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Scientists Turn Stem Cells Into Neurons
Mon Jan 31, 1:25 PM ET
By PAUL ELIAS, AP Biotechnology Writer
SAN FRANCISCO - Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison
reported Sunday that they've whipped up an exciting - but intricate -
new recipe that could someday treat spinal cord injuries or provide a
cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's
disease (news - web sites).
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Step one: Take human embryonic stem cells, the microscopic dots that
have brought condemnation from the pope, opposition from the president
and people generally opposed to abortion. Add pinches of chemicals,
dashes of other biological ingredients implicated in brain growth at
just the right moment and voila: brain cells called motor neurons that
control every body movement.
The conclusion, reported online in science journal Nature Biotechnology,
is important for two reasons. First, stem cell scientists have struggled
to accomplish what researcher Su-Chun Zhang and his colleagues have just
accomplished. It took Zhang's team two years of tedious trial-and-error
experiments to direct stem cells to turn into motor neurons.
Perhaps more important, Zhang's recipe shows researchers that timing is
everything when adding their chemical cocktails to stem cell stews. Stem
cells are vulnerable to successful human manipulation for only the
briefest of moments - and at different intervals depending on the
results each researcher craves.
"This shows that you can't dump whatever growth factors you want in
there," Zhang said. "It's not that simple. It's very specific. You have
to have the right cocktail in the right amount at the right time."
Other scientists said Zhang's work also will help researchers better
translate data gleaned from decades of animal experiments into human
terms. Scientists were losing faith that 25 years of work with the
embryonic stem cells of mice had little direct correlation to humans,
said Harvard University neuroscientist Ole Isacson.
But with Zhang, and others, showing that the biological clock ticks
differently in different animals and in each type of cell, it appears
translating animal data to human terms is more about timing than
biology.
"That is also somewhat reassuring," said Isacson, who has created
dopamine-producing brain cells from stem cells. Parkinson disease
patients lose dopamine cells, which help regulate body movement.
Embryonic stem cells are created in the first days after conception and
ultimately turn into the 220 or so types of cells that make up the human
body. Scientists believe they can someday control what stem cells become
and when, using that power to replace damaged and dead cells that cause
a wide range of suffering, from diabetes to Parkinson's.
But harnessing that power has proved elusive in all but a few cell types
such as heart and two other types of brain cells.
"This is an important contribution because stem cell biology is
difficult," Isacson said. "It helps decode the locks."
There are political hurdles as well. Pope John Paul (news - web sites)
II and others believe the work is immoral because days-old embryos are
destroyed during research. President Bush (news - web sites) has limited
federal funding of the science.
More maddening, though, are the scientific bugaboos. Scientists have had
trouble controlling what the stem cells turn into. That's a problem if
brain cells are the goal and heart cells the results.
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