[MLUG - DISCUSSION] Scientists Report a Crucial Gain in Growing Stem Cells

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Some of you have expressed an interest in stem-cell research, so I'm 
sharing this new article.  Research continues to progress.  --Mike


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/03/science/03cell.html

N.Y. Times
January 3, 2006

Scientists Report a Crucial Gain in Growing Stem Cells

By REUTERS

WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 - Scientists at a laboratory affiliated with the 
University of Wisconsin have developed a stem-cell culture medium free of 
animal cells and used it to derive two new human embryonic stem-cell 
lines.

The two new Wisconsin stem-cell lines have survived for more than seven 
months in the new culture medium, but one line had an abnormal chromosome 
at four months and the second developed an abnormality by seven months, 
the report said.

Still, the new work, reported in the journal Nature Biotechnology, is 
considered a crucial step in stem-cell research because it will allow 
growth of these cells without using animal products that can harbor 
viruses and other potential sources of problems.

"This work helps us clear some of the major hurdles for using these cells 
therapeutically," wrote Tenneille Ludwig, a research scientist at the 
university's WiCell Research Institute.

The development comes as the push for stem-cell research has been shaken 
by the discrediting of a claim by the South Korean scientist Hwang Woo Suk 
to have produced tailored embryonic stem cells, and as Congress considers 
expanded financing for stem-cell research.

Growing living cells outside the body generally requires providing the 
cells in a lab dish with the right mix of nutrients, hormones, growth 
factors and blood serum.

This method often depends on animal cells - like those obtained from mouse 
embryos, in the case of embryonic stem cells - to keep the new cells alive 
and thriving in the culture.

"This is the first time is has been possible for us to derive new cell 
lines in completely defined conditions in medium that completely lacks 
animal products," said James A. Thomson, senior author of the new study 
and a professor of anatomy at Wisconsin who seven years ago was the first 
to grow human embryonic stem cells successfully in the lab.

Many scientists worry that animal viruses and other agents might be taken 
up in the human cells if those cells were to be used for therapy, leading 
to infections in patients.


Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

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