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174

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STEM CELL from page

172

Itskovits and his team of researchers
began studying stem cells in 1998, in
collaboration with the University of
Wisconsin.
The scientists developed embryonic
stem cells in mice and began looking
into other applications, Itskovits said.
They first used the stem cells on rats
with spinal injuries, helping them par-
tially recover from paralysis.
They then created beta stem cells
that produce insulin and injected
them into diabetic lab rats to help
reduce their hypoglycemia.
Another team of Technion scientists
at the Cardiovascular Research
Laboratory succeeded in growing
heart cells from stem cells. The heart
cells have electrical and mechanical
characteristics of young heart tissue.
The heart cells could help cure
patients who suffer from clogged
arteries that lead to heart attacks.
"The most interesting area to us is
being able to regenerate heart cells
in adults," said Gepstein, who par-
ticipated in the research.
"When the stem cells adjust into
the heart, we hope it will integrate
with the host tissue and survive and
improve cardiac function," Gepstein
said. "There's a lot of ifs, so research
is the first step."
With five million people in the
United States suffering from heart
failure and half a million new cases
each year, there is a significant mar-
ket for treating heart disease.
Heart transplants are one possibil-
ity, but most patients aren't candi-
dates, given the limited number of
donors and matching genetic charac-
teristics.
In both stem cell efforts, several
more years of research are needed to
determine whether the new cells
would survive long enough to work
effectively, and how to prevent the
body from rejecting them.
At present, the Technion heart
research team uses embryonic stem
cells that have a self-renewing capac-
ity — that is, they can theoretically
generate an indefinite number of
new stem cells.
To move the research forward, the
scientists have to find ways to create
more heart tissue and select only
heart cells. Once that's done, they
will transplant the heart cells in ani-
mals and see if new tissue replaces
non-functioning tissue.
The last hurdle would be testing
the immune system's reaction and
possible rejection of the tissue. The
key is to generate a number of stem
cell lines with genetic variability.

It's a similar process with
Skorecki's diabetes research. While
the stem cells growing in petri dish-
es display genes characteristic of the
beta cells of the pancreas, they now
need to be "purified" to be useful.
There also must be enough of
them — roughly 100 million — to
replace a diabetic's missing cells.
Both Technion teams face a long
research processes that may never
succeed, the scientists cautioned.
But funding from the United States
would allow other research groups to
compete, fueling intense global
activity and progress, Skorecki said.
"The more labs, the better," he
said. "We're going to make every
effort possible to maintain a lead
role in this research by attracting
funding from all sources: Israel, the
U.S., private industry. Wherever we
can get resources, we'll take them."
U.S. funding would also make
their lives "more comfortable regard-
ing ethical issues," Itskovits added.

Ethical Stamp Of Approval

Stem cells come from discarded
human embryos, a sticking point for
right-to-lifers. From Israel's stand-
point, Jewish law allows embryos to
be destroyed if the research has the
potential to benefit society.
Moreover, the embryos used are
surplus eggs from in-vitro fertiliza-
tion for infertile couples — in other
words, frozen embryos that have
never been in a uterus, said
Skorecki, who is an observant Jew.
"People don't remember that dis-
tinction," he said.
At Technion, the issue of embryo
origins has never been problematic.
"Obviously, it's always been a sensi-
tive issue and we've taken that into
account," Itskovits said. "We don't
act in a vacuum — we always need-
ed proper consent forms, showing
that we were using proper embryos."
Nevertheless, while the Bush deci-
sion has dampened the ethical issues
for now, the possibility of Technion
being included in the NIH research
is still "very preliminary," Itskovits
noted.
"We're really happy to have the
chance of doing our work in Israel
with approval from the U.S.," he
said.
"And it will certainly help research
to have federal, local or industrial
funding." El

IN staff writer Harry Kirsbaum
contributed to this story.