[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 96 (Tuesday, July 16, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1274-E1275]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     RECENT STEM CELL BREAKTHROUGHS

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                          HON. MARK E. SOUDER

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 16, 2002

  Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, recently a scientific study was published 
that should have ended the ongoing debate regarding human cloning and 
embryonic stem cell research. Researchers reported that they have 
identified a cell from bone marrow that is capable of transforming 
itself into most, or even all, of the specialized cells in the body.
  This finding suggests that every one of us may carry our own ``repair 
kit'' that can be used to treat countless medical conditions and 
genetic disorders.
  The New York Times reports that these ``cells could in principle do 
everything expected of embryonic stem cells, with two extra 
advantages.'' They do not form tumors, which are a serious hazard 
associated with embryonic stem cells, and they could be derived from 
the patient to be treated. ``Being the patient's own cells, they would 
be at no risk of immune rejection.''
  And the Washington Post notes that this discovery ``heightens the 
prospect that therapies scientists are trying to create--cures for 
diabetes, Parkinson's disease, hemophilia and many others--can be made 
entirely with adult cells alleviating moral concerns'' that exist with 
the research involving embryos and clones.
  Yet, proponents of these unethical and unproven practices have 
largely ignored theses adult stem cell breakthroughs. But the facts are 
simple.
  Research using embryos and clones requires the creation and 
destruction of a form of human life. Adult stem cell research does not. 
In fact, adult stem cells are widely available in every one of us.
  Research using embryos and clones has yet to produce any clinical 
applications for human patients. Adult stem cell therapies are 
currently used to treat a host of medical conditions with new 
breakthroughs announced on an almost weekly basis.
  Without a doubt, embryonic stem cell research and cloning are highly 
speculative and problematic. Both require the destruction of human 
embryos and the diversion of finite, and much needed, funds and 
resources away from more promising research avenues, such as adult stem 
cells.

             [From the Washington Post, Fri. June 21, 2002]

   Study Finds Potential in Adult Cells; Discovery Will Likely Fuel 
                             Ethical Debate

                           (By Justin Gillis)

       Researchers have isolated a type of cell from bone marrow 
     that seems capable of transforming itself into most or all of 
     the specialized cells in the body, a dramatic new finding 
     likely to fuel the debate over the ethics of stemcell 
     research.
       The finding was reported by researchers at the University 
     of Minnesota and published online yesterday by the journal 
     Nature. It heightens the prospect that therapies scientists 
     are trying to create--cures for diabetes, Parkinson's 
     disease, hemophilia and many others--can be made entirely 
     with adult cells, alleviating moral concerns over using 
     discarded embryos and fetuses as sources of tissue.
       There has been conflicting evidence about whether cells 
     found in adults might be as useful as those derived from 
     embryos. But the work by Catherine Verfaillie, known as a 
     fastidious and cautious researcher, was widely acknowledged 
     as the most definitive evidence to date that adult cells may 
     be almost as versatile as embryonic cells. Austin Smith, a 
     prominent researcher in Scotland who has criticized some 
     prior studies using such cells, called the Verfaillie paper 
     ``extraordinary.''
       The work is still at an early stage, however, and 
     Verfaillie asked that it not be used as a political weapon to 
     fight simultaneous work on embryonic and fetal cells.
       ``I think it is going to be important to be in a position 
     to really compare and contrast the cells,'' she said, with 
     the ultimate goal of determining ``which cells are going to 
     work for which therapy.''
       As if to underscore that point, Nature simultaneously 
     published work at the National Institutes of Health showing 
     that embryo-derived cells can vastly improve symptoms similar 
     to those associated with Parkinson's disease in mice. That 
     work, led by Ron McKay, is one of the most convincing 
     demonstrations to date that such embryonic cells may be 
     useful in medical care.
       The cells in McKay's experiments, derived from mouse 
     embryos, took up residence at the right spot in the brains of 
     adult mice and produced dopamine--a critical substance that 
     is in short supply in Parkinson's disease--in exactly the way 
     that would be needed to relieve the symptoms of the ailment. 
     It is far from proof of a cure, but ``it's absolutely 
     definitive evidence that these cells can work in the brain,'' 
     McKay said.
       The more unexpected finding was that of Verfaillie, 
     director of the University of Minnesota's Stem Cell 
     Institute. With the paper, she joined the company of 
     biologists who are overturning the dogma that animal 
     development proceeds in one irreversible direction, from the 
     unspecialized cell formed when sperm and egg fuse to the 
     highly specialized cells of an adult body.
       Hints of her work had been emerging for two years in papers 
     and scientific conferences, and scientists had been eagerly 
     awaiting it. Many other reports, some of them controversial, 
     already emerged in recent years of various adult cell types 
     being able to perform unexpected feats of transformation. But 
     Verfaillie has discovered what appears to be the most 
     flexible adult-derived cell yet.
       She calls the cells in question ``multipotent adult 
     progenitor cells.'' She and her colleagues have isolated them 
     from mice, rats and people, though they are only able to do 
     so in 70 percent to 80 percent of the people they test, for 
     unknown reasons.
       In animal experiments, the cells proved to lack certain 
     characteristics of embryonic stem cells, which are capable of 
     making every tissue in an animal's body. But they shared many 
     other characteristics and proved to be able to transform into 
     cells of the liver, lung, gut, blood, brain and other organs. 
     They have proven particularly amenable to transformation into 
     liver cells.
       Many of the types of experiments Verfaillie reported, which 
     involved injecting the adult cells into developing mouse 
     embryos, cannot ethically be done in humans. But further 
     animal experimentation may clear the way to use the cells in 
     treating human disease. Several scientists cautioned that 
     this will take years, at best.
       Verfaillie's results suggest the tantalizing possibility 
     that every adult may carry around the raw material of his or 
     her own repair kit--one that nature is somehow failing to use 
     in many diseases but that scientists might be able to exploit 
     to make new tissues and revivify failing organs.
       Cells derived from a person's bone marrow would be unlikely 
     to be rejected by the immune system, a potential problem with 
     treatments based on embryonic- or fetal-derived cells.
       Verfaillie said the cells might even be useful for 
     correcting genetic diseases. They could be taken out of the 
     body, a repaired gene could be inserted, doctors could grow 
     many copies and then the cells would be inserted into a 
     deficient organ such as the liver, along with proper 
     manipulations to get them to turn into functional liver 
     cells.
       The Verfaillie work ``is a nice research paper,'' said John 
     Gearhart, a biologist at Johns Hopkins University in 
     Baltimore and one of the two American scientists known

[[Page E1275]]

     for isolating human embryonic and fetal stem cells. ``I think 
     it's good, solid work. We'll see where it goes.''
       Verfaillie's work was particularly welcomed yesterday by 
     opponents of embryonic stem cell research. They have long 
     contended that adult-derived cells offer just as much promise 
     and don't pose the same moral concerns as embryonic cells.
       The Senate is embroiled in arguments over a related issue. 
     Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) wants a federal ban on the 
     transfer of nuclei from adult cells into hollowed-out human 
     eggs.
       The intent of the scientists who want to perform that 
     procedure, a type of cloning, would be to derive healthy 
     replacement cells that are a perfect genetic match for a 
     human patient. But because the procedure would create a 
     microscopic embryo that would be capable, briefly, of turning 
     into a human clone if implanted into a woman's uterus, some 
     groups oppose it, saying destruction of the microscopic 
     embryo would be tantamount to murder.

     

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