Researchers who helped clone Dolly the Sheep have turned what they learned there into an incredible breakthrough. Researchers at the U.S. subsidiary of PPL Therapeutics last week announced they had managed to turn cells from the skin of cows into stem cells. They were then able to turn the stem cells into functioning heart cells.
This has a number of important implications for human research. Stem cells of the sort announced by the researchers are typically found only in fetuses. Those stem cells can become literally any other type of cell if given the correct signals.
As organisms grow and age, however, the stem cells become differentiated and able to transform into fewer and fewer different types of tissue. This is necessary to control development of the organism.
For this reason, research involving stem cells in human beings has to date required the controversial use of fetal tissue. Experimental treatment for |Parkinson|’s disease, for example, uses fetal tissue in an attempt to spur growth of neurons in the brain.
Because of the ongoing controversy over abortion, use of fetal tissue has proven to be a political minefield (Great Britain is the only government in the world that currently allows government funding for such projects), and there are other limitations. Taking adult cells, such as from the skin, and turning back the clock, so to speak, to transform them into undifferentiated stem cells has been one of the ultimate goals of genetic research.
Dr. Ron James, managing director of PPL Therapeutics, told the BBC, “The results of this experiment give us confidence that the method we are developing as a source of stem cells is working and I believe it will be equally applicable to humans.”
If that proves to be true, which is an enormous if, it could revolutionize medical treatments leading to such science fiction-like scenarios as growing replacement for defective hearts and other organs.
Source:
Tissue transplant advance. The BBC, February 23, 2001.