Stem cells: back to the future
Date: 13.6.2007
Stem-cell researchers around the world face both religious and secular concerns about the therapeutic use of stem cells from surplus embryos or aborted foetuses.
But finding another source of pluripotent stem cells is an imperative, simply because the limited supply of embryonic stem cells will make it difficult to find cells to genetically match all patients requiring grafts.
As an immunologically privileged environment, the central nervous system (CSN), comprising the brain and spinal cord, will accept "non-self" stem-cell grafts, but other therapeutic applications will require autologous grafts to avoid immune rejection.
Formidable technical challenges confront efforts to create "self" stem cells via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). In SCNT, a nucleus from one of the patient's own somatic cells is transplanted into an enucleated donor ovum, then stimulated to divide and form a blastocyst, the source of ES cells.
When Professor Freda Miller's research group at Canada's Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto set out to find an alternative to embryonic stem cells to repair damaged brains and spinal cords, it went only skin deep.
Miller told ALS that the skin looked a promising place to search because it contains sensory receptors to detect physical pressure. "There was data suggesting that the dermis contains some sort of precursor cells that regenerates the nerve cells that sense pressure," she says.
Source:"www.biotechnews.com"[ http://www.biotechnews.com.au/index.php/id;401382468]
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