This is from Don Reed's latest article on www.stembattles.com
TWELVE ADVANCES IN EMBRYONIC STEM RESEARCH
Despite political attacks and chronic under-funding, embryonic stem cell
(ESC) research is advancing every day. Across America and around the world,
scientists are using the amazing cells to fight chronic disease and
disability. Every piece of new information is a victory, bringing us ever
closer to cures.
Here are just a few recent advances. For more information, visit the
excellent website, www.sciencedaily.com
.
1. MY ACHEY BREAKY HEART: Stem cells can't help when romance goes wrong-but
what about re-growing cardiac muscles after a heart attack? At the
University of Washington, Dr. Chuck Murry is attempting to do just that-and
with laboratory rats, he is succeeding. Using human ESCs and a cocktail of
growth-encouraging proteins, Murry was able to improve function in 100% of
his test rats' damaged hearts.
2. "SMART" MOLECULE HELPS CONTROL STEM CELLS: A molecule named IQ-1 may have
the "smarts" required to manage embryonic stem cells. At the Keck School of
Medicine, USC, Michael Kahn, Ph.D, worked with a molecule called IQ-1, and
found that it stabilized the multiplication of embryonic cells as they
divided. The cells increased their numbers cleanly, reliably, instead of
becoming something undesirable.
3. DISSOLVING A SCAR: Although part of the body's natural healing process, a
scar in the wrong place can be a problem itself. At Schepens Eye Research
Institute, Dr. Michael Young's team has used a molecule (MMP-2, induced by
stem cells) to dissolve scars on the surface of the eye of a mouse. This
allowed transplantation of a working retina. Dissolving a scar may also help
fight spinal cord injury paralysis, Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinsons' and
other nerve-related conditions.
4. REVERSING CANCER? Embryonic stem cells and cancer cells multiply
amazingly fast. What do they have in common that allows this speed? At
Northwestern University, Dr. Mary J.C. Hendrix found that both cells
secreted a protein called Nodal. Astonishingly, when the level of Nodal was
turned down, the cancer cells reverted to a harmless state. The study of
embryonic stem cells may lead to a cure for cancer.
5. JAMES BOND AND STEM CELLS: The fictional secret agent's receipe for a
martini ("Shaken, not stirred") may be a help with one of the most important
problems of stem cell therapies: the need for large quantities of cells,
properly spaced. (Cells that jumble together may multiply improperly.) At
Georgia Tech, Rich Carpenedo, a graduate student, noticed that a lab dish of
embryonic stem cells left on a machine called a "sample shaker" had an
unexpectedly positive result-there were lots more stem cells, spaced apart
in a useful, predictable manner. The shaking technique may be important!
6. COUPLES WILLING TO DONATE UNUSED BLASTOCYSTS: It was once thought almost
no couples involved In Vitro Fertility procedures would be willing to donate
their left over blastocysts to stem cell research. A new study from Duke
University and Johns Hopkins shows just the opposite. At the Berman
Institute of Bioethics, Dr. Ruth Faden and Anne Lyerly found that a large
majority (60 percent) of infertility patients would prefer to help the new
research, rather than discarding, storing, or giving their unused
blastocysts to other couples (22% preferred this option).
7. MODELING MONSTERS: ISOLATING LOU GEHRIG'S DISEASE: In the terrible
disease ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's
disease), motor nerves break down. But do the nerves fail because of a
problem inside the cells or outside them? Scientists Kevin Eggan of the
Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Serge Przedborski of Columbia University
Medical Center, used embryonic stem cells to make a microscopic model of
ALS, to learn how the disease develops, and which drugs may be useful to
defeat it. Using their own new model, these champion scientists saw that a
non-nerve cell called an astrocyte may be a poisonous part of the problem.
8. MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY TAKES A HIT: Called incurable, muscular dystrophy
wastes away the body's muscles, a slow but inexorable crippling. But at the
University of Texas, Dr. Rita Perlingeira's research team used ESC research
to make formerly wasted muscles function. A gene (PAX 3) found in embryonic
stem cells was injected into the lab rats non-functioning leg muscles-which
began to work again.
9. NEW KNEES FOR OLD: Athletes and non-athletes alike suffer when their
knees wear out. The body cannot re-grow the cartilage cushion in the joints.
At Rice University, however, researcher Kyriacos A. Athanasiou has developed
a new method to make cartilage-like cells from human embryonic stem cells.
10. SOCKS OR A T-SHIRT--ALL STEM CELL LINES NOT THE SAME: The Bush
Administration's restrictions limit federal funding to 78 lines, of which
only about 20 are actually useful and available. If embryonic stem cell
lines were identical, this miniscule number might be enough. However, UCLA
biologist Yi Sun and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Thomas
Sudhof of the University of Texas compared just two of the
Presidentially-approved lines, and found them different in important ways.
Cells derived from one line tended to fit one side of the brain, while a
second line worked best on the other side. This difference is important:
like reaching in the sock drawer and getting a T-shirt instead. Many stem
cell lines are needed, so investigators can find exactly is needed.
11. HEALING A FRACTURED SKULL: What if there was a way for even terribly
broken skulls to grow back together? Johns Hopkins scientists Nathaniel S.
Hwang, Jennifer Elisseeff and others have developed a new way to grow bone.
Taking cells isolated from embryonic stem cells, the investigators let them
grow on a framework, or scaffold, itself made of living materials, which
would dissolve when no longer needed.
12. NEW CELLS TO BREATHE WITH: Anyone who has ever struggled to breathe has
a hint of the agony of cystic fibrosis, (CF) the choking lung disease.
Thanks to the pioneering work of men and women like Rick Wetsel, Eva
Zsigmond, and C. Thomas Caskey, CF may be on the way out. At the University
of Texas, these scientists have used ESCs to create a transplantable source
of new and healthy breathing cells.
Source: Don Reed, www.stembattles.com
Rayilyn Brown
Board Member AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation
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