[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 645-646]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    ADULT STEM CELL TRANSPLANTATION FOR SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS

  Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to claim 
the time of the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones).
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Florida?
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the House 
regarding a recent article just published in the Journal of the 
American Medical Association.
  As my colleagues know, I practiced medicine for about 15 years before 
my election to the House in 1994 and I continue to see patients about 
once a month at the veterans clinic in my congressional district. And 
juggling the burdens of my congressional position, I continue to try to 
read the medical literature. And one of the journals that I take is the 
Journal of the American Medical Association. And I have been engaged in 
an ongoing debate in this body regarding the potential usefulness of 
embryonic stem cells versus adult stem cells, and I have been 
advocating the position that the medical literature and the scientific 
literature is replete with evidence that adult stem cells and cord 
blood stem cells are proven to be highly efficacious in human 
applications, in treating human diseases, and that embryonic stem 
cells, on the other hand, not only have they never been successfully 
used in a human clinical trial, and you cannot show me one research 
article where an embryonic stem cell has been used to help a human 
being, they have not really been shown to be very efficacious even in 
animals. We do not today have a good animal model of an animal disease, 
say, an animal model of diabetes, where embryonic stem cells have been 
successfully used to cure those animals, whereas that has been done 
with adult stem cells in the case of diabetes in mice. It was done 
years ago, as a matter of fact. They tried to do that with embryonic 
stem cells and it failed.
  And what is very significant is this article just published in the 
Journal of the American Medical Association, they had some 50 patients, 
almost, enrolled in a study, and they used adult stem cell treatments 
for what we call refractory or basically untreatable systemic lupus 
erythematosus.
  Systemic lupus is a terrible disease. It affects 1.5 million 
Americans. Ninety percent of them are women. It is also a disease that 
is very common in minorities, two to three times more prevalent in 
minorities. The traditional treatment has not changed for 40 years. We 
have not had a new drug for this, and it is typically the use of what 
we call glucocorticords or steroids and other immunosuppressive drugs, 
some of the drugs that we use for cancer. Very significant side 
effects. No new drugs in 40 years. And it can lead to very, very 
serious complications, to include renal failure and to have to go on 
dialysis. And of this group, 48 people enrolled, they cured, cured, 33 
people. No disease symptoms, published in the Journal of the American 
Medical Association's flagship JAMA. Richard K. Burt is the lead 
author. There are about 10different authors. Burt is at the University 
of Chicago. I know about his work. I went there to see this guy years 
ago because he was doing so many innovative things and using adult stem 
cells, and he has cured 33 people. Some of them they have been 
following as long as 7 years, disease free.
  Mr. Speaker, this has never been done before where they can actually 
take somebody with severe lupus, and the only people they can typically 
get enrolled in these clinical trials are the bad ones that are not 
responding to drugs. So these are the worst cases. They are not 
responding to drugs. Adult stem cell transplants, and he has cured 33 
of 48 patients.
  Just another point to make that adult stem cells are showing 
tremendous clinical promise. In this particular medical group at the 
University

[[Page 646]]

of Chicago, they have treated about 50 different diseases with adult 
stem cells. Tremendous promise. Embryonic stem cells, on the other 
hand, no promise has been shown in humans to date. And as well I will 
reiterate they do not as yet have a good animal model that they will 
ever work. They are prone to form tumors called teratomas when they are 
used in treatment, and there are immune complications. There are a 
whole host of complications in animals while they try to use them.
  So I wanted to bring all my colleagues up to date on this very 
important piece of research. It is good news for Americans with lupus 
who are not responding to drugs. Stem cells work. But it is adult stem 
cells, not embryonic stem cells.

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