Lead Into Gold: More Research Successes for IPSCs

ULCA is the latest research center to successfully create induced pluripotent stem cells. From the story:

Researchers at UCLA have become the first in the state to successfully create skin cells that can be used to treat a number of fatal or debilitating conditions without the use of human embryos or eggs. The work, which has broad political and ethical implications, appears today in the academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The findings confirm earlier research by Wisconsin and Japanese scientists reported last fall.

The manufacture of these cells provides a potential coup for opponents of embryonic stem cell research, which involves destroying cells that some equate to destroying human life and raises ethical issues associated with regeneration of cells through human cloning. The laboratory cells created at UCLA “were virtually indistinguishable from human embryonic stem cells,” said Kathrin Plath, an assistant professor of biological chemistry at UCLA and lead author of the study. “We’re very excited about the implications of this.”

The reporter gets too much wrong in this story. For example, it isn’t the destruction of the cells that is a problem, but of the embryos. But let’s give her a break: It’s a college newspaper.

Supporters of human cloning are quick to point out that IPSCs can’t be used in human therapies because they cause tumors. Yet, that is the very problem that has kept embryonic stem cells from being used in humans—and we were told then that this would not be a serious impediment in the long term.

As to the difficulty of creating these cells, alluded to in the story, that is being worked on too. There will be a study published later in this week involving mice and rats—currently embargoed—that will indicate continued advances in this technology. You would think “the scientists” would be happy. But as the story mentioned, many seem truculent. Gee, I wonder why.

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