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| STEM CELLS | |
 April 12, 2001  |
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Scientists may have found a way to use human fat as a source of stem cells.
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 SUSAN
DENTZER: Human stem cells hold out the potential of almost unimaginable
medical breakthroughs. That's because they're a kind of universal cell
that can develop into most of the specialized cells and tissues of the
body. And that means new tissues or entire organs could one day be grown
in a lab, then used to treat everything from heart disease to spinal cord
injuries.
DR. JOHN GEARHART, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine: Just think about it. We have a renewable cell source in a laboratory setting that we can then take at our desire to then produce a specific cell type. I mean, it's kind of mind boggling when you think about it.
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SUSAN DENTZER: But now new advances in stem cell research may offer a way out of this ethical quagmire. This week, scientists from UCLA and several other centers reported that they had isolated cells that behaved strikingly like stem cells. The cells came from a surprising source: The fat of adult human beings, obtained through liposuction. DR. MARC HEDRICK, UCLA School of Medicine: It's a different way of thinking about fat tissue. Fat tissue is -- I think now we can consider it not just a spare tire that some of us have around our waist. It's really a tissue that's got a lot of different constituent components, and one of those components happens to be stem cells. |
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DR. MARC HEDRICK: It's a way of allowing us to make tissues in two dimensions in the laboratory as sort of a prelude to then going into animals or humans. So this shows fat, bone and this shows us a blue staining that shows us that we've made cartilage.
DR. MARC HEDRICK: I think this changes the debate with regard to embryonic
stem cells. It lets some of the air out of the balloon. If we all are
carrying around our own reservoir of stem cells, then we may not SUSAN DENTZER: And if the ethical cloud over stem cell research really is about to part, still more promising findings probably lie ahead. |
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SUSAN
DENTZER: As a result, stem cell research is booming, leading to a burst
of developments reported in medical journals. Just last month, studies
in the journal "Nature Medicine" reported that stem cells
had been used to patch up heart damage in mice. For all the excitement
that such techniques could one day be used on humans, much stem cell
research has been controversial. That's in large part because of the
cells' origin. Although human stem cells can be found in adult bone
marrow and other tissues, they're frequently obtained from human embryos
that are just days old. Many of these embryos were created through fertility
treatments, such as in vitro fertilization, and for various reasons
were unused or discarded.
SUSAN
DENTZER: But abortion opponents have also been concerned that embryos
used in stem cell research could also come from aborted pregnancies.
The resulting ethical uproar has cast a cloud over stem cell research.
Last year, President Clinton issued guidelines prescribing what aspects
of the research could be conducted with federal dollars. President Bush
is considering tightening those guidelines even further.
PRESIDENT
GEORGE W. BUSH: (January 26) I believe we can find stem cells from fetuses
that died a natural death. I do not support research from aborted fetuses.
SUSAN
DENTZER: In effect, the scientists had taken a glob of fat and removed
some cellular material, leaving behind a mixed bunch of cells that went
on to multiply. Although it's not certain that these cells actually
were stem cells, with the aid of chemicals they were made to behave
just like them. The scientists used tests to verify that the cells had
grown into other types of cells including muscle, cartilage, bone, or
even more fat cells. 
SUSAN
DENTZER: Still another development reported this week came from a New
Jersey-based biotechnology company, Anthrogenesis Corporation. It said
it had obtained stem cells from human placentas that are delivered after
babies are born and that are normally discarded as medical waste. Again
with the aid of chemicals, the cells were grown into nerve, blood vessel
and muscle cells. Much remains to be done to establish whether all these
types of stem cells hold therapeutic promise, but for now researchers
are clearly excited. 
need
to take human fetal or embryonic tissue and use those cells. 
