Generate stem cells from unfertilized eggs

Scientists have created a form of human stem cells by stimulating unfertilized eggs, instead of embryos. This achievement opens new perspectives on the production of safe implants for women.

With this important medical step, in the future, if a woman needs an implant to treat a disease, such as diabetes or spinal injury, he or she can provide eggs for experts to create. Implants without fear of being eliminated by that woman's body.

To create genetically compatible tissues for patients, some scientists have tried to build a process called therapeutic cloning , in which DNA is taken from the patient. is inserted into the unfertilized egg, from which an embryo is created and the doctor obtains embryonic stem cells. But so far, no one has done this process on people.

Scientists have created human stem cells from eggs, instead of embryos.(Photo: BBC)

Those stem cells will grow into any tissue of the human body, and scientists hope to exploit them in the production of special tissue - like nerve cells or pancreatic cells. - to treat many different diseases.

But the process of creating such stem cells destroys human embryos - that's what many people object to because it is unethical. Meanwhile, this new study attempts to create human embryonic stem cells in a different direction: stimulating a woman's unfertilized egg to produce embryonic development.

According to the research team, this development did not last long enough to create a fetus, but only enough to genetically produce stem-compatible stem cells. And of course, this method cannot create stem cells suitable for men.

This study was carried out by experts from Lifeline Cell Technology - LLC (USA), in collaboration with scientists from Moscow, Russia.

Researcher of the LLC, Jeffrey Janus, a member of the research group, said that stem cells created by this method are not only suitable for egg donors, but can still be applied to others, if therapies Anti-rejection graft is used in combination. According to him, it is the same as in the case of using stem cell lines created from human embryos.

Janus and his colleagues reported that 6 human embryonic stem cell lines have been created, including one that has chromosomal abnormalities . To create these stem cells, the team used eggs provided voluntarily by six women who applied in vitro fertilization.

Mr. Kent Vrana, of Pennsylvania State University (USA), who conducted a similar study on monkeys, said that this method provides an ' additional tool ' besides cloning therapy.

Commenting on this study, scientist George Daley, of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, USA, said: 'This is really a new form of stem cells. But what we wonder about is whether those cells are likely to be like stem cells taken from normal fertilized embryos. '

Another problem, he says, is a lack of father's DNA contribution that weakens stem cell activity in this form. He explained: 'Unlike genetic markers of DNA in eggs, genetic markers of DNA in sperm are specific, affecting the activity of specific genes'.

Human embryonic stem cells (Photo: Science Daily)

Ronald M. Green, a dean of the Dartmouth College (USA), said he believes that such an egg stimulation process will be a morally acceptable method of cell creation. origin.

He said: 'People will find that this is just stimulating unfertilized eggs, and that eggs themselves do not develop into fetuses. This case is not the use of human embryos, so there is no biological or ethical evaluation. Therefore, this is a good method of providing human stem cells without causing embryonic destruction '.

But Mgr Tad Pacholczyk, of the National Catholic Ethics Center in Philadelphia, USA, has an opposite opinion. He said: 'My point is that in those early days, those stem cells developed into embryos, and then people stopped that development, it would be the same as the case of a person having one. Very short life time '.

'People will most likely associate with a person with a disability. And although there is no evidence to condemn it, people will doubt it and assume that such embryos should not be created and then destroyed them. '

This new study has just been published in the electronic edition of The Journal of Cloning and Stem Cells in the United States.

Quang Thinh