The progress of science is paved with stories of high hopes and heartbreaks. But in a busy lab at the University of Rochester the two extremes have met in one dazzling yet devastating experiment.
Researchers there have for the first time essentially cured rats of a Parkinson's-like disease using human embryonic stem cells. But 10 weeks into the trial, they discovered brain tumours had begun to grow in every animal treated.
"Here we have this method that works so well to reverse the symptoms of Parkinson's," said lead investigator Steven Goldman, "But no matter how you look at it, it's an expanding mass and that's bad news."
None of the cells growing out of control were cancerous tumours. But as Dr. Goldman pointed out, "In the brain, nothing's benign." read the rest of this story
3 comments:
If only life were so easy. Present attempts at implanting stem cells and expecting disease modification in vivo are somewhat naive.The stem cell potential will require precise regulation of its growth properties- like a factory that needs to be told what to make. Much in vitro work needs to be done before realizing the clinical potential here.
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17649328&postID=115740915107390510
The news on stem cells just keeps on coming, and will continue to do so. Last week,
the notion from a private lab in Mass. that is is possible to take out just one cell from an embryo at a very early stage and develop a cell line without destroying the rest of the embryo. I think they soft pedalled the fact that in this particular context, the entire embryo was a discard anyway- which is the case quite often given the extra embryos produced by in vitro fertilization.
The FDA recently gave in on the "morning after" pill, so perhaps there is hope for the future even with this administration (I doubt it). But the news will continue...
posted by Dr. Norm at 3:25 PM on Sep 04 2006
Robert B said...
In this particular context, it would always be a discard.
Researchers will never let an "experiment" go full term to birth as they then would be responsible and liable for the life.
To "prove" that taking one cell out of a blastocyst does no harm, wouldn't you have to bring dozens, no hundreds of children to life to test for developmental defects?
Dr. Norm and Robert B-
Thank you not only for reading this blog but for telling others about it. While sometimes it seems we are up against people who have millions of dollars to get their dishonest messages out, it is encouraging to know that the blogosphere allows us to creatively and cheaply reach the massess with the right message. Cures will be hard to come by with embryo stem cell research and human cloning research. If scientist and physicians we sincere about finding treatments for patients they would funnel their efforts into areas that have so much promise NOW and are not tied up with ethical compromise.
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