Beginning of the End for Embryonic Stem Cell Research?(Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, Boston)

Supporters of expanded federal funding for embryonic stem cell (ESC) research were disappointed by President Bush's State of the Union Address, which indicated no softening of restrictions. Instead, he said he'd work to "ensure that human embryos are not created for experimentation." But those who truly believe ESC research will bring medical breakthroughs have naught to fear. For there's a far more promising approach, likelier to produce more benefits and much sooner.

We're being flooded with exciting new developments from the alternatives to ESCs, called adult stem cells (ASC). Taken from a person's own body or from umbilical cords or placenta, these cells are treating ever more diseases. Further, ASC research in humans and animals keeps biting away at the alleged trump card of ESCs - - that only they can be transformed into every type of cell in the body. Cardiologist Douglas Losordo's research lab at Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston has now become the latest to indicate ASCs can do just that.

Reporting their results in the February Journal of Clinical Investigation, they extracted stem cells from the blood streams of three humans that originated in the bone marrow, thereby saving patients the trouble and pain of direct marrow extraction. They found what they believe to be a heretofore undiscovered type of cell, then injected these into the hearts of rats that had suffered heart attacks and subsequent - - formerly permanent - - damage.

Some of the cells became new heart muscle while others became new blood vessels. Indeed, they grew twice as many new vessels as other rats given a fake treatment. They also grew far less scar tissue, which impedes heart function.

As I have written on my web site (www.fumento.com), marrow stem cells have been used to induce either muscle growth or vessel growth in human hearts in hundreds of patients in labs throughout the world. But this appears to be the first time both were grown at the same time by a single type of cell. Losordo's team is now overseeing a trial using these cells on patients with untreatable severe angina. "The safety looks good and the majority of patients are doing much better," he told me.

More exciting yet, Losordo also conducted experiments showing their cells can also become nerve tissue. That means they could be transformed into all three categories of cells (ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm), making them just as pliable as ESCs theoretically are.

Yet several other labs have also found different ASCs (all from marrow) that seem to have this same property. One of them was that of Ira Black, a neurologist at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. "I can't say I'm surprised" at Losordo's findings, Black told me. "It's consistent with studies going on across the world. And one of the most exciting areas now is the use of ASCs in heart failure."