NYT Article on Stem Cell Politics

The New York Times had an article today about stem cell politics as a wedge issue that Democrats are hoping to use to split Republicans. This is not news to anyone who follows this blog or the issue in general, so I won't report on it in any detail, but it's there for anyone who wants to read it. The focus is mostly on the Missouri situation, with some discussion of Maryland.

I don't know if it is a real wedge issue. It seems that people who would vote against a Republican who supports embryonic stem cell research, or who would stay home rather than vote for such a person, are probably relatively small in number compared to people who have strong feelings about other issues on the table. But I am by no means a political scientist/pundit, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out in November.

International Stem Cell News

International Stem Cell News

Several countries are making news today.

South Korea

A couple of events there. First, Hwang Woo-suk has appealed his dismissal from Seoul National University. An AP story in the Japanese Mainichi Daily News reports that a decision will be made within three months. Essentially, Hwang believes the dismissal was unfair.

Also, two women who donated eggs have filed lawsuits saying that they were misled. The news is only a very short story from UPI.

And, finally, today is Snuppy’s birthday. The cloned dog was born a year ago. Happy Birthday, Snuppy! According to a Reuters story he got sausages and ice cream as a birthday treat. The story also gives some background on the scandal and on the dog cloning—only two dogs out of 1,095 embryos were born, and the other one died of pneumonia at 22 days.

Canada

The Canada Post reports that an embryonic stem cell research project is on hold. The cell oversight committee is proceeding slowly with the review, and has asked that it receive written documentation regarding the donors of the embryos (left-over from in vitro fertilization procedures). The committee wants to be sure that no coercion was used, that donors were aware of all available options, and that they understood that the embryos would be destroyed in the research process. Last year Canadian bioethicists called on a moratorium for embryonic stem cell research until strict ethical standards regarding donation could be developed. One stem cell scientist who was quoted believes that the standards are already quite strict. The issue is primarily regarding non-frozen embryos, not ones already in storage. This is obviously an important issue, and it needs to be addressed at multiple levels. I do want to highlight here that the issue is not the embryo but the adults whose sperm and egg created the embryo.

Ireland

The doctor who has been using stem cells to treat patients with multiple sclerosis told the Irish Medical Times that 400 scheduled patients over the next month have to be turned away because of a new law regarding the storage of stem cells. (There is also a second, longer article with details.) The Sunday Times of Scotland ran an article on a Scottish man with MS who was treated at the Irish clinic and claims to be pain-free since the procedure. The Times article quoted an Irish neurologist as saying that there is no sound scientific evidence that the procedure works and that patients may be experiencing a placebo effect.

More on Chromatin and Differentiation

More on Chromatin and Differentiation

I blogged last week on the discovery that chromatin in embryonic stem cells acts differently than chromatin in ordinary cells. That blog entry was based on the press release from the journal Cell, in which the study appears. More information has now come out from Harvard and MIT, the universities whose researchers did the study. A press release reprinted on Physorg.com gives some more detail:

Working with mouse embryonic stem cells, the scientists discovered that the chromatin supporting the DNA had a pair of molecular tags in the portion that controls the regulatory genes in the DNA. This structure does not exist in cells that have begun differentiating. The scientists have termed these “bivalent domains.” The molecular structure appears to repress genes, but also allows for them to be easily activated.

According to the Harvard Crimson, the activation in a normal cell occurs when a methyl group is anchored to one part of the chromatin. If it is anchored to another part, the gene is silenced. The mouse embryonic stem cells had the methyl anchoring at both places.

Both articles included mention of how this might be significant for research into diseases such as cancer where there are epigenetic abnormalities, or chromatin misregulation. Because the chromatin also contains genetic information separate from DNA, understanding how the bivalent structures turn genes on and off may help explain what has happened when something goes wrong.

Obviously there are tons of questions to now be answered and more research to do. One thing I would be interested in knowing is if this bivalent structure is present in adult stem cells as well. Another key thing to find out is what signals the chromatin to activate the silenced gene.