A Step Toward Growing Organs

A Step Toward Growing Organs

Researchers have created a chemical compound that instruct human embryonic stem cells to turn into an endoderm, which in embryos develops into several organs, including the pancreas, liver, lungs, thyroid, and thymus. This is clearly a key step toward directing the differentiation of hESCs to particular organs.

A UPI story on the research reports that scientists from CyThera, Inc. in San Diego have published their findings in Nature Biotechnology. (A BBC report on ABC Online [Australian Broacasting Corporation] says erroneously that the study is published in the journal Nature; Nature is the parent company of Nature Biotechnology, but they are not the same journal). According to the UPI story, the researchers used eight different stem cell lines, three of which were not among the federally approved lines. Dr. Robert Lanza, who is one of the scientists who recently developed the PGD method of generating stem cells by removing a single cell from an eight cell blastomere, told UPI that the different stem cell lines reacted differently, and that the research showed the impact of the limits of federal funding on hESC research.

As always with stem cell research, it is interesting to see how the media handles the news. The ABC headline is “Stem cells turned into internal organ cells,” and the UPI headline is “Stem cells turned into organ precursors,” which is much more accurate. The actual article title is “Efficient differentiation of human embryonic stem cells to definitive endoderm.” After having caused stem cells to differentiate into an endoderm, it is still I expect a very complicated process to further direct those cells to differentiate into any particular organ. The need for organ donation (are you a donor?) will not be reduced soon.

And, when technology reaches the point where organs can be grown successfully from stem cells, the technology will still be subject to numerous other issues. Will insurance pay for it? Who will get priority for donated eggs and laboratory space? It is critical for public debate to address these kinds of ethical issues. In the US, health care is much more available to the wealthy than to the poor; will stem cell treatments only be for the most well-off?