Stem Cell Research
Stem Cell Cures
The Right To Life Committee of New Mexico (RTLCNM) supports the use of stem cells for medical purposes, as long as the stem cells are not taken from an embryo, which then causes that human life to die. There has not been one cure ever established using embryonic stem cells, but there have been tumors and death from using these types of cells.
The
The
German researchers publishing in Nature said sperm stem cells from adult mouse testis have the capacity to form other cells. And researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in
In an article at ScientificAmerican.com, Nikhil Swaminathan writes:
After seven years of toiling, scientists at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Harvard School of Medicine report they have isolated stem cells from a new source: amniotic fluid. The researchers not only succeeded in separating the progenitor cells from the many cells residing in the watery fluid in the placenta surrounding an embryo but were also able to coax the cells to differentiate into muscle, bone, fat, blood vessel, liver, and nerve cells.
According to lead author Anthony Atala, Director of Wake Forest's Institute of Regenerative Medicine, 99% of the U.S. population could conceivably find genetic matches for tissue regeneration or engineered organs from just 100,000 amniotic fluid samples. In its research, the team isolated stem cells via amniocentesis - a common procedure performed about 16 weeks into pregnancy during which amniotic fluid is drawn to test for genetic disorders in a fetus, as well as from the placenta after birth...
It's been known for decades that there are cells in amniotic fluid," Atala says. "The embryo is constantly shedding all these cells, as it's developing, to the amniotic fluid. The baby's actually breathing in, swallowing the fluid, and it's all coming out through all the pores and gets trapped in the placenta."...
Atala says that ... the major advantage is that after two weeks of culturing AFS cells expand quickly, doubling every 36 hours so that they are a large supply. When compared with embryonic stem cells, AFS cells have two main advantages: First, no embryo needs to be harmed in harvesting the cells, sidestepping a major, hot-buttoned political issue. Also, as Atala points out, AFS cells will not form tumor cells, as the considerably more raw embryo-derived cells can...
Going forward, Atala plans to study therapeutic uses for the AFS cells as well as attempt to coax them to differentiate into the tissue found in the heart, pancreas, and kidneys... "We need to keep studying all these different cell types to see what works best for each application at the end."
Creating new kidneys using novel stem cells harvested from amniotic fluid is the ambitious, long-range goal of The Saban Research Institute laboratory of Roger De Filippo, MD.
Only two labs in the country are working with amniotic stem cells in this capacity, the second being that of Dr. Anthony Atala, with whom Dr. De Filippo completed a three-year fellowship at Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School.
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