Stem Cell Letter to Senators

February 18, 1999

The Honorable Arlen Specter

United States Senate

Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Specter:

On behalf of the Board of Trustees and the Public Information Committee of the Society for Developmental Biology, we should like to comment on the importance of research with human pluripotent embryonic stem cells and express our support for the ruling that NIH funding can be used for research with such cell lines.

Many diseases that exact a heavy toll on our society involve damage, degeneration or functional failure of cells or tissues. This list would include diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, congestive heart failure, liver diseases and many others. The possibility of treating such conditions by implantation of cells with the capacity to repair the damaged tissue is an exciting one that deserves to be explored from all possible angles. Studies have shown that several adult organs contain so-called stem cells, which have the capacity to proliferate in culture and differentiate into a number of different cell types. Indeed, such adult stem cells may have a greater capacity for making different cell types than generally thought, judging by a recent report suggesting that stem cells obtained from the nervous system of the mouse can generate blood cells after bone marrow transplantation. More research on the capacity of adult stem cells is clearly warranted.

However, it is not clear that adult stem cells will ever be capable of making all cell types of the body, which is the property possessed by pluripotent embryonic stem cells. In the mouse, embryonic stem cell lines can proliferate indefinitely in culture, and can differentiate into a wide variety of cell types when given the right inducing signals. These properties suggest that embryonic stem cells hold enormous potential for future cell-based therapies. The recent derivation, by two groups, of human pluripotent stem cell lines, that appear to have many of the properties of mouse embryonic stem cells, has brought this possibility closer to realization. There are still many obstacles to be overcome; we need to understand better how to regulate the differentiation of stem cells into different tissue lineages; suitable modes of delivery of the cells to the requisite organs need to be developed; and the grafted cells need to be protected from immune rejection.

If the potential of stem cell research is to be rapidly translated into therapeutic reality, it is critical that all aspects of stem cell research, including research on both adult and embryonic stem cells, in non-human mammals and in humans, be a high priority for Federal funding. We need the best scientists doing world-class science to move this area forward. The stringent peer-review and oversight mechanisms of the NIH will ensure that this occurs. We support the recent ruling by NIH that research on human embryonic stem cell lines is not covered by the prohibition on use of Federal funds for human embryo research. Embryonic stem cells do not have the capacity to complete development into an adult organism on their own, and so are not equivalent to intact embryos. It is clear that both the derivation and the potential future use of human embryonic stem cells raise difficult ethical issues relating to the use of human embryos or fetal material for research purposes. We are confident that the NIH will set in place suitable mechanisms to ensure that all research funded on human embryonic stem cells abides by high ethical and scientific standards.

We are entering an exciting era in biomedical research where our understanding of human genetics and cell and developmental biology will soon translate into real advances in our treatment of disease. A balance between ethical concerns and the potential benefits for humanity must be reached so that the incredible expertise and creativity of the North American biomedical research community can be brought to bear on the task of ensuring that the full potential of advances like the development of human embryonic stem cells is realized.

Yours truly,

Kathryn V. Anderson, Ph.D.

President

SDB Board of Trustees:

President: Kathryn V. Anderson, Ph.D., Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York, NY

President-elect: Christopher Wylie, Ph.D., Univ. Minnesota Medical Sch., Minneapolis, MN

Past-president: Matthew Scott, Ph.D., Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA

Secretary: Gary Schoenwolf, Ph.D., Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

Treasurer: Gary Wessel, Ph.D., Brown Univ., Providence, RI

Editor-in-Chief: Eric Olson, Ph.D., Univ. Texas SW Med. Ctr., Dallas, TX

Members-at-Large:

- David G. Capco, Ph.D., Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ

- Judith Eisen, Ph.D., Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR

- Marnie Halpern, Ph.D., Carnegie Inst. of Washington, Baltimore, MD

- Mary Lou King, Ph.D., Univ. of Miami Sch. of Medicine, Miami, FL

- Sally A. Moody, Ph.D., George Washington Univ., Washington, DC

- Roger Pedersen, Ph.D., Univ. Cal. San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

- Nadia Rosenthal, Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hosp., Boston, MA

- Janet Rossant, Ph.D., Mt. Sinai Hosp., Toronto, Canada

- Kathryn Tosney, Ph.D., Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

SDB Public Information Committee:

Janet Rossant, Ph.D. (Chair), Mt. Sinai Hosp., Toronto, Canada

John Eppig, Ph.D., The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME

Brigid Hogan, Ph.D., Vanderbilt Univ. Medical Sch., Nashville, TN

Roger Pedersen, Ph.D., Univ. California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

SDB Executive Officer:

Ida Chow, Ph.D.

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