This particular piece of news has gotten heavy coverage in the popular press in recent days. It regards the potential of stem cells extracted from amniotic fluid. Fetal stem cells, which can be obtained without destroying human embryoes.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=F4BB3ACB-E7F2-99DF-349FD71C1164C66DAfter 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 percent of the U.S., population could conceivably find genetic matches for tissue regeneration or engineered organs from just 100,000 amniotic fluid samples.
They were able to get the amniotic fluid-derived stem (AFS) cells, to transform into many different types of tissue found in fat, blood vessels, liver, muscles and bone as well as the central nervous system. This range comprises all three embryonic germ layers: the mesoderm, the progenitor of bone, muscle and connective tissue; the endoderm, which develops into digestive organs as well as the lungs; and ectoderm, which becomes nerves, skin and the brain. In addition to laboratory experiments, the team studied AFS cells in mouse models, grafting neural stem cells into the brains of mutant mice with disrupted neural development and growing bone tissue in another set of immunodeficient mice.
"They're not as early and they're not as wild," he explains. "The cells are further along the line of development--and you don't see fetuses developing tumors--so these cells are much more controlled." Atala adds that the AFS cells lie between embryonic and adult stem cells in that the former expand quickly, but can develop into tumors, whereas the latter will not become cancerous, but grow exceedingly slowly.
These cells appear to be intermediate in some key properties between embryonic and adult stem cells, but intermediate may be enough for a number of clinical applications. Much research is still needed.
Anyway, a non-controversial source of stem cells with real potential may allow such research in the United States to go forward with Federal funding, as opposed to the politically stalemated situation we have at present.
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