HEALTH SPECIAL

New Delhi, 14 November 2008

Stem Cell Research

BOON FOR DISEASE CURE

By Radhakrishna Rao

The election of Barack Obama as the American President holds out hope of clearing the hurdles in the way of stem cell research which has the potential to evolve innovative treatment strategies for many of the hitherto incurable diseases afflicting humanity.

For the much-despised Bush Administration, out to please the fanatical Christian fundamentalist groups in the USA, had put roadblocks in the way of the highly beneficial stem cell research. His autocratic decision to provide federal funding only to stem cell lines created from the human embryo before August 2001 was a reflection of his right-wing ideology steeped in obscurantist religious beliefs.

Certainly, morality and ethics had little to do with Bush’s decision on stem cell research. However, with a down-to-earth Obama in the White House, stem cell researchers are hoping for better and brighter days ahead. For Obama has made his commitment to remove obstacles in the way of  stem cell research which holds the hope of alleviating human suffering.

Meanwhile, American researchers have zeroed in on a new group of stem cells capable of differentiating into heart muscle known as cardiomyocytes. These stem cells located in the outermost layer of the heart have the potential to play a crucial role in regenerating injured heart tissues. “In heart failure, you lose cardiomyocytes. So the only way to reverse heart failure is to make more of these cells,” says a researcher at Children’s Hospital in Boston who is also a pediatric cardiologist

On another front, a US-based bio-technology company has evolved a novel technique to create stem cell lines without destroying the human embryos. This path-breaking development, claims the company could be an effective solution to the controversy over the ethical and moral issues involved in various aspects of stem cell research. “This will make it far more difficult to oppose the ongoing stem cell research” asserted a researcher of the Advanced Cell Technology based in California.

Besides, the company revealed that it had been successful in turning the clock back on skin cells and transforming them into stem cells, the building blocks of human tissues and organs. It elatedly observed that this is the Holy Grail ---- to be able to take a few skin cells from a patient’s cheek and turn them into stem cells in the laboratory.

 Interestingly, the use of the skin will ultimately allow doctors and medical researchers to create stem cells with a specific patient’s genetic code. Indeed, this technique would eventually obviate the risk of the body rejecting transplanted tissue or organs.

Further, it could also result in the easy and abundant availability of research material used to test new drugs and understand the dynamics of diseases and disorders like cancer and diabetes. Moreover, stem cells  are not only capable of replicating endlessly but also get transformed into one of the more than 200 cell types found in the human body.

 In India, the Hyderabad-based LV Prasad Eye Institute has pioneered an innovative stem cell therapy for treating visual disorders. This unique treatment regimen involves extracting a piece of limbal tissue from the healthy eye of the patient and grafting it into the diseased eye. Significantly, the Institute has over 400 limbal stem cell transplant surgeries to its credit, a world record. “Even after so many cases, we consider the process as an extended treatment,” stated a medical researcher at the institute.

On its part, the New Delhi-based All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has successfully used stem cell lines for treating damaged heart muscles of those affected by one of the many cardiac disorders. In Bangalore’s Manipal Hospital stem cell treatment has been tried to set right spinal cord injuries with some degree of success. The Chennai-based Lifeline Institute of Stem Cell Therapy and Research too has reported success in treating spinal cord injuries with stem cell treatment.

All said and done, putting stem cell therapy to large scale use would need further trials and fine-tuning of the procedures.  Specially, as in most cases researchers prefer what is called an autologus mode where stem cells are taken from the patient themselves with a view to avoid rejection involved in transplantation procedures.

In addition, the concept of stem cell banking is catching on in India, wherein the stem cells of a new born child are stored for possible future use. The Chennai-based Life Cell is a pioneer in the umbilical cord blood stem cell banking. Pointed out its Director, “Cord blood stem cells can be used to treat more than 70 diseases. The research is at a point where if we can include diabetes and heart diseases also where the chance of them being used could be as high as one in one hundred.”

Given that the stem cells, described as the versatile building blocks of the human body, remain undifferentiated in the embryonic stage. However, they later develop and evolve into specialized tissues that go on to form the blood, bone and muscles. Because they are endowed with a tremendous potential to replicate themselves, stem cells are considered ideal for fixing various disorders in a patient.

In distinct contrast to the situation in US, Britain continues to encourage research into the human embryonic stem cell under a tightly regulated environment. The latest instance of this is the permission granted for using animal eggs to produce hybrid embryos.

In a major breakthrough, researchers have been able to demonstrate that mouse embryonic stem cells can be deployed to predict human breast cancer risk with a high degree of success. In the US researchers have been able to coax human embryonic stem cells to transform themselves into three specific heart cell types.

In India, a number of research institutions including the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology are active in stem cell research and its application in health care. Sources in the New Delhi-based Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) pointed out that stem cell research and its clinical applications would be promoted in the country in view of its tremendous potential in modern therapeutic and bio-medical research.--- INFA

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