Umbilical Stem Cell Breakthrough
By Christine White
The Australian
19 August 2005
A NEW type of cell discovered in umbilical-cord blood promises to overcome the ethical and legal dilemmas surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells.
And the international researchers who discovered the cells -- called cord-blood-derived-embryonic-like stem cells, or CBEs -- have found a way to mass produce them.
The implication is that CBEs, which are similar to human embryonic stem cells, would be available in large quantities to treat patients suffering from diseases ranging from diabetes and liver disease to multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's, said research leader Colin McGuckin from Kingston University in Britain.
Ian Brown, chief operating officer of the Melbourne-based stem cell company Cygenics, welcomed the development.
"If they are able to produce cord blood stem cells in sufficient quantities for clinical work, this is very exciting," Mr Brown said yesterday.
The newfound CBEs are not quite as versatile as human embryonic stem cells, which can become virtually any type of cell in the body.
However, they are far more flexible than the so-called "adult" stem cells that are found in some parts of the body such as the nose.
Researchers know cord blood contains stem cells, but to date they have only been used to produce blood cells in cases of patients with leukemia, lymphomas and other blood disorders.
In most cases, however, human ES cells are derived from human embryos. This means that their use -- even in research -- has generated intense ethical debate worldwide, and is banned in some jurisdictions.
Furthermore, research into ES cell therapies has so far struggled with the limited supply of embryonic stem cells available for study, and has faced strong opposition from conservative thinkers, politicians and some religious leaders.
Cord blood stem cells, which are much more adaptable than adult stem cells, are being widely promoted as the best alternative to the use of human embryos.
More and more clinics worldwide are storing cord blood, as the potential for finding tissue matches -- and avoiding any problems with rejection of transplanted material -- becomes increasingly realistic.
Dr McGuckin told New Scientist magazine the discovery of CBEs represented "significant progress" in the race to develop stem cell therapies that could be used efficiently and ethically.
"With a global birth rate of 100 million babies a year, there is a better chance of getting the right tissue type for the many patients out there waiting for stem cell therapy," Dr McGuckin said.
"There is also far less likelihood of such cells being rejected when they are transplanted into people with liver disease, for example."
Writing in the journal Cell Proliferation, Dr McGuckin and his colleagues say the cord-blood stem cells have many of the same characteristics as embryonic stem cells, including the ability to become liver cells, which the researchers have produced in their laboratory.
Dr McGuckin's team used NASA-developed microgravity technology to grow cord-blood stem cells in large enough quantities to treat patients.
Team member Randall Urban of the University of Texas said plans are now in place to use the technology to "engineer" pancreatic cells, which are able to reverse juvenile diabetes. |
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