohibiting human cloning.
Backers of the proposal would like to collect enough petition signatures -- 380,126 -- to put the issue before voters in November.
Opponents, led by the Michigan Catholic Conference and Right to Life organizations, are unlikely to soften their views, even without cloning issues.
Catholic Conference spokesman Dave Maluchnik said Tuesday that the measure is under review but that efforts to legalize research that destroys embryos is "terribly unfortunate," reversing 30 years of public policy in Michigan.
Advocates of embryonic stem-cell research say stem cells derived from embryos offer immense promise for treatment of chronic disease and injury. A state elections panel is to review the ballot proposal language Friday. The committee has a July 7 deadline to collect the signatures to qualify for the November ballot.
Contact DAWSON BELL at 313-222-6609 or dbell@freepress.com.Article From:http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080130/NEWS06/801300392/1008
By Madeline Vann
HealthDay Reporter
Sunday, January 20, 2008; 12:00 AM
SUNDAY, Jan. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have coaxed embryonic mouse stem cells to grow into healthy muscle tissue, in a feat that creates new possibilities for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
DMD is the most common of nine types of muscular dystrophy, which is characterized by a lack of the protein dystrophin in voluntary muscles, such as those in the arms and legs. Dystrophin plays a key role in building and repairing muscle; without it, muscles deteriorate and lose function.
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center team focused on developing embryonic stem cells containing the gene Pax3, which triggers cells to grow into muscle tissue that will produce dystrophin.
"Embryonic stem cells can make every tissue in the body. We instructed these cells to make more skeletal muscle, and from a crowd of cells," explained study author Rita Perlingeiro. "We found a way to pull out only the ones destined to make muscle. These two steps combined resulted in a cell population capable of making muscle in a mouse with muscular dystrophy and, very importantly, the new muscle is stronger."
This is one of the few studies to test the ability of embryonic stem cells to grow in adult muscle tissue, the researchers added. The method they used also managed to avoid the risk of tumor formation in the mice.
One expert lauded the study, which appears in the Jan. 20 online issue ofNature Medicine, as a strong first step.
"By way of experiments done with mice, the paper offers a compelling 'proof of principle,' that embryonic stem cells can be turned into muscle-producing cells in the laboratory and used to deliver healthy muscle to people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy," said Paul Muhlrad, research program coordinator for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
The researchers noted it was only necessary to regenerate a portion of the muscle tissue for the mice to regain some control. However, the process requires refining before it can be tried in humans, they added.
"At the present time, no one has yet demonstrated that genetic manipulation of human embryonic stem cells can be used to derive functional skeletal muscle progenitors from these cells, so it's far too early to tell whether this technique could lead to any potential clinical application," said Perlingeiro. "The main hurdle is to make sure we can indeed combine successfully these two approaches, and test these cells exhaustively in mouse models before we think about clinical trials."
Muhlrad also cautioned that this research is a long way from human use.
"While mice provide an excellent model system, experiments that work in mice don't always readily transfer to humans. Scientists would probably want to replicate the experiments in dog models of muscular dystrophy before moving on to human studies," Muhlrad said. Additionally, the mice had to take immunosuppressants to prevent their bodies from rejecting cells from another mouse. The ideal approach would be to use a body's own stem cells to avoid the issue of rejection.
More information
To learn more about the different types of muscular dystrophy, visit the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
SOURCES: Paul Muhlrad, Ph.D., research program coordinator, Muscular Dystrophy Association, Tucson, Ariz.; Rita Perlingeiro, Ph.D., assistant professor, developmental biology and molecular biology, Department of Developmental Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas; Jan. 20, 2008,Nature Medicineonline
from:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/20/AR2008012001004.html
human embryonic stem cell research for what ? j bush is all answer.
let see
Embryonic stem cells treated with growth factor reverse hemophilia in mice
Mouse embryonic stem cells treated in culture with a growth factor and then injected into the liver reverse a form of hemophilia in mice analogous to hemophilia B in humans, the new study shows. A report of the study appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today (Feb. 15).
The genetically altered mice lack the clotting substance factor IX, which in humans results in the hereditary bleeding disorder known as hemophilia B. This disease, much less common than hemophilia A, affects roughly one of every 35,000 people, primarily males.
Although embryonic stem, or ES, cells can differentiate into most cell types in the body, numerous problems have arisen in translating their potential into therapeutic strategies, the UNC School of Medicine study authors reported.
These problems include poor engraftment, limited function, rejection of engrafted cells by the immune system and teratomas, tumors involving a mixture of tissue not normally found at that site.
The new study used a line of mouse ES cells developed in the laboratory of senior co-author Dr. Oliver Smithies, Excellence professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at UNC.
A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Smithies has won many honors for gene targeting, a technique he pioneered. This technique allows for the development of mice with specific genetic mutations that mimic human illnesses such as hemophilia. In 2001, Smithies received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, often called "America's Nobel."
In the study, ES cells were treated with fibroblast growth factor for seven days prior to injection. As expected, this resulted in ES cells differentiating into early endoderm like precursors, which the researchers named "putative endoderm precursors," or PEPs. Endoderm refers to the inner layer of early embryonic cells that develops into the digestive and respiratory systems.
"Not only do ES cells differentiate into PEPs, they also engraft, persist, differentiate further and then function following injection, resulting in the persistent production of factor IX protein that can only come from a hepatocyte (liver cell) and hemophilia reversal," said study lead author Dr. Jeffrey H. Fair, associate professor of surgery and division chief of abdominal transplant surgery.
Moreover, he said, the PEP cells robustly engraft within the liver and were not recognized by the immune system as foreign.
"Within a few weeks, PEPs became hepatocytes," Fair added. "They went from something that is a very early grandparent of the hepatocyte to becoming hepatocytes. After 115 days, nearly four months after injection, mice still produced factor IX without immune suppression. This occurred even in mice that were a complete immunologic tissue mismatch to the PEPs. In addition, the incidence of teratomas was low."
The researchers believe this study demonstrates the power of multidisciplinary collaboration, said co-lead author Dr. Bruce A. Cairns, assistant professor of surgery and director of research in the N.C. Jaycee Burn Center. "This approach may not only be beneficial, but required in order to solve complex problems such as these in medicine."
Although a number of questions need to be answered, this work has great potential for future applications, not only as a novel therapeutic possibility for hemophilia but also for other genetic or acquired diseases of the liver, said senior co-author Dr. Jeffery A. Frelinger, Kenan professor and chairman of microbiology and immunology.
"The data published in this study shows that embryonic stem cells partially differentiated, are able to remain in the liver and be functional without apparent immunological rejection. This transforms them into possible candidates for cellular transplantation into the liver."
Along with Fair, Cairns, Smithies and Frelinger, co-authors from the department of surgery are Dr. Michael A. LaPaglia, Dr. Montserrat Caballero, Dr. Anthony A. Meyer (chairman) and W. Andrew Pleasant. From the department of pathology and laboratory medicine are Drs. Seigo Hatada and Hyung-suk Kim. From the College of Arts and Sciences' department of biology are Drs. Tong Gui and Darrel W. Stafford; and from the department of genetics, Dr. Larysa Pevny.
The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the N.C. Jaycee Burn Center.
Scientists in S Korea have cloned 30 human embryos. They hope to obtain cells that could eventually be used to treat disease.
The took the genetic material from normal cells in women donors and combined it with their eggs.
This was done at the Seoul National University by Suk Hwanf and his team.
The embryos were then developed to produce stem cells. These stem cells can divide into any tissue in the body.
These cells will (it is hoped) replace those which have failed, for example, in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
'Because these cells carry the nuclear genome of the individual, after differentiation they could be expected to be transplanted without immune rejection for treatment of degenerative disorders. Our approach opens the door for the use of these specially developed cells in transplantation medicine.' said Professor Hwang.
His research is being published online by the journal Science (Science Express web site).
Mice proof
There have been claims in the past for the creation of human embryo clones to study so-called stem cells - many of them disputed.
But no group has reported producing so many early-stage clones and seen their development progress to such an advanced stage.
The work has also been subjected to the rigorous scrutiny of independent scientists before publication in a major journal.
'These are the most advanced human embryo clones yet produced,' Professor Hwang told BBC News Online.
The team says it sought approval for its work from an ethical review board and obtained informed consent from its women donors before proceeding with the work.
Thirty embryos
The team tells Science Express how it used 242 eggs in its experiments taken from 16 women.
In each case, material was transferred from the nucleus of a non-reproductive (somatic) cell, containing the woman's genetic blueprint, into a nucleus-free egg from the same donor.
Following this transfer, factors within the host egg's exterior, or cytoplasm, are believed to have reprogrammed the new nuclear contents by activating versatile embryonic genes, while silencing the more limited adult somatic cell genes.
In total, 30 embryos - exact genetic copies of their female donors - were then cultured to the so-called blastocyst stage at which stem cells could be extracted.
These special cells were seen to divide into all three of the main tissue types found in the human body, the researchers report.
The cells were even transplanted into mice to show they could differentiate into still more specific cell types, offering further proof of their 'pluripotency'.
The stated intention is to study human embryonic stem cells to see how they could be used as a therapeutic tool to treat disorders, such as diabetes, osteoarthritis, and Parkinson's disease, among others, in which tissues in the body have begun to fail.
Non-egg future
Editor-in-chief of the journal Science, Donald Kennedy, said: 'The potential for embryonic stem cells is enormous, but researchers still must overcome significant scientific hurdles.'
And he added: 'These results seem promising. But, it's important to remember that cell and tissue transplantation and gene therapy are still emerging technologies, and it may be years yet before embryonic stem cells can be used in transplantation medicine.'
Addressing ethical concerns, he also called for a worldwide ban on activities which would seek to use this technology to create living children.
Professor Hwang, whose expertise has been developed in animal cloning, said any attempt to produce a baby would be 'crazy'.
'We will never try to produce cloned human beings,' he said.
'During animal cloning, we experienced so many difficulties and dangers with deformities, especially in the internal organs.'
Commenting on the Korean work, Roger Pedersen, professor of regenerative medicine, at the University of Cambridge, UK, told BBC News Online: 'The present work has substantially advanced the cause of generating transplantable tissues that exactly match the patient's own immune system.
'These researchers' findings also make it possible to learn how to reprogramme the human genome to an embryonic state.
'This will likely accelerate the development of alternative ways of reprogramming human cells, which could in the future diminish the need to use human eggs for this purpose.'
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The embargo on this press release has been lifted ahead of schedule.
SEATTLE, WA--New research - published by Science Magazine within the Science Express Web site and released today at the 2004 AAAS Annual Meeting -- may be a first step toward methods for treating diabetes, osteoarthritis, Parkinson's and other diseases, by producing replacement cells unlikely to trigger immune-system rejection.
Transplantation medicine based on stem cells remains a distant hope for now, Science editors cautioned. But, the Science study describes intriguing early results:
For the first time, researchers have reported the development of versatile 'pluripotent' human embryonic stem cells, potentially capable of becoming any cell in the body, from a cloned human blastocyst.
The stem cells were harvested from a blastocyst produced by transferring the nucleus of a non-reproductive ('somatic') cell, containing a woman's genetic blueprint, into a nucleus-free egg from the same donor.
Following this transfer, factors within the host egg's exterior, or cytoplasm, reprogrammed its new nuclear contents by activating versatile embryonic genes, while silencing the more limited adult somatic cell genes. Researchers were then able to collect embryonic stem cells from the resulting cell mass inside the cloned blastocysts.
In theory: 'Because these cells carry the nuclear genome of the individual, after differentiation they could be expected to be transplanted without immune rejection for treatment of degenerative disorders,' reported Woo Suk Hwang of Seoul National University in Korea.
'Our approach opens the door for the use of these specially developed cells in transplantation medicine.'
Embryonic stem cells have previously been produced with cells from mice using the same method, called 'somatic cell nuclear transfer.' But, achieving this trick with human cells posed unique challenges, said Donald Kennedy, Science's Editor-in-Chief.
The researchers attribute their apparent success to the use of extremely fresh donor eggs, stringent timing protocols, and a special method for gently extruding rather than suctioning the DNA-spindle complex from eggs. Suctioning the DNA may damage spindles, possibly causing chromosomal defects called aneuploidy, they noted.
Hwang and colleagues developed the stem cell line, SCNT-hES-1, after collecting 242 eggs from 16 unpaid volunteers who had signed informed-consent agreements. From these eggs, scientists then cultured 30 blastocysts to obtain 20 suitable inner cell masses. By tweaking the amount of time that elapsed between the transfer of the nucleus and the activation of the newly transplanted genetic material, the team was able to optimize their results:
A two-hour delay seemed to work best, so that 20 percent of all reconstructed eggs formed blastocysts. From the inner cell mass of these blastocysts, a single human embryonic stem cell line was obtained.
The resulting stem cells differentiated into all three of the main tissue types that appear at the beginning stages of development, researchers reported. When transplanted into mice, the stem cells differentiated into still more specific cell types, offering further proof of pluripotency.
Interestingly, the research team harvested eggs as well as somatic cells from the same donors: Nuclear material from the somatic cell was transferred into the nucleus-free or enucleated egg of the same woman.
This unusual experimental design may be more effective than person-to-person transfers because it offered greater compatibility between the genetic components that were fused together.
But, were the stem cells truly derived from the transferred nucleus, or were they the result of an accidental 'parthenote'--an artificially induced blastocyst resulting from an egg that began to spontaneously divide?
To support their claim that the resulting stem cells came from the transplanted nucleus, Hwang's team completed DNA fingerprinting analysis, and also checked the expression of imprinted genes.
The results were consistent with stem cells resulting from transplantation.
Many questions remain, Science's Donald Kennedy said: 'The potential for embryonic stem cells is enormous, but researchers still must overcome significant scientific hurdles,' Kennedy remarked.
'These results seem promising. But, it's important to remember that cell and tissue transplantation and gene therapy are still emerging technologies, and it may be years yet before embryonic stem cells can be used in transplantation medicine.'
The research also raises policy and ethical questions, Kennedy noted, since blastocyst-derived stem cells for tissue repair or transplantation might exacerbate pressures on egg donors in some regions.
The prospect of using cloned human blastocysts to produce new embryonic stem cells lines also is likely to provoke further controversy, he added. 'There is widespread consensus among all responsible, mainstream scientists--including the authors of this paper and AAAS, publisher of Science Magazine--that any attempt to clone a human being would be highly dangerous and wrong, and therefore, all reproductive cloning should be banned,' Kennedy said.
'But, the generation of stem cells by somatic cell nuclear transfer methods involving the same individuals may hold promise for advances in transplantation technology that could help people affected by many devastating conditions.'
In addition to Hwang, authors on this Science paper were Young June Ryu, Eul Soon Park, Eu Gene Lee, Hyun Yong Chun, Byeong Chun Lee, Sung Keun Kang, Curie Ahn and Shin Yong Moon, all of Seoul National University; as well as Jong Hyuk Park and Sun Jong Kim of Mizmedi Hospital in Seoul; Ja Min Koo of Gachon Medical School; Jung Hye Hwang of Hanyang University; Ky Young Park of Sunchon National University; and Jose B. Cibelli of Michigan State University.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science (www.sciencemag.org). AAAS was founded in 1848, and reports some 265 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of one million. The non-profit AAAS (www.aaas.org) is open to all and fulfills its mission to 'advance science and serve society' through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
MEDIA NOTE: A newsbriefing on this research will take place at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time, Thursday, 12 February, during the AAAS Annual Meeting in Seattle, in the Eliza Amphitheater, Grand Hyatt. Further, these and other speakers will take part in a symposium titled, 'Stem Cell Science in the Service of Society,' at 2:30 p.m. Monday, 16 February, Sheraton Hotel, Second Floor, Grand Ballroom C. Press registration is in the AAAS Press Center in Leonesa I of the Grand Hyatt Hotel.
AAAS is the world's largest general scientific society, dedicated to 'Advancing science � Serving society.'
Contact: Ginger Pinholster
gpinhols@aaas.org
206-774-6330
Embryonic stem cells.
Embryonic stem cell lines (ES cell lines) are cultures of cells derived from the epiblast tissue of the inner cell mass (ICM) of a blastocyst or earlier morula stage embryos [6]. A blastocyst is an early stage embryo - approximately 4 to 5 days old in humans and consisting of 50-150 cells. ES cells are pluripotent, and give rise during development to all derivatives of the three primary germ layers: ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm. In other words, they can develop into each of the more than 200 cell types of the adult body when given sufficient and necessary stimulation for a specific cell type. They do not contribute to the extra-embryonic membranes or the placenta. Nearly all research to date has taken place using mouse embryonic stem cells (mES) or human embryonic stem cells (hES). Both have the essential stem cell characteristics, yet they require very different environments in order to maintain an undifferentiated state. Mouse ES cells are grown on a layer of gelatin and require the presence of Leukemia Inhibitory Factor (LIF).[7]
Human ES cells are grown on a feeder layer of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF's) and require the presence of basic Fibroblast Growth Factor (bFGF or FGF-2).[8] Without optimal culture conditions or genetic manipulation[9] embryonic stem cells will rapidly differentiate. A human embryonic stem cell is also defined by the presence of several transcription factors and cell surface proteins. The transcription factors Oct-4, Nanog, and Sox2 form the core regulatory network which ensures the suppression of genes that lead to differentiation and the maintenance of pluripotency.[10] The cell surface proteins most commonly used to identify hES cells are the glycolipids SSEA3 and SSEA4 and the keratan sulfate antigens Tra-1-60 and Tra-1-81.
The molecular definition of a stem cell includes many more proteins and continues to be a topic of research.[11] After 20 years of research, there are no approved treatments or human trials using embryonic stem cells. Their tendency to produce tumors and malignant carcinomas, cause transplant rejection, and form the wrong kinds of cells are just a few of the hurdles that embryonic stem cell researchers still face.[12] Many nations currently have moratoria on either ES cell research or the production of new ES cell lines. Because of their combined abilities of unlimited expansion and pluripotency, embryonic stem cells remain a theoretically potential source for regenerative medicine and tissue replacement after injury or disease.
