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Liberty Opinion: 02 August 2010
by David Prentice
Adult Stem Cell Research Far Ahead of Embryonic
The title is straight from Malcolm Ritter and the Associated Press, a story out today that highlights some of the real successes and promise of adult stem cells, as opposed to the wishful thinking and hype of embryonic stem cells.
The lead story is Dr. Thomas Einhorn at Boston University Medical Center, injecting a patient’s bone marrow into a broken ankle that wouldn’t heal; four months later the ankle was healed.
”That gives adult stem cells really a very interesting and potent quality that embryonic stem cells don’t have.”
Einhorn, chairman of orthopedic surgery at Boston University Medical Center, credits ”adult” stem cells in the marrow injection. He tried it because of published research from France.
As the AP piece notes, it’s an example of many innovative therapies doctors are studying with adult stem cells; stem cells taken from body tissue and umbilical cord blood, not embryos. As the AP story notes:
For all the emotional debate that began about a decade ago on allowing the use of embryonic stem cells, it’s adult stem cells that are in human testing today. An extensive review of stem cell projects and interviews with two dozen experts reveal a wide range of potential treatments.
A few of the examples highlighted include multiple sclerosis, heart damage, juvenile diabetes, and blindness from chemical burns.
Apart from these efforts, transplants of adult stem cells have become a standard lifesaving therapy for perhaps hundreds of thousands of people with leukemia, lymphoma and other blood diseases.
Many of the treatments, including new ones being tested in clinical trials now, rely on the idea that stem cells can form other cell types. That seems to be the case for Einhorn’s ankle-repair technique, with the adult stem cells forming new bone and blood vessels. But adult stem cells also seem to have abilities to stimulate tissue repair or suppress the immune system. According to Dr. Rocky Tuan of the University of Pittsburgh:
”That gives adult stem cells really a very interesting and potent quality that embryonic stem cells don’t have.”
That stimulation of tissue repair may be the mechanism for the published adult stem cell success treating spinal cord injury, including long-term injury up to 15 years.
To learn more and see some examples of adult stem cell success stories, watch the three videos at Stem Cell Research Facts.
He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Kansas, and was at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Texas Medical School-Houston before joining Indiana State University, where he served as Acting Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences, Assistant Chair of Life Sciences, and was recognized with the University's Distinguished Teaching Award and Distinguished Service Award.
He is a Founding Member of Do No Harm: The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics, a Fellow of the Wilberforce Forum Council for Biotechnology Policy, a Fellow of the Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future, and an Advisory Board Member for the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity.
He received the 2007 Walter C. Randall Award in Biomedical Ethics from the American Physiological Society, given for promoting the honor and integrity of biomedical science through example and mentoring in the classroom and laboratory.
His research interests encompass aspects of cell growth; one major focus is adult stem cells. Dr. Prentice is an internationally-recognized expert on stem cells and cloning, and has testified before the U.S. Congress, numerous state legislatures, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the President's Council on Bioethics, European Parliament, British Parliament, Canadian Parliament, Australian Parliament, German Bundestag, French Senate, Swedish Parliament, the Vatican, and the United Nations.
Dr. Prentice was selected by the U.S. President's Council on Bioethics to write their comprehensive review of adult stem cell research. His defense of Adult Stem Cell Treatments with extensive literature documentation was published by Science in January 2007.
