The Omnibus

Issue date: 9/14/07 Section: Forum

Stem cells create great controversy in Missouri. Are the benefits from research reason enough for legalization? [Click to enlarge]

Baby chicken regrows missing wing! Rats regenerate heart muscles after heart attack! The blind see! Are these headlines from the Weekly World News? Hardly. These feats are actually happening thanks to modern biomedical science. Researchers are working to adapt the first two for human use. The third is happening now; you just have to go to China for treatment. What do all three have in common? These 'miracles' of science improve quality of life.
The July issue of "National Geographic" reported that scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies had successfully removed a wing from a chicken embryo and then caused it to regrow a normal new wing.
By studying salamanders and other invertebrates that can regenerate lost limbs, scientists discovered that the Wnt genetic signaling system was the cause. By activating this normally dormant system in the chicken, or any vertebrate, and manipulating Wnt signaling, the researchers say that any limb can be regrown.
Though currently not possible in humans, scientists hope the limb regrowth in chickens can further propel stem cell research towards growing new human tissue and parts that could one day prevent undeveloped limbs in babies.
Possible growth of new limbs for amputees or the paralyzed is predicted.
From chickens to rats, scientists at Geron Corporation announced that they perfected a survival cocktail that allowed injected human embryonic stem cells to survive, graft into the infarct zone and develop into new heart muscle tissue without any tumors or other defects.
In addition to the prior survivability issue of the cardiomyocytes, Geron research "confirms the effectiveness of a scalable production system that enables Geron to manufacture the cardiomyocytes for use in ongoing large animal studies and, ultimately, testing in humans."
The ability to one day grow new muscle to replace those damaged by heart attacks is welcome news to the 800,000 people plagued by heart attacks each year, along with the five million that suffer from heart failure.

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