>  --
> The following excerpts from an article from the July 16th Chicago Tribune
> examines the differences between adult stem cells and embryonic stem
> cells. Are they really equal options for research?
>
> Full Article at:
> http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/article/0,2669,1-010716022
> 8,FF.html
>
> Science explores stem cell options
> By Jeremy Manier and Ronald Kotulak, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune
> staff reporter Peter Gorner contributed to...
>
>  " As the political fortunes of embryonic stem cell research hang in
> the balance, scientists increasingly are looking for alternatives in
> case federal funding for work on human embryos falls through.
>
> ... Opponents of such research argue that some alternatives are at
> least as promising as embryonic stem cells, which may be able to
> regenerate tissue to cure ailments such as diabetes and Parkinson's
> disease. The desperate search for other research options has led to
> possible stem cell sources in adult bone marrow, cells made by
> mimicking the process of cloning and even fat tissue.
>
> Yet some of the alternatives, such as fat, almost certainly are dead
> ends, according to stem cell experts. Adult stem cells from bone
> marrow show more promise and have reached human trials for some
> diseases. Even so, experts say, such cells have lacked the power of
> embryonic stem cells to form virtually any type of tissue.
>
> For those reasons even the most prominent adult stem cell researchers
> say they support federal funding of work on cells from embryos.
>
> "The vanguard of the field has really been the embryonic work," said
> Dr. Ira Black, a neuroscientist from the University of Medicine and
> Dentistry of New Jersey. Last year, Black presented the first report
> showing adult stem cells from blood could be transformed into brain
> cells..."
>
> "Using adult stem cells
>
> Although adult stem cells can become several different tissue types,
> there is little hard evidence that they can replicate essential
> functions, said Dr. Irv Weissman, a Stanford University scientist and
> pioneer of adult stem cell research.
>
> "We have a small number of intriguing experiments in mice where we
> could show, for example, that a blood-forming stem cell could turn
> into liver," Weissman said. "But almost all of the other experiments
> that were done, even with mice, are not rigorous experiments--they're
> sort of flashes out of the box."
>
> Most adult stem cell research has focused on cells from bone marrow. A
> potential advantage of adult stem cells is that unlike embryonic stem
> cells, which have never been transplanted into humans, doctors have
> decades of experience with bone marrow transplants for cancer
> patients..."
>
> Misinterpretations
>
> "Some adult stem cell researchers, however, said the implications of
> their work have been exaggerated.
>
> When Dr. Diane Krause of the Yale University School of Medicine
> published a study in May suggesting bone marrow cells could form
> liver, lung and skin cells, some opponents of embryonic research
> claimed the results showed adult stem cells are just as flexible as
> stem cells from embryos.
>
> Yet Krause said her study could not show the cells were functioning in
> their new roles.
>
> "It was based on 10 mice," said Krause, who supports embryonic stem
> cell research. "I would call that scant evidence. That doesn't mean
> it's not true. But we have no idea how it happened."
>
> Similar misinterpretations sprang from a much-publicized April study
> in which researchers obtained muscle and bone cells from fat tissue,
> according to Gearhart of Johns Hopkins. Because the researchers never
> isolated individual stem cells, they could not know if the new cells
> came from fat or from blood that circulated through the fat tissue,
> Gearhart said.
>
> Many researchers said the relative strengths of adult and embryonic
> cells will never be known until they can be tested against each other.
> And that is almost impossible without federal funding for embryonic
> cell research, said Dr. Evan Snyder, a stem cell researcher at Harvard
> University...."
>
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