Dear Joan:
At the outset I have to say that the science of stem cells is in its
infancy.
Having said that, scientists believe that embryonic stem cells are
more versatile and pluripotent (can be coaxed to differentiate into almost
any of the 200 different cell types in our body). The other category of
stem cells is called adult stem cells. Any tissue in our body has resident
stem cells, which also has been shown to have some degree of pluripotency in
some labs. However, we do not know still the extent of the versatility of
the adult stem cells, to be routinely used in regenerative medicine. It is
too early to discard one against the other. There are at least three
studies that have used adult stem cells that have reported on the
suspeciously dangerous way these adult sem cells function. They claim that
the adult stem cells fuse with the other tissue cells, forming what are
called polyploid cells (cells that have immense potential to give rise to
tumor cells). In fact, I have recently shown (Cancer Biology & Therapy,
Vol. 3, Issue 2, Feb 2004) that multinucleate / polyloid giant cells are the
only soure of origin of cancer cells by a novel mechanism of cell division,
which I have termed neosis, as opposed to mitosis or meiosis, the classical
forms of cell division. One neosis mother cell can give rise to one -
hundred or more tumor-initiating cells at a time!
I would say that cord blood stem cells probably fall in between the
embryonic stem cells and the adult stem cells in their pluripotency. But,
they are probably better than adult stem cells. We still have to learn a
lot more than what we know today.
The other ethical question is how to get the embryonic stem cells. Is
it ethical to kill a human embryo to benefit another human being? How do
you define the origin of human life? Does the embryo has the same right as
an adult human being? These are very important questions one has to ponder
about.
At the outset, it is not ethical to kill an human embryo to benefit an
aging adult. But, herein lies the double standrad in our judgement on
ethics. We all agree that the human life starts at the time of
fertilization.
(1) Yet, we kill literally millions of fertilized eggs from being
successfully implanted and develop into a human being by taking birth
control pills. Nobody (except devout Catholics) is talking about ethics
when we take birth control pills. Everybody does it. This is not
considered unethical by a vast majority of people, no matter which political
or religious group they belong to.
(2) The in vitro fertilization for implanting human embryos into
surrogate mothers is another source of embryonic stem cells. We are
discarding unused embryos in the garbage. When we want to use this for
research purposes, people say, "It is unethical to kill a human embryo for
medical purposes," or "Did you get informed consent from the embryos?" Did
we get informed consent from the embryos to kill them by throwing them in
the garbage?
(3) A more practical source of individualized embryonic stem cells is
by transplanting the patients nucleus into an enucleated egg, otherwise
called Therapeutic cloning. This method of obtaining embryonic stem cells
is more ethical and highly practical, if we are allowed to perfect the
technique. In this instance, one is creating his/her own embryonic stem
cells, by reprogramming his/her nucleus to become embryonic stem cells, that
could be used for his/her regenerative medical applications. In otherwords,
I shall be producing my own embryonic stem cells to treat my chronic
diseases including cancer, tissue regeneratiion after heart attack, stroke,
Parkinson's disease and other chronic degenerative diseases. Virtually
every one of the human race will benefit by the potential advances in
regenerative medicine, leading to a healthier life, especially in their old
age.
Attempt is being made to blindly ban all types of stem cell research
in the name of ethics. By banning the production of new human embryonic
stem cell lines, our choice is limited to the existing ones, which were
established in the ealy stages of this science, by cuturing them on mouse
feeder cells, and therefore, stem cells from these cell lines are not
suitable fo human use, since they may be contaminated with mouse viruses.
As I said before, let the scientists do the work and determine the
right techniques for regenerative medicine, which has enormous potential to
benefit humanity at large. A time will come, when we will know better,
which kind of stem cells would a reliable source for such applications.
We all agree reproductive human cloning is unethical and why not ban
it now before some insensitive scientist would atempt at cloning human
embryos for implantaion ino surragate mothers?
I request that people should be more ethically and morally obliged to
understand the patients' situation and be compassionate enough to allow them
to lead a healthier and productive life by enouraging scientific research on
stem cells and regenerative medicine.
I hope I have summarily explained the current contoversy.
Raj
**********
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joan E Snyder" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 7:21 PM
Subject: please help us to understand...
> hello. i need help please. i am asking anyone and everyone on this list,
> not for their opinion (i'm sure that everyone has one--but i need
> straight talk and medical research) to help me to understand the
> differnece between embroyonic stem cells and cord blood stem cells. is
> one supurior to the other...is one completely without merit when it
> comes to possibily curing neurological disorders and is one completely
> sure to hold the "cure?" i am asking because i need to know this
> informationl. Dr. Barglow, Raj, Dr. Etzold or Dr. Fink: anyone care to
> take this on??
>
> --
>
> Joan E. Blessington Snyder 51/13
> http://www.pwnkle.com/jes/jes_web/index.htm
> <[log in to unmask]>
> "Hang tough...........no way through it but to do it."
> Chris-in-the-Morning (Northern Exposure)
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to:
mailto:[log in to unmask]
> In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn
