Stem Cell Research and Human Cloning - Complementary Or Unrelated Policy Issues?

Taken together, stem cell research and research on human cloning comprise the field of regenerative medicine. These two areas of inquiry are often linked in the minds of those who support such activities and those who roundly condemn them. There are many commonalities, but it is important to stress the differences.

Stem cell research focuses on deriving various types of specialized tissues from pluripotent cells. SCs are found in bone marrow, small localized collections in the brain and gastrointestinal tract, and umbilical cord blood. The most primitive SCs are extracted from the inner cell mass of four- or five-day-old embryos. Embryonic SCs are pluripotent - they can differentiate into all types of tissues. Research with SCs might lead to effective treatment for a range of severe disorders, including Parkinson's disease, diabetes, muscle wasting diseases such as Duchenne dystrophy, arthritic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, and a variety of cancers.

The promise of SC research is substantial but there is a major caveat. The process of extracting SCs from the embryo's inner cell mass kills the embryo. Many opponents of this field of research believe that embryos are fully human and deserve protection. The storm of controversy has severely limited the ability of SC research to go forward.

In 2007 two teams of researchers simultaneously announced the successful reprogramming of an adult human somatic cell to a pluripotent state. These cells demonstrated pluripotent by their ability to differentiate into the three primary tissue types. This work represented a major breakthrough, and yet it is the first step along a very lengthy path. Many substantial obstacles need to be overcome before tissues suitable for treatment are obtained.

Yet the possibility of deriving pluripotent cells from adult human skin cells could obviate the need for embryonic SCs, at least from the point of view of therapeutics. If viable specialized tissues, suitable for treatment, can be obtained, we would no longer need to contrast saving the "life" of an embryo with saving the life of a child or adult. But there are many other uses for embryonic SCs, such as studying the processes of human embryology and development. Reprogrammed pluripotent cells would not be suitable for these important investigations. But as far as SC therapy is concerned, successful reprogramming of adult somatic cells is a major advance.

The other primary breakthrough in the field of regenerative medicine is somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). This process led to the birth in 1996 of Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell. SCNT can impact both SC research and human cloning. We'll consider SCNT in our next article.

David Lemberg, M.S. in Bioethics, Albany Medical College, May 2010
Consultant, Author, Speaker. Research interests - health care and health care policy, reproductive technologies, genetics and genomics, K-12 science education
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