Harvard: Stem Cell Workaround
Scientists: May Be Way To Produce Without Destroying Human Embryos
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Play CBS Video Video Potential Stem Cell Advance Scientists think they may have developed a way to create stem cells without producing or destroying human embryos, which could quell the political debate surrounding the issue.
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Video Stem Cell Breakthrough Stem cell researchers announced a revolutionary achievement that could lead to the creation of embryonic cells to treat diseases without destroying human embryos in the process. John Roberts reports.
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(AP)
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Interactive Stem Cell Research Follow the debate, and learn how and why the cells are harvested.
The scientists said they were able to show in their early research that the fused cell "was reprogrammed to its embryonic state." Such a breakthrough could have the effect of taming a biting national debate about the ethics of stem-cell research, but not any time soon.
"If future experiments indicate that this reprogrammed state is retained after removing the embryonic stem cell DNA — currently a formidable technical hurdle — the hybrid cells could theoretically be used to produce embryonic stem cells lines that are tailored to individual patients without the need to create and destroy human embryos," said a summary of the research reported on the Science journal site.
Researcher Kevin Eggan stressed, however, that the technology is preliminary.
"I can't stress enough that this technology is not ready for prime time right now," Eggan said at a briefing Monday. "It is not a replacement for those techniques that we already have for derivation of embryonic stem cells."
"This is the first step down a long and uncertain road," said Eggan, noting that it comes with its own set of limitations.
It could easily be 10 years before the process is usable in people, he said. Eggan said, "There are still fundamental biological hurdles that have to be overcome."
The goal is to make stem cells that carry a patient's genes, and only the patients genes, he said. The cells created in this process carry too much DNA, both that of the stem cell and that from the embryonic stem cell used in the process.
The new process still involves use of an embryonic stem cell, but the researchers hope it will tell them how an adult cell can be reprogrammed into an embryonic stem cell without use of embryonic cells to begin with.
©MMV CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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