5/22 by Jennifer
Korean scientists envisage long journey to cell treatment
Seoul National University scientist Hwang Woo-suk said yesterday that his success in generating patient-specific stem cells is still far from being available for medical treatment.
"There were about eight doors separating us from where we want to be. We have just passed door No.4," said Hwang at a news conference after arriving from London, where the breakthrough was announced.
In a paper submitted to Science, a U.S.-based journal, a group of Korean scientists headed by Hwang said that they have successfully created stem cells that are tailored to match the DNA of people with specific medical conditions.
The process could enable scientists to move a step closer to replacing damaged cells with healthy cells without immune system rejections
Hwang, 51, said the technology has a long way to go before becoming commercialized and applied for medical treatments. People with diabetes, spinal injuries and Parkinson's disease, which attacks the nervous system, would be among the expected beneficiaries of the therapeutic cloning.
In February last year, Hwang's team became the world's first group of scientists to successfully create stem cells from a cloned human embryo.
"After our breakthrough in the successful cloning of a human embryo and deriving stem cells from it, our next main focus was to explore whether the technology has the potential to be actually applied in medical treatments," said Hwang.
"The main issues were finding ways to create stem cells more efficiently and derive stem cells not only from healthy women but people of both genders, young and old, and with various medical conditions. We made a giant step forward in achieving such goals," he said.
In their latest breakthrough, the researchers said they generated embryonic stem cells from the skin cells of 11 patients, theoretically enabling the engineered stem cells to be used in therapy without causing rejections from the body.
The 11 patients included both males and females between the ages of 2 and 56, suffering from spinal-cord injuries, diabetes and genetic immune disorders.
The use of skin cells allowed the scientists to extend the technology to both genders, unlike their first artificially made stem cell last year that was created by cloning the somatic cell of one woman.
Hwang's research team also said that advanced laboratory methods allowed them to improve their efficiency at generating stem cells lines compared to last year when they first cloned the human embryo.
The 11 stem cell lines were extracted by 185 donated human eggs, making attempts with about an average of 17 eggs to generate a single cell line. Last year, it took attempts with 242 eggs to generate just one cell line. Scientists believe the improved efficiency could make the idea of medical treatment using engineered stem cells more practical.
"In theory, this work could prove to be more significant than the discovery of vaccine or antibiotic," said Gerald Schatten of the University of Pittsburgh, who participated in the research and co-authored the paper.
The 11 generated cell lines all displayed immune system compatibility from the patients' cell, said Hwang. For the patient-specific stem cells to be applied in the future, there are a variety of issues to be addressed, he said.
The stem cell lines produced from patients with diseases will likely display characteristics of the condition, possibly making it impossible for direct use in treating patients.
Researchers also need to find a way to remove remaining animal components from the laboratory procedures. The current methods to transfer nonreproductive cells to an egg require the use of animal enzymes and serums.
"Reducing the use of animal cells was an important advancement in our studies this year. We have been using tissue from laboratory mice in the past but this time we just derived the stem cells from 'feeder cells' from human tissue. The results were much better," said Hwang.
"It is estimated that between 0.3 and 5 percent, or up to 10 percent, of women who undergo ovarian stimulation to procure eggs experience severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, which could cause pain, and occasionally leads to hospitalization, renal failure, potential future infertility and even death," said the researchers.
"When some volunteers donate an organ, these procedures are not now considered research. But at the same time, it is difficult to see the donors truly as patients," they said.
Hwang said his research team used the human tissues only after informed-consent agreements with the patients and donors and was approved by the Institutional Review Board of his university and the University of Pittsburgh.
*Voca
envisage 관찰하다, 상상하다, 마음에 그리다.
therapeutic 치료상의
embryo 태아, 애벌레 초기의 것, 싹
somatic 신체의, 육체의/체강의
serum 장액,림프액, 혈청
ovarian 난소의
renal 신장의
Questions)
1. Do you agree or disagree to implement of Hwang's cell treatment?
2. Are there any advantages or disadvantages in using cell treatment?
3. Some people are now objecting to Hwang's cell treatment (especially Bush government) since it is also a kind of human cloning. In your logic, should our government have to allow this technology to operate ?
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