S. Korea Makes Stem Cell Leap

Scientists Speed Up The Process Of Generating Stem Cells

(AP) 
Stem cells also can come from embryos left over in fertility clinics. But these cells those would not be a genetic match for any patient.

Any potential therapy is years away from being tested in people. But the new research marks several advances:

Last year's cloned stem cells were from one healthy woman. This time, the Seoul scientists created stem cells that were genetic matches to each of 11 patients — male and female, as young as age 2 and as old as 56, suffering either spinal cord injuries, diabetes or a genetic immune disease.

Last year, it took attempts with 242 donated human eggs to grow one batch of stem cells. This time, it took an average of 17 eggs per batch and 14 eggs if they were from women younger than 30.

They eliminated use of mouse "feeder cells" that, until now, have been used to nourish human stem-cell lines, easing concerns about animal contamination.

"Therapeutic cloning has tremendous, tremendous healing potential, but we have to open so many doors before human trials," said the lead researcher, Hwang Woo-suk of Seoul National University, in a telephone interview. "Our work reveals the possibility that this technology could be applied in the patient himself in the future."

More immediately, the research will allow scientists to watch the very earliest origins of diseases such as Alzheimer's form inside an actual patient's cloned, living cells, said neuroscientist Fred Gage of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego. That could point to new ways to prevent and treat illness, said Gage, who plans to perform some of that work.

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