Human "Embryonic" stem cells trigger immune attack, may be useless for therapeutic applications

Nature ^ | 01.24.05

[Coleus]

Human stem cells trigger immune attack

Jessica Ebert

Doubt cast on therapeutic use of embryonic cell lines.

Exposure to molecules from animals might have made human stem cells unacceptable.© ANDREW LEONARD / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Most human embryonic stem-cell lines, including those available to federally funded researchers in the United States, may be useless for therapeutic applications. The body's immune defences would probably attack the cells, say US researchers.

When embryonic stem cells are added to serum from human blood, antibodies stick to the cells. This suggests the cells are seen as foreign, and that transplanting them into the body would trigger the immune system to reject them.

"We've found a serious problem," says Ajit Varki, a cell biologist at the University of California, San Diego.

The difficulty arises from the way human embryonic stem cells are grown and maintained in the lab. Scientists grow stem cells in petri dishes containing nutrient broth and other cells. These feed the stem cells, and give them a place to attach themselves.

Feeder cells are typically embryonic cells from mice and nutrient broth usually contains animal serum. These mouse cells have a molecule on their surface called N-glycolylneuraminic acid or Neu5Gc.

Varki's team had already found that human embryonic stem cells take up Neu5Gc; they now show that humans react against it. Eating red meat and dairy products has sensitized people to the molecule, Varki says. The team reports its latest finding in the February issue of Nature Medicine¹.

Growing pains

Scientists have long worried about the risks of growing human embryonic stem cells in the presence of animal-derived substances. "Now we've identified an actual reason for being concerned," says Fred Gage, a neurobiologist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, and a member of the team.

We need to take caution when using these cells as therapeutics.  Fred Gage The Salk Institute, La Jolla, California

This does not mean that existing cell lines should be abandoned. "We're not saying that all available lines should be thrown out," Gage says. But, he adds, "we need to take caution when using these cells as therapeutics". Using US federal money to create new stem-cell lines is currently forbidden.

Varki's team did not test all of the 22 federally funded human embryonic stem-cell lines that were created in the United States before the ban came down. But the cellular mechanism for absorbing Neu5Gc is universal, and all US stem-cell cultures have probably been exposed to animal material. "I find it hard to imagine that any of the other lines would be free of this contamination," Varki says.

The current stem-cell lines have little clinical value, but that is "not an issue for pursuing basic research", says James Battey, chairman of the National Institutes of Health's stem-cell task force. In fact, these lines will help to develop animal-free conditions for growing and maintaining human embryonic stem cells and minimizing safety concerns, he says.

Until better growth conditions are established, explains Battey, a group in Sweden with stem cells that have never been exposed to materials from animals will keep the cells frozen and unavailable for use.

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References

1. Martin, M., Muotri, A., Gage, F. & Varki, A. Nat Med. 11, 228−232 doi:10.1038/nm1181 (2005).

[Coleus]

Embryonic stem cells come from an embryo.  An embryo is an individual, genetically-distinct human-being, a baby.  And we cannibals in America harvest these babies for their body parts.    It's sort of like a baby parts factory.  We make them in fertility clinics, about 360 of them found in many towns across America, where parents create a bunch of babies in a test tube, In-Vitro Fertilization, (IVF) implant some,  where some are aborted and if they're lucky one will implant and grow to term while the parents' other children are put on ice, a Gulag of sorts, until the babies are sold to labs where their parts will be used.  There are an estimated 400,000 babies on ice right now in the USA.

 

This research is legal so long as private and state money is used where NJ and CA are in the process of funding embryonic stem cell research and cloning.   Federal funding is available to only the lines already in use.  It's wrong but it's better than starting new lines of humans for research.   NJ goes further and allows the cloned baby to grow to term where it is legal to kill it after he/she reaches 9 months!  All in the name of Science.

When you read this article, it may be more of a reality for you. 

Tim and Mary artificially conceived 15 children, after their conception their children weren't in a warm 98.6 degree surrounding inside their mother.  NO they  were sent to the Gulag and put on ice for a few weeks.    6 of her CHILDREN were thawed like a piece of steak, and the so-called 3 "viable" were implanted which means the other 3 unviable were thrown in the garbage (aborted by the human hand)? The article didn't say.  She is now pregnant with twins which means the other child didn't make it and was aborted.  So, the 3 unviable thawed children were "aborted" or thrown in the garbage before implantation and the other one of the 3 implanted was aborted from inside the mother.  Notice they didn't say how it happened or what happened  to the embryo/baby.

The article further asks this question, "What should they do with any unused frozen embryos?"  or should the article say what should they do with the 9 children they already have on ice or what the parents should do to the rest of THEIR CHILDREN they created! How are they going to explain or rationalize the facts to their grown children if they ever ask or find out how they were created?  

Well instead of adopting a child we decided to create 15 children, the two of you were lucky enough to grow to term, 3 of your brothers and sisters didn't thaw correctly and had to be discarded like a freezer-burned hamburger and the rest of your 9 brothers and sisters (probably still alive in a lab or freezer) have been sentenced to death where they were sent to a Gulag awaiting to be harvested for their parts all in the name of science in a country were INDIVIDUAL rights, based on biblical principals, were supposed to have been granted by law.

Notice one option is to have the embryos "adopted" by another couple.  That hardly happens, that's why there are 400,000 babies on ice.  

Hey, why didn't Tim and Mary adopt in the first place?  Adoption the loving option, Adoption not Abortion.

Why create 15 human lives where only 2 survived when all they could have done was to adopt a child already born, just waiting for a loving family and home?

 

Actress Brooke Shields killed some of  her very own Children by undergoing 7 IVF Treatments

 

Adult Stem Cell use, ( an ethical and effective approach), is a process by which stem cells are taken from: umbilical cord blood, bone marrow, fat cells, nasal cells and elsewhere  have been PROVEN successful, some as long as 30 years, in many instances where cancer was cured and spinal cord victims regained the "limited" use  and sensation of their arms and legs.  We should continue to use something that is proven ethical and effective, let your representatives know how you feel.

Zygotes and embryos are people  and so is soilent green, looks like the Charlton Heston sci-fi movie wasn't so far-fetched or fiction for that matter.

Harvesting Fetal Body Parts

“A Catholic person who actually procures an abortion occurs a latae sententiae excommunication.”

[stboz]

What's that giant sucking sound I hear in Sacramento? Could it be our borrowed money going down the tubes?

[GummyIII]

FYI

[kellynla]

And we just threw away THREE BILLION DOLLLARS in CA for embryonic stem cell research. Which will cost us another THREE BILLION DOLLARS to pay off...

Thank you, governor!

[AntiGuv]

What's that giant sucking sound I hear in Sacramento? Could it be our borrowed money going down the tubes?

No, don't be silly. The whole reason the California initiative (and similar measures) have been passed is so that researchers need not depend on the contaminated lines approved for federal funding.

[AntiGuv]

And we just threw away THREE BILLION DOLLLARS in CA for embryonic stem cell research. Which will cost us another THREE BILLION DOLLARS to pay off...

Uh, yeah. But the whole reason the California initiative (and similar measures) have been passed is so that researchers need not depend on the contaminated lines approved for federal funding.

[so_real]

And all the while, umbilical blood stem cells are effective, proven, and waiting to be ethically explored. What a waste ...

[hocndoc]

Coleus, you and I will have to agree to disagree on whether or not someone "kills" their children by IVF. Miscarriages happen. If there are 7 attempts, I would be willing to bet that there were never any "extre" embryos.

AntiGuv,

The "initiative" was to allow the researchers in the Ivory Towers to steal taxpayers' money rather than have to get their hands dirty finding financial backers - as most entrepeneurs or inovators in this country would have to do.

Who told these guys they have the right to OPM to buy their toys?

(I guess the same voters who voted for Barbara Boxer and John Kerry. )

[thoughtomator]

Nope, it's another baby being aborted for this madness.

[kellynla]

"But the whole reason the California initiative"
Is a scam!

[Coleus]

OK, the term, kill, may be too harsh.

did you read the article I posted about Tim and Mary, she produced 42 eggs, 15 were fertilized and became embryos, all were frozen, 6 thawed, 3 implanted, had twins so the one miscarried; the other 3 were what? thrown in the garbage. Now there are 9 embryos left over, frozen in the doctors office waiting for a life of what? And what happened to the other 3 nonviable embryos after they were thawed?

[Coleus]

Adult stem cells work there is NO need to harvest babies for their body parts.

 

Embryo Vivisection and Elusive Promises Act--California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative

[AntiGuv]

I'm not saying anything about the merit of the California initiative or the value of embryonic stem cell research (as opposed to adult, umbilical, etc). All I'm saying is that the California stem cell research will not be using the contaminated federal stem cell lines, and so the contamination of the federal lines is not an argument against the CA research (if anything, it supports the rationale of the CA initiative).

PS. I have no problem with embryonic stem cell research so long as the source lines aren't received from abortion.

[Dustbunny]

Abortion and the selling of infant body parts is a very lucrative business.

[Coleus]

I have no problem with embryonic stem cell research so long as the source lines aren't received from abortion. >>

From where else would they come?

[AntiGuv]

Fertilization clinics.

[Carry_Okie]

As my wife works in Stanford's reproductive endocrinology clinic, she has been aware of this for some time. I'm glad to see it hitting the mainstream.

[Puddleglum]

I have a feeling that the current boom to get states to invest in embryonic stem cell research is a boondoggle along the lines of wildcat oil wells in the 1980's. The formula requires that one person pose as an expert in an investment opportunity, and the other person to trust him that "now is the time to get in on the ground floor."

It's just a way to initiate a society-wide transfer of cash and fatten a few pockets along the way by building things no one needs. Even the WPA was better intended. At least it gave us lots of nice parks and sidewalks you can still use today.

[Mr. Silverback]

From the journal Nature, no less.

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