Eve Herold of the Genetics Policy Institute discusses whether the U.S. should fund embryonic stem cell research.(Jeff Hammond/DP)

“The Great Stem Cell Debate” — an event that could make Biology majors salivate and campus politicos drop their books. Last Tuesday, almost eighty people came to hear a debate over funding for embryonic stem cells. These are the most controversial of the larger class of “progenitor” cells which can mature in to every other type of cell in the body. But the debate isn’t just about embryonic stem cell research, even though the discussion usually gets caught on the thorny political and ethical issues surrounding it.

Fortunately, scientific advancements may soon make the debate over embryonic stem cells obsolete. And we need look no further than the cutting-edge research occurring next door at the Penn Medical School.

Last June, Assistant Professor Dr. George Xu announced that his group had isolated a new form of progenitor cell, adding to the list of “adult” stem cells that can be procured without embryonic destruction. Adult stem cells are cells that can only create a specific family of cells in the body. Bone marrow, for instance, acts through stem cell differentiation to give rise to all blood cells. Dr Xu’s study in the American Journal of Pathology demonstrated that by using conditions typically used to grow embryonic stem cells, cells from hair follicles could become “multi-potent” – ie, turn into several types of cells in the body. By changing the molecular environment, the hair cells differentiated into nerve cells, smooth muscle cells, and skin pigmentation cells.

According to an e-mail interview with Dr. Xu, adult stem cells have unique features that are beneficial and distinguish them from embryonic stem cells. “Adult stem cells have not been shown, as embryonic stem cells have, to produce unwanted tumors”. Further, stem cells can be derived from the same patient, eliminating the “need for immunosuppressive therapy” to combat physiologic rejection. Adult stem cells have already seen clinical success through bone marrow transplants, which have “saved many lives already”. Through his work, Dr. Xu argues that adult stem cells are “a productive alternative to embryonic stem cells.”

The promise of adult stem cells relies on the ability to determine the ideal conditions for growing the specific types of cells demanded. Researchers are continuing to investigate these conditions, with work such as Dr. Xu’s adding to the legitimacy of this line of study. As Dr. Xu asserts, “Funding for adult stem cells is equally as important as for embryonic stem cells.” And as more research universities are funding adult stem cell trials, Penn will continue to compete in this promising area of investigation.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2007 at 3:43 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.