The creation of human stem cells without destroying an embryo — a feat reported in two scientific journals this week — holds promise both for defusing the moral and political debate and accelerating a variety of work on diseases, Colorado researchers say.
“This is good news for everybody, actually,” said Christopher Hogan, a stem-cell biologist at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine.
“It really is of huge biological import, not just for embryonic stem cells,” said Hogan, associate director of the medical school’s Charles C. Gates Program in Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Biology.
“But just as important is having the whole ethical controversy off your back. You don’t have to sneak through the alleyways anymore,” Hogan said.
He works with stem cells derived from umbilical-cord blood, seeking ways to expand the use of bone-marrow transplants for adults with cancer.
Others at the Gates program work with skin cells, or adult stem cells, he said.
There is actually little research in Colorado that involves human embryonic stem cells.
Even with the findings, “we’re still a long way off from providing therapeutic benefit,” said Brad Olwin, a professor in CU-Boulder’s molecular and cellular developmental biology department.
Still, Olwin called the findings of the separate studies, published in the journals Cell and Science, “a phenomenal achievement.”
It is an achievement that may eliminate one huge obstacle to making stem-cell therapies a reality — the potential that a patient might reject stem cells created from someone else’s genetic material, in much the same way transplant patients’ bodies attempt to reject donor organs.
“Huge advantage”
Because a patient’s own skin cells could be used in his or her treatment, “there’s no immune rejection issues, and that’s a huge advantage,” Olwin said.
In 2001, President Bush banned federal funding for research on new stem-cell lines from human embryos. Work was allowed to continue on lines created prior to the president’s order.
A bill sponsored by Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., to expand the embryonic stem cells available to researchers passed Congress this year. Bush vetoed the measure in June.
Scientists hope that stem cells hold the key to treating a number of diseases including diabetes and cancer. But to create human embryonic stem-cell lines, an embryo must be destroyed. That, the president and others say, is destroying life — and that has made stem-cell research a divisive political issue.
In findings published this week, separate research teams, in Tokyo and Wisconsin, report that they were able to turn human skin cells into stem cells by adding four genes.
Many hurdles ahead
While the findings have been almost universally hailed as a significant breakthrough, some, including DeGette, say it’s too soon to break out the champagne.
DeGette told The Denver Post on Tuesday that this new approach can and should be used alongside work with embryonic stem cells.
Olwin agreed. “It’s a little premature for the politicians to say, ‘We told you so. We didn’t need to fund embryonic stem-cell research,’ ” he said.
Olwin said there are still a lot of unanswered questions and many hurdles that will have to be cleared before anyone can be certain that this technique can advance all stem-cell research.
Cures are still a long way off, researchers say. But this week’s findings may bring them a giant step closer.
Karen Auge: 303-954-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com
