The tenth annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) is winding down in Yokohama, Japan. But stem cells have been in the news in this hemisphere, too.
Here's a brief round-up of links from around the Web.
First is an article in this week's issue of Cell Stem Cell by Irving Wiessman of Stanford's Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, in which he lays out the potential pitfalls for future research, not least of which is the bad reputation the stem cell field must endure as long as questionable claims are made for therapies being hyped by quacks.
One of the barriers to practicing stem-cell-based regenerative medicine is the existence of fraudulent clinics and individuals who claim unproven therapies without underlying scientific backing. In many cases, they use cells that have never been tested experimentally for their “stemness,” have not been through IRB-approved protocols that demand experimental evidence to justify the human experiment, and lack both independent medical monitoring of patient safety and oversight by a state or country regulatory system such as the FDA. It is critical that, as the community that speaks for stem cell biology and stem cell medicine, we find ways to warn patients and caregivers effectively about these concerns.
The number of clinics offering 'stem cell therapies' that aren't really stem cell therapies is on the rise. For example, Weissman writes, "Cultures of adherent cells from bone marrow, cord blood, or adipose tissue are regularly claimed to be mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), but in such cultures true stem cells that both self-renew and differentiate to mesenchymal fates such as bone, cartilage, fibroblasts, and adipocytes are rare."
Cord blood banks are another cause for concern, he writes.
Cord blood does contain both HSCs [hematopoietic stem cells] and mesenchymal progenitors. The number of HSCs in each cord is sufficient to give rapid generation of blood only in infants and very small children, and above the age of ∼7, several HLA-matched cords are needed. The development of public cord blood banks is an important, life-saving advance for patients needing hematopoietic cell transplants but lacking matched donors. However, this activity is very different from the private cord blood banks that charge significant amounts to initiate freezing of cord blood cells and then maintain them in case the child from whom the cord is obtained needs therapy. These companies often list a broad range of diseases that now or someday will be treated with stem cells without warning the patients or caregivers that the evidence that cord blood cells will be useful for treating such diseases is still very limited, and in any case the stored cord blood has the same genetic background as the child from whom the cord was obtained. The overall cause of legitimate stem cell therapy would be greatly advanced by greater control and oversight of these and other organizations making unsupported claims about the potential of stem-cell-based treatments.
In the EU, meanwhile, there is growing concern that funding for stem cell research may be cut. As Kate Kelland wrote this week for Reuters:
The European Parliament is currently debating the future outline of Horizon 2020, the EU's program for research and innovation which will run from 2014 to 2020.
Draft rules provide for stem cell research funding, including embryonic stem cells but some member states have been lobbying for embryonic stem cell research to be excluded.
Leading scientists sent an open letter to the European Parliament urging that: "(EU) Commission funding must be available to continue to support scientists investigating all types of stem cells - including human embryonic stem cells - with potential to make advances in regenerative medicine."
Opponents of embryonic stem cell research claim that the success of early treatments with adult reprogrammed stem cells signifies the science of ESC research is 'obsolete'.
Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, disagreed. "The advances in some of the most promising types of stem cell research in recent years, for example the ability to turn adult skin cells into heart cells, have only been possible through the knowledge gained from embryonic stem cell research."
On the research side (also in this week's Cell Stem Cell), Japanese scientists reported (PDF here) that they were able to coax embryonic stem cells to self-organize into retinal tissues.
The upshot of this for potential regenerative therapies? According to the authors, their study "provides a practical method for creating a versatile resource of 3D human retina tissues that could be used in a wide range of biomedical research areas, including pathogenesis, drug discovery, toxicology, gene therapy technology, and regenerative medicine."
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