Friday, 28 November 2003·Issue 102

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BioEdge 102: MIT researcher leaps adult stem cell hurdle

IN BioEDGE 102


MIT researcher leaps adult stem cell hurdle : a possible solution to indefinite expansion and propagation
Has tiny UK company found stem cell repair kit? : ordinary white blood cells may turn into marrow cells within hours
IVF problems could be "tip of iceberg" : could imprinting disorders cause cancer years later?
IVF booms in the Gaza Strip : poverty no obstacle to Palestinians desperate for children
Swiss investigating suicide tourism business : foreigners may not have had terminal illnesses
Study questions growth of US scanning industry : aggressive advertising prompts questions amongst radiologists
US Congress negotiates agreement on human patents : biotech can patent genes but not embryos
Japan wrestles with anonymity for sperm donors : children searching for biological fathers
IN BRIEF: nurses and euthanasia ~ US biotech ~ EU embryo research ~ UK abortion

MIT researcher leaps adult stem cell hurdle

James L. SherleyA researcher at MIT may have found a way to grow stable lines of adult stem cells indefinitely. Until now, the scarcity of adult stem cells and the difficulty of getting them to behave like embryonic stem cells has been one of their major drawbacks. However in an article in Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Associate Professor James L. Sherley demonstrated that exposure to certain metabolites which activate growth regulatory proteins will make adult stem cells multiply freely.

Without the metabolite, the cells revert to acting like normal adult stem cells, which produce other cells without increasing themselves. "What's neat about this approach is that we are regulating the biochemistry of the cell, not changing its genetics," says Sherley. Sherley's team used stem cells from rat livers, but he feels that his results might be the basis of "a general approach to expansion and propagation of diverse adult stem cells". ~ MIT News, Nov 20 

Has tiny UK company found stem cell repair kit?

TriStem stem cellsA small London company claims that it has found a revolutionary method of turning ordinary white blood cells into cells which can repair and regenerated damaged or diseases tissues, New Scientist reports. Despite scepticism from academic stem cell scientits, the company, TriStem, has finally published proof in a peer-review journal that its techniques can turn white blood cells into blood-generating bone marrow cells. In addition, TriStem says that it can make white blood cells revert to a "stem-cell-like state" within hours. TriStem recently received permission to carry out a clinical trial on 12 patients with aplastic anaemia. The results should be known by the end of March.

The founder of TriStem, Dr Ilham Abuljadayel, stumbled across her technique in the early 1990s. She discovered that an antibody normally used to detect abnormal brain cells also triggers "retrodifferentiation". However, as her work contradicts conventional beliefs about how stem cells develop, her colleagues are asking for more proof. If she is right, the potential is enormous. Her method could bypass the need for ethically controversial embryonic stem cells and therapeutic cloning. ~ New Scientist, Nov 26 

IVF problems could be "tip of iceberg"

Imprinting disorders caused by IVF procedures could be the "tip of the iceberg" of increased susceptibility to cancer and other common diseases, says a report in the journal Human Reproduction. Researchers at the University of Birmingham in the UK say that there is a "pressing need" for long-term studies of the health of children born with the help of assisted reproductive technology. The culture media used in IVF procedures may predispose embryos to epigenetic errors. These may "account for a much wider spectrum of ART-related complications than is recognised currently," they say. ~ Human Reproduction, 18(12)

And in Australia a scientist at the University of Adelaide says that a synthetic hormone routinely used in IVF to stimulate ovaries to produce eggs may reduce the development rate of embryos. "The implications are certainly that this may then go on to affect both foetal and placental growth," says Dr Lisa Edwards, of the university's reproductive medicine unit. Until now, the hormone has not been tested on animals, but is nonetheless widely used in human IVF. ~ Australian, Nov 24 

Palestinian IVF booms in the Gaza Strip

Dr Baha al-Ghalayini and patient Poverty is no obstacle to obtaining IVF treatment in the Gaza Stip, reports the Aljazeera news service. "They don't allow anything to get in their way," says Dr Baha al-Ghalayini, who set up Gaza's first IVF clinic in 1998. "If they don't have money, they'll borrow money. If they can't borrow money, they'll sell their things. And if they don't have things to sell, they'll apply for a medical assistance grant from the Palestinian Authority [PA]."

With more than half the population out of work and nearly 60% living on less than US$2 a day, IVF might seem like an impossible option for Palestinians. However, more than half of the Gaza Strip's IVF patients are paid for by the PA. Dr al-Ghalayini says that political groups like Hamas and Fatah and Islamic leaders also support his service. "Many patients come and tell me they had a son who was martyred and want to replace him with another son," he claims. ~ Aljazeera.net, Nov 20 

Swiss investigating suicide tourism business

Prosecutors in Zurich are investigating the deaths of three foreigners organised by the suicide group Dignitas. One was a 76- year-old French man suffering from Alzheimer's disease who may not have been able to understand what he was doing when he drank a lethal dose of barbiturates, although his wife claimed that when he had his faculties he had expressed a wish to die. The other two were a British couple with chronic, but not terminal, health problems.

In another case, a doctor from the canton of Aargau, near Zurich has been told to stop prescribing barbiturates to suicidal patients. He is being investigated for the double suicide of French twins suffering from schizophrenia. According to assisted suicide legislation in Switzerland, a person who wants to die must have a terminal illness and must be of sound mind. The founder of Dignitas, Ludwig Minelli, has told the press that severe depression can be irreversible and that he is justified in helping the mentally ill to kill themselves. ~ Observer (UK), Nov 23

  • After one year of legalised euthanasia in Belgium, 203 cases have been recorded, according to recently released figures from the Ministry for Public Health. There are four euthanasia cases amongst Flemish-speakers to every case amongst French-speakers. ~ Expatica, Nov 25 

    Study questions growth of US scanning industry

    The first analysis of the booming American scanning industry has called for minimum standards to protect patients by creating oversight, self-regulation and consumer education. In an article in the journal Radiology a team from Stanford University has reported that there are 88 scanning centres in 21 states, with nearly a third in California. Nearly all of them are based in areas that are white, affluent and highly educated -- whom doctors nickname "the worried well" or the "healthy wealthy". Only one-third provide results with a personal consultation with a radiologist; 44% report through the post.

    More research is needed into the risks and benefits of providing MRI scans, CT scan and thermal imaging freely to the public, says Dr Judy Illes, of Stanford's radiology department and Center for Biomedical Ethics. "Once services become routine in the open market, it is very difficult to go back and run rigorous clinical trials in an academic setting that would determine the efficacy of various tests," she says.

    Doctors are divided on the benefits of the scans. "There are old- guard physicians who want to keep control over health care," says Thomas Banks of flexSCAN, a corporate scanning consultant. "They've had the market cornered. These technologies are the future, no matter what people think about it. And we are an advocate of making technologies available." Many patients agree, some saying that scanning centres have revealed conditions which stodgier doctors had failed to diagnose.

    However, their opponents claim that the scanning centres exploit the growing trend towards "self-directed" medical care with aggressive advertising of unproven diagnostic procedures. Often test results can be unreliable or hard to interpret, even for radiologists. False positives and clinically insignificant findings could worry patients unnecessarily and negative findings could give them a false sense of reassurance. ~ San Francisco Mercury, Nov 25 

    US Congress negotiates agreement on human patents

    The US Patent and Trademark Office will be barred from issuing patents on human organisms such as genetically engineered embryos under an agreement reached by Federal politicians. Dave Weldon, a Florida congressman who has been an active opponent of human cloning of any kind, says that the agreement will allow patents on genes, cells, tissue and other biological products and will not interfere with stem cell research. But it will ratify the Patent Office's rule that human organisms cannot be patented.

    The spokesman for the US biotech industry, Michael J. Werner, appeared to be happy with the proposed legislation. "Our companies are interested in being able to do stem cell research, regenerative medicine and the development of treatments for diseases," he said, "not in getting patents on embryos." ~ AP, Nov 25 

    Japan wrestles with anonymity for sperm donors

    Japanese children born through donor insemination (DI) hit a brick wall when they try to find their biological fathers, says the Mainichi Shimbun. One man told the newspaper that he had discovered his origin by accident and felt estranged from his father afterwards. "I want to meet my [biological] father and say, your sperm became me," he said.

    There are more than 10,000 DI children in Japan, but sperm donors there are guaranteed anonymity. The government is now studying amendments to its IVF legislation. Satoko Nagaoki, of Keio University, says that DI children need help. "DI children in Japan are left to worry on their own," he says. "The public administration needs to show responsibility and provide a system to support them, and there needs to be a self-help group through which the people involved can link arms." ~ Mainichi Shumbun, Nov 24

  • A Japanese committee working on "fundamental thinking on the treatment of human embryos" has given little thought to ethical dimension of the issue, says one of its members. Professor Susumu Shimazon, of the University of Tokyo, has called for more discussion of the ethics of embryo research, xenotranplantation and ageing. ~ Japan Today, Nov 28 

    IN BRIEF: nurses and euthanasia ~ US biotech ~ EU embryo research ~ UK abortion

  • As the UK's House of Lords prepares to examine the controversial question of euthanasia again, a survey by the British magazine Nursing Times has found that one-third of nurses polled think that they should be allowed to help patients commit suicide. Another third are opposed to any euthanasia legislation. Amanda Callaghan, of the Royal College of Nursing, says that the College is firmly opposed to euthanasia. "What's more, we are concerned that alarmist headlines may serve to undermine the trust that is so important between nurses and patients' families." ~ BBC, Nov 25

  • American biotech companies have the fastest growth in jobs of any major industry -- 12% from 2000 to 2002, according to a US Commerce Department survey. "Biotech has become a magnet for scientists," says Phil Bond, Under-Secretary of Commerce for Technology. However, the size of the biotech sector is still relatively small, with only 34,000 scientists employed, most of them in only six states. ~ The Scientist, Nov 20

  • Venture capitalists have thrown a bucket of cold water on European dreams of becoming a world leader in embryonic stem cell research. The European Parliament recently passed a non-binding resolution to permit funding for embryo research. In purely financial terms, investors told the UPI press agency, the resources of the EU and its member states are dwarfed by the US$27 billion spent by the US on biomedical research. ~ UPI, Nov 25

  • A UK woman is seeking to have a doctor prosecuted for aborting a child more than six months into a pregnancy because of a cleft palate. UK law only allows abortions past 24 weeks if there is a substantial risk that a child will be born with a handicap. The Reverend Joanna Jepson -- who has had surgery for a congenital jaw abnormality -- and her lawyers contend that a cleft palate cannot be classed as a serious handicap, a point which most people accept. ~ BMJ.com, Nov 29 

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