Recent Discoveries in Stem Cell Research

Doctors, researchers and scientists are working every day on treatments and cures for heart disease, diabetes, spinal cord injuries and many other afflictions. Below are several advances announced since late 2007 at institutions across the United States.

For our friends, families and fellow citizens, we must allow this noble and important work to continue.

Blood supply

Scientists plan to create synthetic blood using human embryonic stem cells, which could reduce the need for blood donations. Researchers at the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service say their work also could end the risk of infection from blood transfusions. The scientists will study creation of the rare O-negative blood type, which can be given to any patient without fear of rejection but is produced by only 7 percent of the population (Daily Telegraph, March 23, 2009).


Human embryonic stem cells are used to create red blood cells, a component of blood that helps distribute oxygen throughout the body. The research, conducted by researchers from Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technologies, the University of Illinois-Chicago and Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic, could potentially create an endless blood supply and negate the need for blood donations (Advanced Cell Technology, Aug. 19, 2008).

Brain damage

A Stanford University study shows that neural cells created from embryonic stem cells helped repair the brains of rats damaged by stroke. The rats, which each lost partial use of a forelimb, showed improvement after they were injected with the early-stage neural cells. The cells traveled to the damaged brain section and incorporated into the surrounding tissue, working to repair damage caused by the stroke (Stanford University, Feb. 20, 2008).

Cancer

After vaccinating mice with human embryonic stem cells, researchers at the University of Connecticut Stem Cell Institute found that the lab animals developed a consistent immune response against colon cancer cells. The vaccinated mice showed a dramatic decline in tumor growth, compared to the non-vaccinated mice. (University of Connecticut Health Center, Oct. 8, 2009).


Scientists at the University of Minnesota found that cancer-killing immune cells derived from human embryonic stem cells completely eliminated cancerous tumors in 13 of 13 mice tested. In the same study, similar immune cells derived from human umbilical cord blood cells eliminated cancerous tumors in five of 13 mice (University of Minnesota, May 4, 2009).


Using mouse embryonic stem cells, researchers at the National Cancer Institute develop a method to evaluate which changes in a particular gene known to increase susceptibility to breast cancer might lead to cancer. The discovery could better inform people predisposed to developing cancer, as well as carriers of other disease-related genes (National Cancer Institute, July 6, 2008).

Diabetes

Biologists at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute report they have directly reprogrammed common cells in the pancreases of living mice into special cells capable of producing insulin and fighting diabetes. The discovery, which was made possible by prior advances from embryonic stem cell research, also could lead to therapies and cures for heart disease and other afflictions in people (Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Aug. 27, 2008).

A new technique is discovered for turning embryonic stem cells into insulin-producing pancreatic tissue, which could lead to new treatments for diabetes. Scientists at the University of Manchester and the University of Sheffield in England genetically manipulated the stem cells to produce an important protein that helps increase specific types of desired cells pancreatic cells, in the case of diabetes (University of Manchester, April 3, 2008).

Researchers at Novocell, a San Diego-based biotech company, announce that for the first time embryonic stem cells can be turned into pancreatic cells capable of producing insulin in mice. The discovery someday could help people with Type 1 diabetes who require regular insulin treatment. The research builds on discoveries Novocell scientists announced in 2005 and 2006 (Novocell, Feb. 20, 2008).

Heart damage and heart defects

Scientists at the University of Washington are mixing heart muscle cells and vascular cells derived from embryonic stem cells, with another type of vascular cell derived from umbilical cord cells to develop tissue patches for the damaged hearts of mice. (ScienceDaily, Oct. 9, 2009)

Researchers from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute have identified the earliest master human heart cell from human embryonic stem cells, a discovery that could test the effectiveness and safety of new heart medications and, eventually, could help repair heart damage in adults and congenital heart defects in newborn babies. (Harvard Stem Cell Institute, July 1, 2009)

Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis move closer to a new generation of heart disease treatments that use human stem cells. They report that a gene they’ve been researching in mice starts the development of the cardiovascular system by locking mouse embryonic stem cells into becoming heart parts and getting them moving to the area where the heart forms. The next step is studying whether the gene can help fix damaged hearts in mice (Washington University in St. Louis, July 2, 2008).

Macular degeneration

Researchers in Britain have developed a stem cell therapy that could treat macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness. In animal models with a similar disease, scientists have successfully replaced deteriorating cells within the eye with new cells generated from embryonic stem cells. The researchers hope to begin human clinical trials within two years. The treatment was developed in part by scientists and surgeons from the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London and Moorfields Eye Hospital in London (The Sunday Times, April 19, 2009).


Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle use human embryonic stem cells to repair a macular degeneration-like disease in rats. The cells were used to create progenitor cells that, when combined with cells from a degenerated mouse retina, formed new retinal cells (University of Washington, Aug. 25, 2006).

Multiple sclerosis

U.S. researchers have pushed embryonic stem cells to produce special cells that might one day repair nerves damaged by multiple sclerosis. The disease damages the protective sheath surrounding nerve fibers, leaving behind scar tissue called sclerosis. MS can also harm the nerve fibers themselves. The damage disrupts the nerve impulses between the brain and body and results in symptoms that vary from person to person and from time to time in the same patient. Fast Forward, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, helped fund the study (HeathDay News, April 9, 2009.

Parkinson’s disease

Researchers at Edinburgh University in Scotland announce they are turning embryonic stem cells into a type of cell lost in Parkinson’s patients. The scientists hope to slow or reverse the debilitating disease by injecting into the patients neural cells derived from embryonic stem cells. (The Scotsman, Nov. 3, 2008).

Mice afflicted with a Parkinson’s-like disease are treated with the help of somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT. It marks the first time that SCNT has been used to successfully treat a disease in the same subjects that yielded the initial cells, according to investigators at New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where the study was conducted (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, March 23, 2008).

Spinal cord injuries

The federal government has approved the first human clinical trial for a therapy based on human embryonic stem cells. Patients with spinal cord injuries will participate in the study, which will test the effectiveness of a nerve-growth therapy developed by Menlo Park, Calif.-based Geron Corp. (Geron Corp., Jan. 23, 2009).

Special nerve cells created from embryonic stem cells could help heal spinal cord injuries, researchers at the University of Colorado Denver report. The special cells, called astrocytes, regenerated nerve fibers in the injured spinal cords of mice, helping them move again. The team is working on human forms of the cell for human clinical trials someday (University of Colorado Denver, Sept. 19, 2008).

Tissue

Scientists at Tufts University outside Boston have developed a skin-like tissue from embryonic stem cells that might someday repair damaged or diseased tissue. The discovery, which is based on embryonic stem cells’ ability to become any type of cell in the body, could be used to treat wounds, as well as skin conditions related to cancer and inflammatory disease. The advance marks the first time scientists have shown that a single source of human embryonic stem cells can produce complex, multilayer tissues similar to those that line the gums, cheeks and lips (Tufts University, July 21, 2009).