Here and There—treatments and techniques

Here and There—treatments and techniques

There’s been another warning in Britain about stem cell clinics out of the country that treat patients for multiple sclerosis and “cosmetic skin techniques.” The Scotsman reported that three experts—the head of the national stem cell bank, the head of the MS Society, and the chief executive of the Medical Research Council—wrote a letter reiterating cautions about these clinics. While the experts welcome research into stem cell treatments, the research should be done under strict scientific standards. The clinics in the Netherlands have not offered any research (controlled double-blind study, for example) substantiating the claims that stem cells can help MS. There are anecdotal reports of the expensive treatment working; as far as I know, none of these people have been followed up with over a period of years to see what the long-term effects, either good or bad, might be.

Coincidentally, the BBC published a recent story about a 5 year old girl with Batten’s Disease who is undergoing stem cell treatment in China. The article does not report the additional info that Batten’s Disease is invariably fatal, often with paralysis and blindness first, and that there is an approved clinical study in the US. With this disease, I do believe that the patients have nothing to lose.

There’s still a lot of huff and blow about the new stem cell technique. Christopher Scott Thomas, from the Stanford Center for Bioethics, has an opinion piece published in the San Francisco Chronicle today that does a nice job of stating the problems with Lanza’s research. Like many researchers, he believes that all lines of research need to be studied because no one knows what will work for what disease—for example, maybe adult stem cells work well for hearts, embryonic stem cells for neurodegenerative disease, and the Lanza type cells for immune system issues. We simply don’t know enough yet to rule out any reasonable line of research.

And speaking of new lines of research, scientists in Australia have succeeded in getting stem cells from plants to grow into an entire new plant. The Age reports that two plant biologists say that if the genetic control mechanisms in plant stem cells can be identified, then that might provide clues to how it works in animals and people. While being able to direct a stem cell to grow an entire or partial new plant is a big achievement, and certainly has no ethical issues in itself, plants have the ability to greater or lesser extents to regenerate already. That may be a big difference! The article also does not say if there is any difference between types of plants used and their relative success; for example, does a wild plant have stem cells that are less likely to be reprogrammed that those from a cultivated nearly-related species? It’s an interesting field of research, but there’s still an immense amount to find out about how helpful this is to working with humans, and it’s no substitute for embryonic stem cell research.