|
Welcome to UniqueArticles.net!
ALL » Health-and-fitness >> View Article
|
 |
|
 |
| Stem cells extracted from unfertilized egg |
By:
Toi |
|
|
New York: Scientists say they’ve created embryonic stem cells by stimulating unfertilized eggs, a significant step toward producing transplant tissue that’s genetically matched to women.
The advance suggests that some day, a woman who wants a transplant to treat a condition like diabetes or a spinal cord injury could provide eggs to a lab which, in turn, could create tissue that her body wouldn’t reject.
Ethicists disagreed on whether the strategy would avoid the long-standing ethical objections to creating embryonic stem cells by other means. Such cells can develop into virtually any tissue of the body, and scientists hope to harness them for producing specialized tissues like nerve cells or pancreas cells to treat a range of illnesses. But the process of harvesting the stem cells destroys embryos, which many people oppose.
To create tissues that genetically match a patient, some scientists are trying to develop a process called therapeutic cloning, in which DNA from the patient is inserted into an unfertilized egg, an embryo is produced and stem cells are harvested. But nobody has made that work in humans.
The new work tries another rack-stimulating a woman’s unfertilized egg to begin embryonic development. Scientists believe this development can’t continue long enough to produce a baby, but as the new work shows, it can produce stem cells that are genetically matched to the egg donor.
Such an approach could not provide matched cells for men, obviously.
The work, published on line by the journal Cloning and Stem Cells, is reported by scientists from Lifeline Cell Technology of Walkersville and from Moscow. Jeffrey Janus, president of Lifeline and an author of the study, noted that stem cells produced by the method might prove useful for patients other than the egg donor, in combination with anti-rejection therapy. That’s the case with standard stem cell lines created from ordinary embryos, he said.
Researchers reported producing six lines of embryonic stem cells, one of which had chromosome abnormalities. They obtained their eggs from five women who were having eggs harvested for test tube fertilization, and who agreed to donate some for the research. ‘It’s is big deal, it’s very nice advance,” said Kent Virana of Pennsylvania State University who has done similar work in monkeys. |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
