Stem Cell Contact Lenses Cure Blindness in Less Than a Month

Here's something that people with poor or no vision will be excited about: three patients had their sight restored in less than a month by contact lenses cultured with stem cells.

All three patients were blind in one eye. The researchers extracted stem cells from their working eyes, cultured them in contact lenses for 10 days, and gave them to the patients. Within 10 to 14 days of use, the stem cells began recolonizing and repairing the cornea.

Of the three patients, two were legally blind but can now read the big letters on an eye chart, while the third, who could previously read the top few rows of the chart, is now able to pass the vision test for a driver's license. The research team isn't getting over excited, still remaining unsure as to whether the correction will remain stable, but the fact that the three test patients have been enjoying restored sight for the last 18 months is definitely encouraging. The simplicity and low cost of the technique also means that it could be carried out in poorer countries.

This is incredible and potentially game changing. It's stuff like this that makes you realize that we live in the future, and it's awesome.

Natural Breast Implants

'Natural' breast implants, using stem cells extracted from a woman's own
stomach or thigh tissue, could soon be offered to women in the UK following
the announcement of a trial beginning in May this year. Although the
experimental treatment has already been successfully trialled on a small
number of UK breast cancer patients, and has been available in Japan for six
years, this is the first time that it will be offered to healthy women.
At present the maximum increase that women undergoing the treatment can
expect is up to one cup-size, however more dramatic enlargements may be
possible as the technology develops. The treatment involves extracting stem
cells from fat extracted from stomach or thigh tissue and then injecting
them into the woman's chest. Previous trials which attempted to implant fat
tissue directly, without isolating stem cells, failed to re-grow adequate
blood vessels; however stem cells positively encourage this. Ten women are
expected to have the experimental treatment when the trial commences in May.
The treatment is less likely to lead to long-term complications than
conventional silicon implants, according to consultant breast surgeon Kefah
Mokbel, who is leading the trial at the London Breast Institute at the
Princess Grace hospital, because it involves only the woman's own tissue and
thus avoids implanting foreign objects in the body.
'This is a very exciting advance in breast surgery,' he said. 'Breasts
treated with stem cells feel more natural because this tissue has the same
softness as the rest of the breast. Implants are a foreign body. They are
associated with long-term complications and require replacement. They can
also leak and cause scarring.' The treatment could be available privately
within six months and will cost approximately £6,500, according to Professor
Mokbel.
However, some specialists are concerned about the prospect of beginning
trials on healthy patients, before results from trials on cancer patients
are available. Eva Weiler-Mithoff, a consultant plastic surgeon at
Canniesburn hospital in Glasgow, who is involved in running a European trial
of the treatment for patients who need breast reconstruction following
surgery to remove cancerous lumps, has expressed concern that patients
undergoing cosmetic surgery would be liable to skip vital follow-up
appointments.

Adult Stem Cells May Lead To New Infertility Treatment

A special class of adult stem cells, known as human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, has for the first time been reprogrammed into cells that develop into human eggs and sperm. The research, carried out by members of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)'s Broad Stem Cell Research Center, was published in the January 27 online edition of the journal Stem Cells.
Derived from adult body cells that have been engineered to return to an embryonic state, iPS cells have the ability to become every cell type in the human body - a characteristic they share with embryonic stem (ES) cells. In this study the iPS cells were coaxed into forming the germ line precursor cells that are capable of giving rise to sperm and eggs.
'This finding could be important for people who are rendered infertile through disease or injury'. said Amander Clark, the senior author of the study. 'We may, one day, be able to replace the germ cells that are lost, and these germ cells would be specific and genetically related to that patient'. Many infertile couples would see this process as preferable to using eggs or sperm from a donor who would then become one of the child's genetic parents.
However, Clark cautioned that scientists are still many years from offering treatments involving iPS cells to infertile patients. There are many uncertainties and dangers that need to be resolved. For example, the process of reprogramming involves using viruses to deliver genes to the cells, potentially increasing the likelihood of genetic abnormalities and cancers.
Crucially, Clark's team found that the germ line cells derived from iPS cells did not perform certain key regulatory processes as well as those generated from ES cells. The associated increased risk of chromosomal errors, or abnormal growth, could have serious health consequences for any child conceived using egg or sperm obtained in this way.
Therefore Clark believes that it is vital that research using human ES cells continues. These cells can be derived from left over embryos used during in vitro fertilisation, and would otherwise be destroyed, yet their use is controversial and the topic remains fiercely debated. Despite this President Obama is expected to reverse President Bush's restrictive policies on ES cell research in the next few weeks.

Australian First For Melbourne Stem Cell Scientists

Melbourne scientists have created Australia's first induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines.Scientists from the Monash Institute of Medical Research (MIMR) have derived the cells from skin cells, and reprogrammed them to behave as embryonic stem cells; a breakthrough that will allow Australian scientists unlimited access to study a range of diseases.
Until now, Australian scientists have had to import human iPS cells from America or Japan.
Program leader, Dr Paul Verma, said the significance of developing iPS cells 'in-house' cannot be underestimated. "We now have the capability to investigate any human disease we wish, rather than relying on iPS cells from specific diseases that have been generated elsewhere."
"In addition, each iPS cell line generated from the same adult cells appears to be subtly different. We are keen to investigate these differences between iPS lines, which would be impossible to do if we had to rely on cells provided by other laboratories," Dr Verma said.
Dr Verma and his team are working with Professor Bernie Tuch from the Sydney Cell Therapy Foundation, and will now generate iPS cells from type 1 diabetes patients to help understand the disease and develop better drugs.
Creating iPS cells does not require donated excess IVF embryos or human eggs; therefore, no human embryos are destroyed in the process. However, Dr Verma said it is still too early to assume iPS cells are the preferable alternative to working with embryonic stem cells.
"While the iPS cells we have created appear in an identical manner to embryonic stem cells, iPS cell lines show great variability in their potential to produce mature cells. If, through our research, we can overcome this, iPS cells would certainly pose a great alternative to embryonic stem cells," he said.
Dr Verma's research is funded by a joint Victorian and NSW Government grant. The Victorian Minister for Innovation, Gavin Jennings, said that Dr Verma's creation of iPS cells will greatly assist Victorian researchers to progress their research into serious diseases, and to develop better treatments.
"Creating Australia's first iPS cell line is another example of how Victoria's world-leading stem cell research capabilities have the potential to improve our quality of life he said.

The Ethics of Stem Cell Research: A Hindu view

What does it mean to protect 'the sanctity of life?' This is the question
that for Hindus, as for those in other religious traditions, lies at the
heart of debate on whether embryonic stem (ES) cell research is ethical.
It could be argued that embryos in the early process of fertilisation
have only a 30 per cent chance of becoming a full human being, so why not
use them for the potential benefit of existing human beings, for 14 days,
and then destroy them? After all, it is not thought that in these early
stages cells are sufficiently developed to feel any sensation or anything
that could be called 'pain.'
Furthermore, we are told, the benefits of stem cell research could be
radical. Each ES cell has properties of a regenerative nature, which can
transform itself into any cell required, meaning it is pluripotent. Thus
these cells could potentially be used to treat illnesses that we currently
do not have a cure for. It is a compelling argument; when scientists tell us
that in embracing this technique we could reduce the hideous effects of
motor neurone disease, stroke, heart disease, multiple sclerosis and cancers
of various sorts, who would dare be 'inhuman' enough to suggest this end
does not justify the means?
And, as we are quite used to using animals for scientific research,
where is the harm in extending that use to human life, especially human life
at a primordial stage?
On the face of it, such an argument would be quite wrong. The Hindu
Vedas dictate that all life is sacred, including animal and plant life. It
is this precept that lies at the heart of the Hindu doctrine of non-violence
or ahimsa. We believe that respect for life is a prerequisite; by showing
love to all creatures, all living things, we likewise show our love towards
God, who is in all things. All things are God's creation and therefore we
must respect all of it, as we love all of God.
However, there is a paradox in this view. The law of nature rules that
we must kill in order to survive. Human beings only live and continue to
breathe by consuming the plant and, in most cases, the animal life around
us. All of Creation works by taking one life for the survival of another.
The ancient Rishis, or divine sages, resolved this paradox by referring
to the various stages of evolution of consciousness that we share. They
believed plants were at the lowest level of consciousness. Animals then
followed, and finally humans were placed at the top of the evolutionary
tree. In creating this hierarchy, the Rishis ensured life itself was
protected, but within the laws of creation. So, what really matters is that
we protect the highest level of consciousness even if we have to kill the
lower levels in order to do so.
In Hinduism the soul passes through many species - one ancient scripture
suggests as many as 8.4 million species - until it finally evolves to the
highest level consciousness, in the form of a human being. It is this human
birth that can then bring about salvation from the cycle of rebirth and
finally end up with God.
So, to be born human is to achieve the highest value within the process
of reincarnation. The human life we experience, the only life which offers
us the chance to achieve ultimate and final union with God, is of an even
greater value. Recognising this value, Hinduism developed the ancient
systems of Yoga and Ayurveda to alleviate illnesses and prolong healthy
life.
Modern science works on the same quest. Medical research aims to help a
person's longevity. In Hinduism all human life is evolving towards God,
regardless of belief or non-belief, and that makes it much more valuable
than the embryonic cell at a primordial stage, where it has no sensation.
The difference is in the degree of consciousness. Further, if there is no
shortage of reproducing such cells then surely we must be prepared to
sacrifice a few for the greater good of helping the existing life, in itself
a noble value for all our salvation?
- By Anil Bhanot, General Secretary, The Hindu Council

Testicles could provide 'ethical' stem cells

Scientists in the UK and Germany have found that cells extracted from human testis can be manipulated to make them act like human embryonic stem (ES) cells, resulting in another approach in the burgeoning stem cell field. ES cells can potentially be used to create 'repair tissue' specific to the individual for diseased or damaged tissue, as they can give rise to any tissue in the body. This could offer treatments for diseases such as Parkinson's and diabetes, and for spinal cord injuries. The use of ES cells, however, is surrounded with ethical controversy, as harvesting the cells from the embryo involves the subsequent destruction of the embryo.
The teams of scientists, at the University of Tubingen, Germany, and King's College London, used 22 samples taken from biopsies from testicles or from medical castrations. They extracted sperm precursor cells, called spermatogonial cells, and manipulated them chemically to become more stem cell-like. Thomas Skutella, who led the team in Germany, says: 'these cells
changed their properties, losing characteristics of spermatogonial cells and acquiring characteristics similar to those of human ES cells'. Depending on the chemical signals the cells were exposed to, the cells changed 'into skin, structures of the gut, cartilage, bone, muscle and neurons', he added.
The study, published in the journal Nature, follows on from studies in mice in 2006, and brings hope that these cells can in the future be used safely in humans to develop personalised tissue, thereby avoiding rejection after transplantation. Use of these cells would also avoid the ethical problems that prevent work with ES cells. The results are by no means conclusive. Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, a stem cell specialist from the UK's National Institute for Medical Research, pointed out that the testicle-derived stem cells are not identical to ES cells. 'The DNA in the stem cells in the testes lack some important
modifications that regulate the activity in certain genes, and this may affect ability of the reprogrammed cells to make specific mature tissue types' he said. The same cells are the likely root of testicular tumours, so there are safety concerns, and also the issue that the cells could only be used to treat men, leaving women without a similarly easy method.

Scientists attempt stem cell breakthrough

Sydney scientists have been given the go-ahead to try to achieve a controversial world first in medical research - obtaining stem cells from cloned human embryos.

Researchers at the fertility company Sydney IVF were yesterday issued with Australia's first licence to produce cloned human embryos. By extracting stem cells from them, they hope to gain unprecedented insights into how crippling conditions including muscular dystrophy and Huntington's disease develop, and how to treat them.

The director of research and development at Sydney IVF, Tomas Stojanov, said the company had a unique combination of skills, technology and access to human eggs - 7200 of them - to be the first to succeed.

"The race is on," he said.

A national ban on the research, known as therapeutic cloning or somatic cell nuclear transfer, was lifted in December 2006 after a rare conscience vote in Federal Parliament.

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd - then an Opposition MP - was among those who voted to retain the ban on the process, which involves putting DNA from a patient's cell into an empty egg to produce a days-old cloned embryo, or blastocyst, from which embryonic stem cells are collected.

The director of Australians for Ethical Stem Cell Research, David van Gend, criticised the issuing of the licence by the National Health and Medical Research Council. He said cloning research was no longer necessary because of recent advances in stem cell science.

"It is unspeakable that we should continue this project of creating living human embryos with the sole purpose of destroying them when the compelling justification for such experiments has gone."

But Dr Stojanov said Australia had one of the strictest sets of ethical standards in the world for cloning research.

It did not involve the creation of a human life. "We are not creating an embryo for reproductive purposes," he said.

In 2005 British researchers produced a cloned human embryo, and in January this year a Californian company, Stemagon, produced three from 23 eggs, but neither team was able to extract stem cells from them.

Julia Schaft, who will lead the Sydney IVF project, said that only eggs that were unusable for IVF because they were immature or had not been fertilised properly, and which donors had given consent for, would be used.

The licence allows for 7200 of these eggs, which would otherwise be discarded, to be used over three years.

Her team will use three different types of cells - embryonic stem cells, cumulus cells attached to the collected eggs, and skin cells - to produce the cloned embryos.

Dr Schaft said the researchers had the necessary micromanipulation skills, and had developed special cocktails of chemicals for growing blastocysts to the five-day stage.

As well, Sydney IVF was the first, in 2004, to extract stem cells from Australian IVF embryos, and has since extracted and grown 10 more colonies of embryonic stem cells this way.

"So we have experience at every step [of the cloning process]," Dr Schaft said.

The managing director of Sydney IVF, Robert Jansen, said stem cell research sat well with the company's emphasis on helping parents avoid passing on genetic diseases to their children, by carrying out pre-implantation genetic diagnosis of IVF embryos.

"Families appreciate the opportunity to help develop treatments for a genetic disease in their families," Professor Jansen said.

The short-term aim of the cloning research was to produce disease-specific stem cells from patients that could be used to test for new drugs.

Longer term, therapeutic cloning would be the only way to produce new tissue that was perfectly matched to a patient, he said.

Last year, Japanese researchers developed a new way of producing embryonic-like stem cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells, by simply adding four genes to a cell from a patient.

Dr van Gend said this negated any argument for carrying out therapeutic cloning.

But Andrew Laslett, of the Australian Stem Cell Centre, said it was not yet clear which type of stem cell would lead to new therapies.

Although the induced pluripotent stem cells were ethically uncontroversial, there were safety concerns because viruses were used to add the genes.

"The jury definitely is still out," Dr Laslett said.

If Sydney IVF succeeds in obtaining stem cells from cloned embryos, their properties will be compared with those of induced pluripotent stem cells imported from the United States in a $550,000 research project funded by the NSW and Victorian governments.

Transfusion breakthrough as human blood grown from stem cells

A team of scientists from the Advanced Cell Technology company (ATC), California, USA, have made massive amounts of red blood cells from human embryonic stem cells (ESC). The work may lead to laboratories being able to produce blood for transfusions, providing a limitless supply and an alternative to donations. This exciting development in stem cell research was published in the journal Blood last week. [The paper] clearly shows that stem cells could serve as an unlimited source of blood for transfusion in the future', Dr. Robert Lanza at ATC, who led the research with colleagues from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and the University of Illinois in Chicago, told Nature.
The researchers created the red blood cells by exposing cultures of human ESCs to a sequence of nutrients and growth factors. An important step in the process was achieving 'enucleation' - making the cells eject their nuclei, as they do naturally in the body. The functions of the cells were tested, and results suggest the cells can carry as much oxygen as donated red blood cells. The cells were also able to respond to environmental stimuli, as donated cells would.
It will be possible to make type O negative blood from stem cells, which everyone can receive safely regardless of their blood type, believe the researchers. It may also be possible to produce red blood cells from adult pluripotent stem cells, avoiding the need for ESCs. This work is the first time red blood cells have been made in bulk from stem cells. The next step will be to test that the cells are safe and functional in animals.
Stem cells have the potential to develop into many different cell types, and it is possible they could be used to treat a variety of human disease. For example, scientists are currently researching the use of stem cells as therapy for Parkinson disease and diabetes, amongst others.

Quadriplegic's 'lotto numbers come up' in India

A paralysed Australian man hopes a controversial embryonic stem cell treatment he is undergoing in India will help him walk again. Quadriplegic Perry Cross credits the treatment - which is banned in Australia and most Western countries - with allowing him to breathe on his own for the first time in 14 years.

Within weeks of starting his treatment in March, Cross was also able to sit unaided for short periods of time. The Queenslander was paralysed when he broke his neck during a rugby union match in 1994, when he was 19. He plans to continue having the stem cell injections, and hopes that one day they will help him walk again.

"I've been in a stable condition ever since I left hospital in 1994 and I came here in March to receive treatment and in April I started to breathe," he told Sky News in Britain. "So I put it down to the treatment. Nothing else has happened in the meantime that I know of. "I've received a bit of improvement in my arms already and my legs a little bit, so I'm hopeful when I come back, probably at the end of the year, I'll hopefully receive more improvement.

"You know, you put your lottery numbers in every week and I feel by coming here, my lottery numbers have finally come up."

Cross' doctor Geeta Shroff has been criticised by some medical professionals who claim she has not published papers about her research or revealed how she uses the stem cells. But Dr Shroff, who has treated about 500 patients in India, defended her research, saying she had taken out a patent to protect her work and published it on the internet. For Cross, she injected stem cells derived from a "throwaway" embryo developed during an IVF cycle for a woman who had given her "full consent" to Dr Shroff's research.

Dr Shroff said she was confident it was the stem cells that had begun repairing the damage to Cross's spinal cord and allowed him to finally breathe on his own and sit unaided. "Today he is breathing within eight weeks of starting treatment," she told Sky News. "No rehab can allow for a person to breathe on their own if their lungs are not working, if their spinal cord is not working.

"So if it has happened eight weeks after the stem cells (being injected), then obviously it is the human embryonic stem cells that is working."

Dr Shroff said she hoped her technology would be made available around the world to patients suffering from incurable diseases and terminal conditions. "I believe this would change medicine, it is the beginning of a new era in medicine," she said.

Since his accident in 1994, Cross has become one of the most sought-after motivational speakers in Australia. The Queenslander set up the Perry X Foundation three years ago to provide support for researchers trying to find a cure for paralysis. He has also advised the United Nations and worked with the late Superman star Christopher Reeve, who was paralysed after a horse riding accident, and became the actor's stem cell ambassador in Australia.

Mouse Skin Cells Reprogrammed to Act Like Embryonic Stem Cells

Heart and blood cells can be grown from reprogrammed mouse skin cells, report University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) researchers in the journal Stem Cells. The researchers say this is the first demonstration that stem cells from reprogrammed skin can be used to generate three types of heart and blood cell, including beating heart tissue. These could theoretically be used to repair damage following disease or heart attack.
Skin cells are transformed into stem cells using a combination of genetic factors. UCLA researchers were among those to develop the technique last June. The cells, known as induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, resemble embryonic stem (ES) cells but do not require the use of human eggs or embryos in their development. A Canadian team previously generated beating heart tissue using embryonic stem cells.
Robb MacLellan and his team grew iPS cells on a protein matrix designed to promote the transition of stem cells into cardiovascular progenitors. These specialised cells were then treated under different conditions to direct development into three types of cardiovascular tissue: cardiomyocytes, or mature heart muscle cells that control heartbeat, endothelial cells, which form rudimentary blood vessels, and vascular smooth muscle cells, the specialized cells that line blood vessel walls. The cardiomyocytes began to beat once mature. 'I believe iPS cells address many of the shortcomings of human embryonic stem cells and are the future of regenerative medicine', said MacLellan, senior study author and associate professor of cardiology and physiology.
If iPS cell-derived cardiovascular tissues can be used to treat heart disease or damage, they could potentially allow personalised treatment following, for instance, a heart attack. A patient's own skin cells could provide iPS cells that in turn would be used to develop new heart tissue, which would be genetically matched to the patient thus avoiding immune rejection. 'Our hope is that, based on this work in mice, we can show that similar cardiovascular progenitor cells can be found in human iPS cells and, using a similar strategy, that we can isolate the progenitor cells and differentiate them into the cells types found in the human heart', MacLellan said.
Work is underway at UCLA to determine whether the techniques established in mice can be used in humans. Although human applications of this research remain distant, it seems that iPS cells could provide regenerative treatment in future without the need for the controversial use of human eggs and embryos.

Disfigured Wounded US Soldiers To Get New Skin, Ears & Fingers

The US Department of Defense has announced a five year program to develop new stem-cell based treatments for service members disfigured from war-time injuries. The new Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM) will explore the use of a patient's own stem cells to grow replacement skin, tissue and other body parts. AFIRM will collaborate with the US Army Institute of Surgical Research, in San Antonio, Texas and several universities including Wake Forest University, North Carolina; Rutgers University in New Jersey; and the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.
The new initiative aims to use stem cell technology to make new skin, tendons, muscles, as well as new body parts such as ears, fingers and noses. Speaking at a press conference held last week, Lt Gen Eric Schoomaker cited the case of a badly-burned Marine, who will receive a new nose and ears grown using his own stem cells. He added 'the cells that we're talking about actually exist in our bodies today'.
The use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq and Afghanistan is apparently the main reason for a marked increase in severe blast trauma, which now accounts for three quarters of all injuries. Within five years, AFIRM hope to develop new therapies for burn repair, wound healing without scarring, facial reconstruction and limb reconstruction or regeneration. 'We're embarking on a new generation of research that's going to redefine the Army and military medicine as we know it today', said Schoomaker.
Dr Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University, explained: 'All the parts of your body, tissues and organs, have a natural repository of cells that are ready to replicate when an injury occurs'. The scientists hope to harness this regenerative ability to grow replacement tissue that will not be rejected by the patient's body. For replacement body parts such as ears, the cells will be 'painted' on to a biodegradable scaffold, and incubated for a few weeks before being transplanted on to the patient's body. AFIRM will receive around $250 million over the initial five years,
about $80 million of which will come from the Department of Defense, with the remaining funding coming from other private and public organisations, including the National Institutes of Health.

Insulin-secreting cells produced by stem cells

Scientists in the US have derived insulin-producing cells from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), and have successfully implanted them into mice. The achievement, reported last week in the journal Nature Biotechnology, could help push forward research into therapies for diabetes. Type 1 diabetes, and some forms of type 2 diabetes, are caused by a deficiency of pancreatic beta cells. These are cells that produce insulin, the hormone that helps control blood glucose levels, and are part of clusters of hormone-producing cells in the pancreas called the islets of Langerhans. The disease is characterised by a lack of insulin and subsequent misregulation of blood glucose, a condition that can be fatal. Diabetes is currently the seventh leading cause of death in the US, with 200,000 deaths reported per year.
The scientists at Novocell Inc. in San Diego, led by Dr Emmanuel E. Baetge, the chief scientific officer, derived immature precursor pancreatic beta cells from hESCs. They then implanted them into mice whose own beta cells had been destroyed by chemical treatment. After 90 days, the mice had switched the precursor cells into mature beta cells that produced insulin again, which helped control blood glucose. The implanted cells were said to be 'functionally and morphologically similar' to normal beta cells.Transplanting human islet cells into diabetic patients from donated pancreases has been proven to help treat the symptoms of diabetes, but this technique relies upon donations, of which there is not a consistent supply. There is also a risk of transplanting infected or contaminated cells. The new technology could provide a readily available and renewable bank of clean cells for treatment when the patient needed it.
The scientists say that there is a long way to go before this can be taken into humans. There are safety issues still apparent as some of the mice in the study developed tumours, called 'teratomas'. Some critics are also concerned with whether the transplanted hESC derived cells would be destroyed by the recipient's body, just as their own original beta cells were.Experts, however, are in no doubt that this is an exciting advancement. 'This for the first time validates that you can use human embryonic stem cells to produce fully functional human islets', says Dr Baetge.

Sperm From Female Stem Cells

British scientists have created early-stage, human sperm from female stem cells, according to a news report in New Scientist magazine. It is claimed that the research will pave the way for same sex couples to have children that are genetically their own. However, other scientists are sceptical that this procedure would ever be possible.
Professor Karim Nayernia at the University of Newcastle initially fertilised mice with sperm derived from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in 2006, which gave rise to seven pups, six of which survived. In more recent work, he took human male stem cells from bone marrow and formed 'spermatogonia', primitive sperm cells that can form mature sperm cells by going through a process called meiosis. Nayernia has now apparently done the same using human female stem cells, work that has yet to be published.
The next stage in the process would be to make these primitive sperm cells undergo meiosis, which Nayernia claims he has started to do. The result could be that female eggs are fertilised by 'female' sperm, thereby eradicating the need for male gametes. However, Dr Robin Lovell-Badge, a stem cell expert at the National Institute of Medical Research in London, does not think the approach will work. He told the Telegraph newspaper that the 'presence of two X chromosomes is incompatible with this. Moreover they need genes from the Y chromosome [from the male sperm] to go through meiosis. So they are at least double damned'. Safety issues have also been raised, since the mice pups in Nayernia's initial study had health problems.
A Brazilian team of scientists lead by Dr Irina Kerkis at the Butantan Institute in Sao Paolo also claim to have made sperm and eggs from male mouse ESCs, and are currently starting to take the work into human cells. The research brings hope to people dealing with infertility, a problem that affects one in six couples, although scientists say the process is still in its infancy and treatments are a long way off.
There is also potential to use 'induced pluripotent stem cells', stem cells derived from human skin cells, as a starting point for the process. This could enable gay men to donate skin cells that would be used to create stem cells from which eggs could be formed. The eggs could then be fertilised using sperm from his partner, and placed in a surrogate mother.
Greg Aharonian, a patent analyst in the US, is trying to patent the technology behind 'female' sperm and 'male' eggs. A self-proclaimed 'troublemaker', he wants to undermine the argument that marriage should remain heterosexual because its main purpose is procreation.
The controversial developments have provoked mixed responses in the UK and US. Mike Judge from the Christian Institute faith group says that 'children need male and a female role models'. Many religious groups still oppose gay marriage. Josephine Quintavalle, from the pro-life lobby group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, says: 'we are looking at absurd solutions to very obscure situations and not addressing the main issue. Nobody is interested in looking at what is causing infertility - social reasons such as obesity, smoking and age'.

Chimera embryos have right to life, say bishops

Human-animal hybrid embryos conceived in the laboratory - so-called “chimeras” - should be regarded as human and their mothers should be allowed to give birth to them, the Roman Catholic Church said yesterday. Under draft UK Government legislation to be debated by Parliament later this year, scientists will be given permission for the first time to create such embryos for research as long as they destroy them within two weeks. But the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, in a submission to the Parliamentary joint committee scrutinising the draft legislation, said that the genetic mothers of “chimeras” should be able to raise them as their own children if they wished.The bishops said that they did not see why these “interspecies” embryos should be treated any differently than others.

The wide-ranging draft Human Tissue and Embryo Bill, which aims to overhaul the laws on fertility treatment, will include sections on test tube babies, embryo research and abortion. Ministers say that the creation of animal-human embryos - created by injecting animal cells or DNA into human embryos or human cells into animal eggs - will be heavily regulated.They insist that it will be against the law to implant “chimeras” - named after the mythical creature that was half man and half animal - into a woman’s womb. The bishops, who believe that life begins at conception, said that they opposed the creation of any embryo solely for research, but they were also anxious to limit the destruction of such life once it had been brought into existence.

In their submission to the committee, they said: “At the very least, embryos with a preponderance of human genes should be assumed to be embryonic human beings, and should be treated accordingly.

“In particular, it should not be a crime to transfer them, or other human embryos, to the body of the woman providing the ovum, in cases where a human ovum has been used to create them.

“Such a woman is the genetic mother, or partial mother, of the embryo; should she have a change of heart and wish to carry her child to term, she should not be prevented from doing so.”

The draft Bill will also allow the screening of embryos for genetic or chromosomal abnormalities that might lead to serious medical conditions, disabilities, or miscarriage. It will permit doctors to check whether an embryo could provide a suitable tissue match for a sibling suffering from a life-threatening illness.

The Bill would abolish the requirement for fertility clinics to consider the need for a father when deciding on treatment. This means clinics will no longer be able to deny treatment to lesbians and single mothers.

The Catholic bishops said that most of the procedures covered by the Bill “should not be licensed under any circumstances”, principally on the grounds that they violate human rights.

Finnish patient gets new jaw from own stem cells

Scientists in Finland said they had replaced a 65-year-old patient's upper jaw with a bone transplant cultivated from stem cells isolated from his own fatty tissue and grown inside his abdomen. Researchers said on Friday the breakthrough opened up new ways to treat severe tissue damage and made the prospect of custom-made living spares parts for humans a step closer to reality.

"There have been a couple of similar-sounding procedures before, but these didn't use the patient's own stem cells that were first cultured and expanded in laboratory and differentiated into bone tissue," said Riitta Suuronen of the Regea Institute of Regenerative Medicine, part of the University of Tampere.

She told a news conference the patient was recovering more quickly than he would have if he had received a bone graft from his leg. "From the outside nobody would be able to tell he has been through such a procedure," she said. She added, the team used no materials from animals -- preventing the risk of transmitting viruses than can be hidden in an animal's DNA, and followed European Union guidelines.

Stem cells are the body's master cells and they can be found throughout the blood and tissues. Researchers have recently found that fat contains stem cells which can be directed to form a variety of different tissues. Using a patient's own stem cells provides a tailor-made transplant that the body should not reject. Suuronen and her colleagues isolated stem cells from the patient's fat and grew them for two weeks in a specially formulated nutritious soup that included the patient's own blood serum. In this case they identified and pulled out cells called mesenchymal stem cells or immature cells than can give rise to bone, muscle or blood vessels. When they had enough cells to work with, they attached them to a scaffold made out of a calcium phosphate biomaterial and then put it inside the patient's abdomen to grow for nine months. The cells turned into a variety of tissues and even produced blood vessels, the researchers said. The block was later transplanted into the patient's head and connected to the skull bone using screws and microsurgery to connect arteries and veins to the vessels of the neck.

The patient's upper jaw had previously been removed due to a benign tumor and he was unable to eat or speak without the use of a removable prosthesis. Suuronen said her team had submitted a report on the procedure to a medical journal to be reviewed.

Human embryos successfully cloned from skin cells, cloned babies next?

Stem cell research, whether you agree with it or not, looks to have taken another step forward recently. A company called Stemagen out of La Jolla, California has “created the first mature cloned human embryos from single skin cells taken from adults, a significant advance toward the goal of growing personalized stem cells for patients suffering from various diseases,” reports the Washington Post. Stemagen’s chief executive Samuel H. Wood isn’t interested in — and is, in fact, opposed to — cloning human beings. “It’s unethical and it’s illegal, and we hope no one else does it either,” says Wood, noting that his companies goal is solely to help with diseases and patient-specific medicine.

Stemagen’s process involves creating an embryonic, genetic twin of a patient and then extracting replacement tissue from the embryo’s stem cells. The transplanted tissue wouldn’t be rejected by the patient’s body because the body would genetically see the tissue as its own. Making the cloned embryo looks to be a relatively simple process with about a 25 percent success rate.

“In the new work, the team took skin cells — some from Wood’s arm and some from an anonymous Stemagen investor — and fused them to eggs from women who were donating their eggs to help infertile women. About one-quarter of the resulting clones, or five in all, developed into five-day-old blastocysts.”

These new developments, according to the Washington Post, offer “sobering evidence that few, if any, technical barriers may remain to the creation of cloned babies.”

Reprogrammed Stem Cell Treatments Within Reach

The Japanese scientist whose team was responsible for the breakthrough that enabled human skin cells to be reprogrammed to behave like stem cells, Shinya Yamanaka from Kyoto University, has estimated that stem cell treatments for some diseases could be as little as a decade away. Stem cells have the ability to turn into any of the 220 different cell types found within the body, and therefore it is hoped they will play a crucial role in treating and curing illnesses by replacing damaged cells.
Yamanaka's team's work has been significant primarily because it avoids the need to use viable embryos to create stem cells, which is ethically problematic for many people. The cells created by Mr Yamanaka's team, called induced pluripotent stem
cells (iPS), take three months to create. Therefore, Mr Yamanaka has recommended that an iPS cell bank be created to shorten the time it would take to develop a tailor-made treatment. Mr Yamanaka commented 'by making such a bank, we can cut the cost of treatment and also we can shorten the period which is required for the generation of iPS cells'. However, there are still problems with the use of iPS cells, which means that many research laboratories are still pressing ahead with embryonic stem
(ES) cell research. Kevin Eggan, a stem cell biologist at Harvard University, has warned that because iPS cells are genetically changed they may not be safe. Therefore, until they have been deemed risk-free for clinical trials, Eggan predicts that the demand for ES cells will remain, and that they will still be a better option than the reprogrammed cells, despite the ethical objections. Richard Murphy, president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, also considers ES cells to be the 'gold standard' in research.
Meanwhile, Yamanaka also reported that other laboratories in the US and Japan were now also producing iPS cells, and maintained their potential for patients awaiting treatment. 'All you need is basic technology, cell biology, you don't need special technology or equipments', said Yamanaka, who also emphasised the increasing competition in this area of research
since his discovery of iPS cells last November. He estimated that while stem cell treatments might be available for some diseases within a decade, others could take considerably longer.