>On Tuesday, the Texas Senate Health and Human Services Committee heard invited and public testimony on stem cell research. I was one of those invited, and brought my Granddaughter who has had an umbilical cord bone marrow stem cell transplant. (The video is here, about 6 hours in.)
One of the speakers used the old story about the drunk looking for his keys under the corner lamppost, rather than over in the dark, where he lost his keys. The speaker, a pediatrician who believes that life begins when the mother wants it to, was using the story as an analogy in favor of funding for embryonic stem cell therapy as opposed to funds for non-embryonic stem cell research.
But, look at the evidence. Every stem cell therapy actually uses *adult* stem cells and progenitor cells. The goal of all those embryonic stem cell researchers is to turn the embryonic stem cells into “every cell of the body.”
So, why not go to the actual place where there are “the cells of the body”? Sure, a given adult progenitor or stem cell line may not give the full range of stem cells. But the full range of adult progenitor and stem cells will!
Adult stem cells and progenitor cells have been found for most tissues and organ systems. Those are the ones we will use – whether they come from destructive embryonic stem cell research, or from non-destructive non-embryonic stem cell research.
The studies on producing, harvesting and then implanting those cells all lead to immunogenic adult cells. The difficulties associated with identifying and controlling adult cells shouldn’t be any more than those associated with obtaining and controlling embryonic stem cells that will function as normal adult cells, without causing an immune response.
How about that: we lost our keys under the lamp post!
LifeEthics 
>An interesting coincidence – I heard the story in a slightly different version on a podcast last night, though the podcast was some weeks old. It was done in a less subtle way:A biologist is searching through the grass of his front lawn. A grad student approaches and asks if he has lost something. The biologist explains he is looking for his stem cells.After much searching, the student asks, "Are you sure you lost them here?"The biologist explains, "Oh, no, I lost them in my lab – but congress has decreed I may search for stem cells only in places where there are none."
Posted by Suricou Raven | September 22, 2006, 10:54 am>http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn10125&feedId=online-news_rss20If it works in rats…
Posted by Suricou Raven | September 22, 2006, 11:32 am>Great, once again, the embryonic stem cell researchers have replicated work already done on adult stem cells. In this case, we know that there are bone marrow cells that migrate to and repair damaged retinas and are exploring the chemoattractants that enable this migration and repair.The work is early, and like Lanza's, still in animal models, but it's ahead of the embryonic work.http://www.iovs.org/cgi/content/abstract/47/4/1646Do a pubmed searchhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ on "retina adult stem cells."http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/utils/fref.fcgi?itool=Abstract-def&PrId=3051&uid=16565405&db=pubmed&url=http://www.iovs.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=16565405 CONCLUSIONS: Damaged RPE secretes cytokines that have been shown to serve as chemoattractants for BM-derived stem cells (BMSCs). Retina-committed stem cells appear to reside in the BM and can be mobilized into the PB by G-CSF and FL. These stem cells may have the potential to serve as an endogenous source for tissue regeneration after RPE damage.andhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/utils/fref.fcgi?itool=Abstract-def&PrId=3048&uid=16563378&db=pubmed&url=http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0014-4835(06)00075-3 This study demonstrates that proliferation of a quiescent cell population with retinal stem/progenitor cell characteristics can be reactivated in vivo upon GF injections and suggests that, in adult mammals, the CB is a non-permissive environment for cell migration and neurogenesis.There's much more on the retinal stem cells, just from this year.Most retinal pigmentation happens postnatally, so the eye is one of the best chances for learning to recruit and activate appropriate stem cells. (We're already investigating transplanting corneas from non-embryonic stem cells.)Gotta go slow, though. One of the fantastic experiences I had in med school was to watch a patient's eyes "Snow" as the white blood cells in them – in reaction to a brain tumor – fell when he sat up.
Posted by LifeEthics.org | September 22, 2006, 5:46 pm