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The BBC News Published: 2003/08/12 23:29:58 GMT UK human embryonic stem cell first Human embryonic stem cells have been grown in the UK for the first time, a team at King's College London announced on Wednesday. Its success is the first since such experiments were approved in the UK. The researchers say they will use the cells to research treatments for Parkinson's disease and Type 1 diabetes. But an anti-abortion organisation has described the research as unethical and unnecessary. IVF source The King's cell line was grown from an embryo originally created as part of a course of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment. Under UK legislation, embryos created for IVF and not used after five years must be destroyed. The embryo used at King's was one such embryo and was donated to the researchers by its biological parents, who have finished their IVF treatment. At the time the cells were taken from the embryo it was a small clump of cells a few days old, visible only under a microscope. Scientists are interested in stem cells because they have the potential to become any other kind of cell and so might be used for transplantation. "The things we're most interested in are Type 1 diabetes and Parkinson's disease," Dr Stephen Minger, one of the lead scientists on the King's project, told the BBC. "We already know that putting cells into patients with those diseases works but there's a significant shortage of transplantable material. "So our idea is to try to change these cells specifically into cells that make dopamine or cells that make insulin," he said. Growing very large numbers of such cells might make it possible to treat more than just the handful of patients who have currently been able to receive transplants from conventional sources, Dr Minger said. Sharing the cells There are only around a dozen lines of cells cultivated from human embryos available to researchers in the world and the creation of a UK source for the cells will make access in Europe much easier. Stem cells were first grown from human embryos over four years ago. The King's line will be deposited in a European stem cell bank based in the UK. The team at King's was one of the first two to gain a licence from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to carry out such work after the House of Lords recommended approving human embryonic stem cell research in 2002. They will now go on to try to develop procedures to guide and control the growth of stem cells so that they reliably generate useful types of cell. Ethical objections A spokeswoman for the Pro-Life Alliance party told the BBC that the extraction of stem cells from human embryos was unethical. "The primary issue is that a human life has been sacrificed," she said. The majority of therapeutic applications for stem cell technology were coming from research done on stem cells taken from adults, she said. Professor Nick Wright, head of Cancer Research UK's histopathology unit and a specialist in human stem cell research, said that scientific access to human embryonic stem cell lines was needed for critical work in areas such as the repair and regeneration of tissues damaged through cancer and cancer treatment. "While some such stem cell lines have been available in this country for some time, the identification and characterisation of this new line is a significant advance and will provide British scientists with an important new resource. "I look forward to the line being deposited in the MRC Stem Cell Bank and being able to use it for my own unit's research," he said. SOURCE: The BBC NEWS, UK http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/3144925.stm * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn