Eleanor Noone wrote:
> In a message dated 1/20/00 2:44:11 AM EST, [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> << it is a gift and you should accept it graciously. Using the
> stem cells is NOT killing, it is preserving and enhancing life, as long as
> abortions are not being performed solely to obtain the cells. I can't believe
> that God would want His children to suffer, when it is preventable. >>
>
> I've been trying to figure out
> how to say just what Ken has, but I could never have said it so eloquently.
> Bravo, Ken, and thank you. Eleanor
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check this out--another confident, can-do researcher
the abstract contains reference to the moral issues
I would like to interject, that non-embroyonic cells are/will
be available in addition to embroynic. I think it is inevitable
that transplant cells will become available...then it becomes
your choice to use them or not. If having a transplant derived from
embroyonic tissue is immoral to you...then don't get a transplant.
On another note, possibilities exist that growth factors
may help restore lost neurons without transplantation.
Many possibilities exist...but, the future is still unclear
for today's Parkinsonians.
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[Entrez medline Query]
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Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 1999 Aug 29;354(1388):1407-21
Prospects for the clinical application of neural transplantation with the
use of conditionally immortalized neuroepithelial stem cells.
Gray JA, Hodges H, Sinden J
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK.
Although neural transplantation has made a relatively successful transition
from the animal laboratory to human neurosurgery for the treatment of
Parkinson's disease, the use of human embryonic brain tissue as the source
of transplants raises difficult ethical and practical problems. These are
likely to impede the widespread use of this otherwise promising therapy
across the range of types of brain damage to which the results of animal
experiments suggest its potential applicability. Various alternative
approaches are reviewed briefly, aimed at developing sources of tissue for
transplantation that can be maintained in vitro until needed, so obviating
the requirement for fresh embryonic tissue at each occasion of surgery.
Particularly promising are conditionally immortalized neuroepithelial stem
cell lines in which the immortalizing gene is downregulated upon
transplantation into a host brain. We describe experiments from our
laboratory with the use of cells of this kind, the multipotent MHP clonal
cell lines, derived from the developing hippocampus of a transgenic mouse
harbouring a temperature-sensitive oncogene. Implanted into the hippocampus
of rats and marmosets with damage to the CA1 cell field, the MHP36 line gave
rise to healthy surviving grafts and to essentially complete recovery of
cognitive function. Postmortem study of the implanted rat brains indicated
that MHP36 cells migrate to the region of damage, adopt both neuronal
(pyramidal) and glial phenotypes in vivo, and reconstitute the normal
laminated appearance of the CA1 cell field. We have previously shown that,
when primary differentiated foetal tissue is used as the source of grafts in
rats with CA1 damage, there is a stringent requirement for replacement with
homotypic CA1 cells. We interpret our results as showing that the MHP36 cell
line responds to putative signals associated with damage to the hippocampus
and takes up a phenotype appropriate for the repair of this damage; they
therefore open the way to the development of a novel strategy with
widespread applicability to the treatment of the diseased or damaged human
brain.
Publication Types:
* Review
* Review, tutorial
PMID: 10515001, UI: 99444590
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Ray Strand
mailto:[log in to unmask]
48/47/45?
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...on the edge of the prairie abyss ......................
