The Nevada Sagebrush

Flash graphic by Chelsea Otakan

The debate

Stem cells are cells that have not yet developed into any one type of cell. Because of this, they can develop into any type cell in the human body. The most versatile stem cells come from human embryos, though, and their use in research raises ethical concerns.

“For embryonic stem cell research to work, it has to destroy embryos and (opponents) are philosophically convinced embryos are human lives,” Father Thomas Berg, the director of the Westchester Institute, said.

Why Obama changed policy

Earlier this month, President Obama ordered the reversal of a policy restricting the use of embryonic stem cells in federally funded research laboratories.

Lifting the restrictions clears the path for the advancement of stem cell research in the United States, according to a White House statement.

How UNR avoided concerns

One type of non-embryonic stem cell research done at UNR uses Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (IPSCs) which have the potential to avoid the ethical debate. IPSCs start as any adult cell and after modification in a laboratory are turned into stem cells.

“It’s the perfect option,” UNR professor and stem cell researcher Esmail Zanjani said.

Stem cell research, including projects at the University of Nevada, Reno, has the potential to treat a wide variety of diseases and injuries. Despite its potential, stem cell research is surrounded by a fierce ethical debate. But the debate may be a moot point in the face of a new development both sides say is an acceptable alternative.

Ethical concerns were still strong when President Barack Obama lifted a restriction on federal research funding earlier this month. The act reversed a policy that kept thousands of embryos out of scientific research laboratories. The restrictions were put in place during George W. Bush’s administration after people argued that the destruction of human embryos to obtain stem cells for research was unethical.

The restrictions constituted a barrier to “responsible scientific research,” according to a recent White House statement. The new policy will increase the ability of researchers in the United States to contribute to the advancement of treatments involving human stem cells, the statement said.

Despite the announcement, experts at UNR and at national think tanks, said little will change in research labs because many researchers are beginning to focus on a new type of stem cell research that avoids the ethical controversy altogether.

University of Nevada, Reno professor Graca Almeida-Porada pulls solutions out of a sterile environment that the researchers use to keep stem cells from becoming contaminated. Photo by Amy Beck/Nevada Sagebrush.

The funding restrictions lifted by Obama earlier this month overruled an executive order that denied federal funding for scientists performing research on newly created embryonic stem cells. The restrictions left only 22 unique lines of embryonic stem cells available for research according to the National Institutes of Health Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Registry, a division of the federal government tasked with managing eral research money. Because federal funding constitutes the majority of research budgets, the denial of federal funding rendered any research done on new embryonic stem cells unviable, Esmail Zanjani, the chair of the biotechnology department at UNR, said.

“Federal funding is the lifeblood of all research,” Zanjani said. “Private money is only a trickle in comparison.”

Stem cell research at UNR, performed by Zanjani and two colleagues, Professors Christopher Porada and Graca Almeida-Porada, received this federal “lifeblood”despite the restrictions because most of their research doesn’t use embryonic stem cells from newer lines. Zanjani said about $1.1 million is spent on stem cell research at UNR, with all but about $100,000 coming from federal research grants.

Stem cell research at UNR is at the forefront of the field on the global scale and includes research in adult stem cells and hematopoietic, or blood, stem cells.

Advances in stem cell research at UNR bring prestige and recognition to the university, important for attracting research talent and more funding for projects, Zanjani said.

“We at UNR have played a large part in these types of research before, and I think that’s happening with stem cells, too,” he said.

The controversy over embryonic stem cell research comes from pro-life groups who object to the destruction of human embryos to obtain stem cells, said Father Thomas Berg, the director of the Catholic-affiliated Westchester Institute, a national research group specializing in scientific ethics.

“For embryonic stem cell research to work, it has to destroy embryos and (opponents) are philosophically convinced embryos are human lives,” Berg said. “When I first heard President Obama’s announcement, I was upset until I did some research and found out it wouldn’t change much.”

A fairly new area of stem cell research has the opportunity to bypass those ethical concerns, Berg said.

“Science that pays at least token respect to the ethical concerns of a huge portion of Americans is responsible science,” he said. “A lot of scientists understand this and are beginning to move stem cell research in a new direction.”

The importance of stem cells comes from their pluripotency, or ability to develop into a variety of different cells, Zanjani said. Embryonic stem cells are the most pluripotent, meaning they can develop into nearly any type of cell in the human body.

“You have to take these cells very early in development, five or six days,” Zanjani said. “But they have the potential to develop into an entire organism.”

Stem cells can be used to grow human tissue that can be harvested and used to replace dead tissue in patients, Zanjani said. Skin for burn victims, heart tissue to replace scars from heart attacks and even nerve tissue can all be created using stem cells.

Adult stem cells, while still pluripotent, have begun to differentiate into different types of cells, greatly reducing their potential. These adult stem cells cannot develop into as many types of tissue, making their use less promising than that of embryonic stem cells, Zanjani said.

“All this business with embryonic stem cell controversy isn’t new, but there is another way to get stem cells,” Zanjani said. “Researchers have figured out what genes code for pluripotency. They can inject these genes into, say, a skin cell from a patient and actually make stem cells out of it.”

From left, Christopher Porada, Graca Almeida-Porada and Esmail Zanjani pose for a photo in their laboratory where they conduct stem cell research. Photo by Amy Beck/Nevada Sagebrush.

These cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs), were first created in 2007 in Japan. They are nearly identical in behavior and ability to embryonic stem cells.

“Most of the research now is not being done on embryonic stem cells and the focus has shifted to IPSCs,” Zanjani said.

This research, because it is done on adult cells and not embryonic ones, uses federal funding already.

“It’s the perfect option,” Zanjani said. “In trials with mice, so much has been done with these IPSCs.”

Berg said he agrees and said he sees no moral issue with the use of IPSCs.

“There’s no destruction of embryos, no human lives are harmed,” Berg said. “By not ignoring the ethical concerns an option that works, and may work better, has appeared.”

IPSCs don’t solve all the problems of embryonic stem cells, though. One major issue with the use of tissue grown from embryonic stem cells is its high tendency to cause tumors in patients. Tissue grown from IPSCs has the same problem, but Zanjani said he believes that’s something the research being done will be able to solve.

Sally Hardwick, the project coordinator for the Nevada Center for Ethics and Health Policy, said she felt one of the reasons IPSC research has come so far in such a short time is because the federal restrictions forced researchers to investigate different ways to get stem cells.

“There are advantages for both sides of the (ethical) argument,” Hardwick said. “And one advantage to the restrictions is they may have forced scientists to look at these.”

The change in federal funding policies will not affect money for research already being done at UNR, and Zanjani said any new embryonic stem cell research would have to go through a long approval process before it could get federal money.

“Even though IPSCs are going to be a better option, I think, it’s good to do research on embryonic stem cells to make sure nothing is being missed,” he said.

Jay Balagna can be reached at jbalagna@nevadasagebrush.com.

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