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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Ace of Spades: [QB] Embryonic stemcells: New research seeks to ease ethical storm Posted: 24 August 2006 2154 hrs PARIS : New research into embryonic stem cells has sought to ease the ethical storm, fiercest in the United States, that swirls around a revolutionary but still untested technology for reversing degenerative disease. Stemcells are immature cells that grow into various tissues. The most exciting of these types are so-called pluripotent stemcells that are garnered from embryos at a very early stage and develop into almost any kind of tissue. The dream of scientists -- and of investors who have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the research -- is to coax embryonic stemcells into become lab-dish replacements for cells that have been damaged or destroyed by cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other diseases. So far, the quest has proven to be a greater technical challenge than was thought and it has been rocked by ethical debate, particularly in the United States, over embryos as the source of these powerful cells. But American researchers, in a study published on Thursday in the British science journal Nature, believe they have found a way out of the dilemma by using a technique that does not kill the embyro. Advanced Cell Technology, a biotech firm in Alameda, California, said it had found a way to grow lines of stem cells from a single cell extracted from an embryo. The team adapted an existing method called pre-implantation diagnosis (PGD). Under PGD, doctors take a single cell from an embryo and screen its genome for telltale signs of inherited disorders, thus giving parents the possibility of an abortion to spare the child a life that could be short or crippled. After successfully testing their theory on lab mice, the US researchers took a single cell from a cluster of eight-to-10 cells that comprises an early embryos used for stemcells. Of 16 spare embryos on which they used this technique, the team extracted 91 cells, two of which developed into lines of stemcells that have grown continuously in the lab for eight months. Tests have shows that the cells are just like ordinary embryonic stem cells. "These cell lines were genetically normal and retained their potential to form all of the cells of the human body, including nerve, liver, blood, vascular and retinal cells that could potentially be used to treat a range of human diseases," the study says. The head of the team, Bob Lanza, hopes the breakthrough will prompt US President George W. Bush to lift his veto on the use of federal funds for embryonic stem-cell research. "We need to jump-start the field, it's been crippled by a lack of funding," said Lanza. "This will hopefully solve the political impasse and bring the president on board, as no embryos will be harmed with this method." Embryonic stem-cell research in the United States still attracts private financing and federal funds are available for self-replicating stem-cell lines that existed before Bush took office. But the lack of federal support has had a big impact. Only last month, Bush warned he would not retreat, wielding his first veto in five and a half years in office to annul a bill that would expand government funding for stem-cell research. He blasted the bill as backing "the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others. It crosses a real moral boundary that our society needs to respect". Lanza met with applause Thursday for his technical prowess, but also caution for his claims. Ian Wilmut, the British scientist who led the team that created Dolly the Sheep in 1996, said Lanza had derived only two stem-cell lines out of 91 cells, and further work was needed to boost the success rate to make the method useful. Robin Lovell-Badge of Britain's National Institute for Medical Research, agreed. The chief beneficiaries could be couples who underwent PGD in order to have a stem-cell line matched to a child for future therapeutic use, he said. "I am also unconvinced by the ethical arguments," said Lovell-Badge. "Spare IVF embryos used to derive stem-cell lines would have been destroyed anyway." Alison Murdoch of the International Centre for Life, a bioscience and educational institute in Newcastle, northeastern England, said embryos conceived through in-vitro fertilisation and had been screened by PGD had grown into normal bodies. "However, it is not true to say the biopsy is not detrimental to the embryos. Some embryos do not survive," the website of New Scientist (newscientist.com) quoted Murdoch as saying. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/health/view/226655/1/.html [/QB][/QUOTE]
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