Central  South  Dakota  Medical News
The Clinical View
by Phillip Hoffsten,M.D.
 17 June 2004

THE PROMISE OF STEM CELL RESEARCH

     If a person develops pneumonia there are antibiotics now that will completely cure the problem.  If the person has high blood pressure there are medications that will lower it.  If a person has a thyroid deficiency simple hormone replacement can render the person completely replaced.  Thus, medications can treat a variety of human diseases.

     But if a person suffers an accident in which their spinal cord is severed, there is no medication that will fix this.  That person to this time in medical history, will have a permanent loss of function of both legs and be wheelchair bound.  If a person has a heart attack and a piece of the heart muscle dies, they will be left with a smaller less capable heart which lacks the pumping capacity of a normal heart.  We have medications that can help a person in this condition but we have nothing that will allow the person to replace the lost heart muscle.  If a child develops juvenile onset diabetes mellitus, the insulin secreting cells in that child’s pancreas die completely and they do not produce insulin ever again.  While we can give that child insulin, it is very poor at preventing the progressive eye, kidney, and nerve problems that occur in juvenile diabetics.

     But what if there was a way to grow new cells to replace the ones that were damaged in the person with a spinal cord injury or the heart attack or the juvenile diabetes.  What if there was a way to have one cell type that could grow into any type of tissue that the body may need.  That is the promise of stem cell research.

     The idea began more than 20 years ago with initial studies being done in mice.  In research studies part of the mouse’s heart would be damaged as a humans would be when a heart attack occurred.  Mouse stem cells were then obtained and injected into the damaged tissue.  It was seen that when the stem cells with the potential to grow into any type of tissue were placed in the damaged heart muscle, the mouse stem cells grew into heart muscle and the damage done to the mouse’s heart was repaired. To date, this is the most solid research showing the promise of stem cells to repair damaged tissue.

     At this time, stem cell research in the United States is severely hampered by our governmental regulations.  But that same ban does not exist in many other countries.  Korea, England, Germany, and Argentina have embraced stem cell researchers to their countries and the research that was begun in mice 20 years ago is finally beginning to be applied to humans.  Recently, a documentary program on television described the case of an 18-year-old young man who was struck in the chest with a nail gun.  The nail entered the young man’s heart injuring approximately half of the muscle and leaving the 18 year old a cardiac cripple.  The young man went to Germany where stem research is active at this time.  There he received injections of stem cell into his damaged heart muscle and virtually has regained normal heart function. There are similar cases described from England in middle-aged men that suffered a heart attack.

     Similar success has been developing in individuals that have had spinal cord injuries.  To this time, individuals have not regained their ability to walk but they have regained motion in their legs and the ability to move their feet.  This is a very promising area with the potential to reverse a tragic situation in paraplegic individuals.

     In the United States at this time, there are several private organizations developing stem cell research programs.  The State of California has an initiative on their fall election suggesting that they fund stem research to the tune of three billion dollars.  If this passes, they will become a leader in this field independent of a need for federal funds now restricted for this research.

     At this time, one of the most active support groups in our country are those working on developing new insulin secreting cells for juvenile diabetes.  These young individuals 10-20 years old can look forward to substantial disability in the future if a solution for their diabetes is not forthcoming.  Stem cell research has the greatest promise in this area.

     Whether this research is done in this country or only in California or is relegated to foreign countries is up to us and our federal policies.  It seems that under the present research thrust, the work will be done someplace.  It would indeed be a shame if compromises and accommodations to allow this research to be done in this county cannot be worked out.