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ADULTS STEM CELLS AND HUMAN FAT ERODE IMPETUS FOR USING EMBRYONIC CELLS

ENGLAND, Apr 10, 2001 (LSN.ca) - Ongoing research into stem cells continues to provide new avenues for potential investigation, increasing the number of possible moral alternatives to the unethical use of embryonic stem cells. A report by yesterday's Cybercast News Service (CNS) points to British research that seems to demonstrate adult stem cells are more useful in treatments than those from embryos. As such findings continue to appear in research, pro-life ethicists hope that the impetus behind scientists' demands for embryonic research funding will wane.

The new research was presented yesterday to the British Neuroscience Association's annual conference in northern England, and published in the Stroke Journal. This research project dealt specifically with the damage caused by strokes to brain cells. "Experiments carried out on rats indicate that transplants of stem cells can help stroke victims regain movement, senses and understanding," reported CNS. "The new study, by researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry in London and a biotechnology company, showed that transplanted stem cells made their way to whichever area of the damaged brain needed repair. The cells also appeared to boost the production of an important protein that usually increases after a stroke as the brain attempts to heal itself, helping to connect damaged and undamaged parts of the organ. The movement of stem cells to the damaged area of the brain differs from the behavior of fetal stem cells, which they say remain in one place when transplanted."

In another development, researchers working with human fat say they have been able to turn it into useful cells, as reported today in the Washington Post. "Reporting in today's issue of the journal Tissue Engineering, researchers show that cells found in human fat can be made to grow into muscle cells in laboratory dishes," says the Post. "Working with quarts of the greasy yellow substance extracted by liposuction from patients' hips and thighs, the researchers also turned fat into healthy cartilage, muscle and bone cells."

Marc H. Hedrick of the University of California-Los Angeles School of Medicine, led the new research with Adam J. Katz of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "They plan to create a biotech startup that will grow a range of regenerated tissues from globs of fat," reports the Post. "'It's highly provocative work and they're probably right,' said Eric Olson, chairman of molecular biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas."

For more, see:
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=\ForeignBureaus\archive\2 00104\For20010409g.html
http://www.msnbc.com/news/557256.asp

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