Harvard: Stem Cell Workaround

Scientists: May Be Way To Produce Without Destroying Human Embryos

(CBS/AP)  "There are groups of people in the U.S. and elsewhere who feel it's fundamentally wrong to destroy early state (stem cells)," he said. Learning how the adult cell is changed might lead to a way around that concern, Eggan said. "The advantage to this is that, at least within the political situation in the political situation in the United States, if this could be done, it wouldn't involve the destruction of further embryos.

Up until now, the only way for scientists to turn a person's ordinary cell into a "personalized" one was to first turn that "ordinary" cell into an embryo and then destroy it, in order to retrieve the new stem cells growing inside.

That has sparked outrage among many, including President Bush, who feel destroying a human embryo is like destroying a life.

It's become such an emotional issue, it has even pitted Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist against the president.

"I believe the president's policy should be modified," the Tennessee Republican, a physician, said last month on the Senate floor. "The limitations that were put in place in 2001 will over time slow our ability to bring potential new treatments for certain diseases."

The researchers used laboratory grown human embryonic stem cells — such as the ones that President Bush has already approved for use by federally funded researchers — to essentially convert a skin cell into an embryonic stem cell itself.

If a number of hurdles can be overcome in subsequent research, the new technique "may circumvent some of the logistical and societal concerns" that have hampered much of the research in this country, Chad A. Cowan, Eggan and colleagues from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute reported in the Science article.

Those social concerns are reflected in the Senate's looming debate over a House-passed bill to force taxpayers to fund stem cell research that would destroy human embryos, legislation that the president has promised to veto. Mr. Bush and many fellow conservatives believe it is immoral to create embryos only to destroy them, even in the name of scientific progress that could cure or treat diseases afflicting millions of people.

Debate and a vote on the bill will proceed next month as planned, Frist's spokeswoman, Amy Call, said Monday. Frist earlier this month said he will vote for the bill, widely expected to pass even in the face of President Bush's veto threat.

The hybrid cells created by the Harvard team "had the appearance, growth rate, and several key genetic characteristics of human embryonic cells," the summary of their work said.

"They also behaved like embryonic cells, differentiating into cells from each of the three main tissue types that form in a developing embryo," it said. The authors conclude that human embryonic cells have the ability to reprogram adult cell chromosomes following cell fusion."