CINCINATTI: Stem Cell Study Limited Here ... But Some Area Patients Have Benefited

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

CINCINATTI: Stem Cell Study Limited Here ... But Some Area Patients Have
Benefited
By Tim Bonfield - Enquirer staff writer

Monday, August 2, 2004

While there is stem cell research in Cincinnati, local scientists are not 
involved in
the controversial work involving human embryonic stem cells discussed last week
by the son of former President Ronald Reagan.

During a speech Tuesday night to the Democratic National Convention in Boston,
Ron Reagan Jr. called for removing restrictions the Bush administration imposed 
on
stem cell research.

The topic has re-emerged as a political issue since the June 5 death of 
President
Reagan after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease

It is one of many illnesses that experts say could be treated and possibly cured
through expanded stem cell research.

But even if the federal funding rules change, some scientists doubt that 
Cincinnati's
cautious, limited approach to stem cell studies will suddenly change.

"I don't think that Cincinnati is going to be doing any cutting edge embryonic 
stem
cell research," said Dr. Irwin Light, who retired July 1 from a leading role in
reviewing research proposals at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

That's because local institutions would remain affected by an Ohio law that 
prohibits
research use of aborted fetal tissue.

They also remain sensitive to strong anti-abortion sentiments in the Cincinnati 
area,
Light said.

Ron Reagan's speech painted a picture of how Parkinson's disease could be
treated someday:

"Imagine going to a doctor who, instead of prescribing drugs, takes a few skin 
cells
from your arm. The nucleus of one of your cells is placed into a donor egg whose
own nucleus has been removed. A bit of chemical or electrical stimulation will
encourage your cell's nucleus to begin dividing, creating new cells which will 
then
be placed into a tissue culture.

"Those cells will generate embryonic stem cells containing only your DNA, 
thereby
eliminating the risk of tissue rejection. These stem cells are then driven to 
become
the very neural cells that are defective in Parkinson's patients. And finally, 
those
cells - with your DNA - are injected into your brain where they will replace 
the faulty
cells whose failure to produce adequate dopamine led to the Parkinson's disease 
in
the first place.

"In other words, you're cured."

The type of treatment Reagan described is called "somatic cell nuclear 
transfer" or
"therapeutic cloning." To the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research,
there should be no deep ethical concern with this kind of research.

"Therapeutic cloning produces stem cells, not babies," according to a coalition
statement. "With therapeutic cloning, there is no fertilization of the egg by 
sperm, no
implantation in the uterus and no pregnancy."

Someday, supporters say embryonic stem cells could be converted into all manner
of tissue, including:

? Brain cells to battle Alzheimer's.

? Nerve cells to repair broken spines.

? Organ cells to repair damaged hearts, kidneys or livers.

But to others, therapeutic cloning reflects destruction of human life. 
"(Reagan's)
misleading language covered up the fact that producing the cells he seeks 
requires
cloning human beings and then destroying them," said Dr. John Kilner, president 
of
the Chicago-based Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity.

In therapeutic cloning, scientists still create embryos grown to the blastocyst 
stage.
Creating stem cell lines requires removing the desired stem cells so they can be
multiplied in a lab dish. In so doing, the blastocyst is destroyed, which 
critics
consider akin to abortion.

To supporters of stem-cell research, it makes sense to allow researchers to 
start
growing stem-cell lines from unused embryos from fertility treatments or from
aborted fetal tissue. Otherwise, in most cases, the material gets thrown away.

"Yes these cells could theoretically have the potential, under very different
circumstances to develop into human beings," Reagan said Tuesday. "But they are
not, in and of themselves, human beings."

This is where the Bush administration restrictions kick in. Except for a 
limited and
shrinking number of stem cell lines that already existed before the rules 
changed in
August 2001, medical centers cannot use federal funds - or any staff or 
equipment
supported by federal funds - to create or study new embryonic stem cell lines.

The Catholic church is among the groups that considers such experimentation
immoral.

"The church has great concern about protecting the sanctity of life at all 
stages,"
said Dan Andriacco, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. "There is great
danger in many of these new technologies involving artificial reproduction and 
stem
cell research that the sanctity of life could get lost in the mix."

The local reality

In Greater Cincinnati, people already have benefited from certain kinds of stem 
cell
treatment.

Many people with leukemia, others with breast cancer and a few people with
multiple sclerosis and other illnesses have received stem cell transplants as 
part of
bone marrow transplants.

Such treatments have helped some, but not others.

Last year, Cincinnati cardiac researchers joined a few centers nationwide in
transplanting muscle stem cells, gathered from the patient's own leg, as a way 
to
repair heart tissue damaged by a heart attack. Early results indicate that the 
cells
do function, but the study is not complete.

In 2001 in Northern Kentucky, an eye doctor helped restore sight to a woman from
Dallas with a combined cornea and stem cell transplant. The stem cells in that 
case
came from an adult cadaver.

Cincinnati also has been a growing center for performing and studying islet cell
transplants as a way to treat extreme cases of diabetes. This insulin-producing 
cell
exists in the pancreas and can be collected in some cases from the patients
themselves or harvested from donated cadaver organs.

But these transplants involved cells taken from patients' own bodies or from 
adult
cadavers, not from unused embryos generated during fertility treatments or from
aborted fetuses.

On the animal front, however, Cincinnati researchers rank among the nation's top
experts in the use of technologies that also could be used for therapeutic 
cloning.

Cincinnati Children's Hospital is one of the nation's top producers of 
genetically
engineered mice, which are created and bred to express many kinds of human
diseases so that potential treatments can be studied.

But as of early July, Cincinnati Children's Hospital had not approved any human
embryonic stem cell projects, Light said.

Even if the federal funding restriction was lifted, it isn't clear whether a 
flood of
proposals would emerge. Questions remain about whether materials used in
embryonic stem cell research would violate state laws against using aborted 
tissue.
It also remains unclear how ethical standards for human medical research would
affect such projects, Light said.

"These are all questions of legal wording and definitions. Is an embryo in a 
petri
dish the product of conception? None of this has been tested in court and nobody
wants their study to be the test case," Light said.

Local researchers added a new wrinkle to the debate in March. According to a 
study
of mice published in the journal Nature, experts were unable to make adult stem
cells taken from bone marrow function as heart tissue to repair a damaged heart.

To some, the study adds strength to calls for lifting stem cell research 
restrictions
because it indicates that adult stem cells won't work as an alternative. But 
Dr. David
Williams, co-author of the study, and a board member of the Federation of
American Societies for Experimental Biology, said he wouldn't go that far.

"Unfortunately, the whole area has become politicized," Williams said. "The use 
of
adult stem cells hasn't proven out very well so far. But the data on embryonic 
stem
cells is still very limited as well."

As for the dream treatments envisioned in Reagan's speech, "I think we're still 
a fair
far way away from that," Williams said.

E-mail tbonfield@xxxxxxxxxxxx

SOURCE: Cincinnati Enquirer, OH - Aug 1, 2004


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