Category Archives: Stem Cell Research

Stem cell find offers hope for infertility

By Lauran Neergard

Monday, February 27, 2012

An experiment that produced human eggs from stem cells could one day be a boon for women who are desperate to have a baby, according to a study published yesterday.

The work sweeps away the belief that a woman has only a limited stock of eggs and replaces it with the theory that the supply is continuously replenished from precursor cells in the ovary, its authors said.

If the report is confirmed, harnessing those stem cells might one day lead to better treatments for women left infertile because of disease — or simply because they’re getting older.

"Our current views of ovarian aging are incomplete. There’s much more to the story than simply the trickling away of a fixed pool of eggs," said lead researcher Jonathan Tilly of Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital, who had long hunted these cells in a series of studies.

His previous work drew fierce scepticism. Independent experts urged caution about the latest findings.

A key next step is to see whether other laboratories can verify the work. If so, then it would take years of additional research to learn how to use the cells, said Teresa Woodruff, fertility preservation chief at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

Still, even a leading critic said such research may help dispel some of the enduring mystery surrounding how human eggs were born and matured.

"This is going to spark renewed interest, and more than anything else it’s giving us some new directions to work in," David Albertini, director of the University of Kansas’ Center for Reproductive Sciences said.

Scientists have long taught that all female mammals are born with a finite supply of egg cells, called ooctyes, that runs out in middle age.

Tilly first challenged that notion in 2004, reporting the ovaries of adult mice harbour some egg-producing stem cells.

He collaborated with scientists in Japan, who were freezing ovaries donated by healthy 20-somethings. Tilly also had to address a criticism: How to tell if he was finding true stem cells or just very immature eggs.

His team latched onto a protein believed to sit on the surface of only those purported stem cells and fished them out. To track what happened next, they inserted a gene that makes some jellyfish glow green into those cells. If the cells made eggs, those would glow, too. "Bang, it worked — cells popped right out," said Tilly.

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, February 27, 2012

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Stem cell find offers hope for infertility

The latest discoveries and promises of stem cell research and the development of new therapeutic approaches for a variety of diseases will be in focus at the Qatar International Conference on Stem Cell Science and Policy 2012 which begins today.
The four-day event, being held at Qatar National Convention Centre, is a milestone in Qatar Foundation’s ongoing collaboration with the James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, Houston, Texas, US.
The aim of QF’s joint initiative with the Baker Institute’s International Programme on Stem Cell Science Policy is to develop stem cell research in Qatar as well as to find ways to address the shared challenges of community support for stem cell research in Doha and Houston.
To accomplish this goal, the programme has supported several events since its inception, including meetings, workshops, and training programmes in both cities.
The conference, which brings together eminent international as well as regional scientists, ethicists and policymakers, will also present the developed policy options that account for cultural, ethical and religious factors.
The event will draw attention to Qatar’s position in the development of stem cell research in the region and the world, given that research on stem cell as a national priority has already been initiated in the country’s best research institutions.
The conference objectives are to raise the awareness about Qatar’s initiative in promoting stem cell research, present the latest developments, and highlight the different religious views regarding stem cell research specifically the Islamic view.
The pros and cons of various options for regulating stem cell research and how scientists should address conflicting and confusing national policies and assess the different models of international collaboration will be discussed.
The conference also intends to interface with other institutions outside Qatar and contribute to the exchange of scientific knowledge to enhance the promotion of a scientific culture in the region and globally.
The keynote speakers are ambassador Edward P Djerejian (Baker Institute), Irving Weissman (Stanford University), Alan Trounson (president, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine), David Baltimore (president emeritus, Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology, California Institute of Technology), Roger Pedersen (Department of Surgery, University of Cambridge) and Lawrence Corey (president and director, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre).
The conference, supported by Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, will also feature a number of invited speakers from across the world.

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Seminar to focus on stem cell research development

27 February 2012 Last updated at 00:06 ET

Hydrogen sulphide, the gas famed for generating the stench in stink bombs, flatulence and bad breath, has been harnessed by stem cell researchers in Japan.

Their study, in the Journal of Breath Research, investigated using it to help convert stem cells from human teeth into liver cells.

The scientists claimed the gas increased the purity of the stem cells.

Small amounts of hydrogen sulphide are made by the body.

It is also produced by bacteria and is toxic in large quantities.

Therapy

A group in China has already reported using the gas to enhance the survival of mesenchymal stem cells taken from the bone marrow of rats.

Researchers at the Nippon Dental University were investigating stem cells from dental pulp - the bit in the middle of the tooth.

They said using the gas increased the proportion of stem cells which were converted to liver cells when used alongside other chemicals. The idea is that liver cells produced from stem cells could be used to repair the organ if it was damaged.

Dr Ken Yaegaki, from Nippon Dental University in Japan, said: "High purity means there are less 'wrong cells' that are being differentiated to other tissues, or remaining as stem cells."

One of the concerns with dental pulp as a source of stem cells is the number that can be harvested.

However, the study did not say how many cells were actually produced.

Prof Chris Mason, a specialist in regenerative medicine at University College London, said: "It would be interesting to see how hydrogen sulphide works with other cells types."

Read this article:
Bad breath used as stem cell tool

SUNDAY, Feb. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers report that they've isolated stem cells from adult human ovaries that can mature into eggs that may be capable of fertilization.

The lab findings, which upend longstanding scientific theory, could potentially lead to new reproductive technologies and possibly extend the years of a woman's fertility.

It was long believed that women were born with a lifetime supply of eggs, which was depleted by menopause. But a growing body of research -- including a new paper from Massachusetts General Hospital -- suggests egg production may continue into adulthood. The study is published in the March issue of Nature Medicine.

"Fifty years of thinking, in every aspect of experiments, of interpreting the results, and of the clinical management of ovarian function and fertility in women was dictated by one simple belief that turns out to be incorrect," said lead study author Jonathan Tilly, director of the hospital's Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology. "That belief was the egg cell pool endowed at birth is a fixed entity that cannot be renewed."

Dr. Avner Hershlag, chief of the Center for Human Reproduction at North Shore-LIJ Health System in Manhasset, N.Y., said the study is "exciting" but emphasized the work is still very preliminary.

"This is experimental," Hershlag said. "This is a beginning of perhaps something that could bring in new opportunities, but it's going to be a long time in my estimation until clinically we'll be able to actually have human eggs created from stem cells that make babies."

The same team at Mass General caused a stir in 2004 when it published a paper in Nature reporting that female mice retain the ability to make new egg cells well into adulthood.

In both mice and humans, the vast majority of egg cells die through a process called programmed cell death, or apoptosis, the body's way of eliminating unneeded or damaged cells. For humans, that process is dramatic. Female fetuses have about 6 to 7 million eggs at about 20 weeks' gestation, a little more than 1 million at birth, and about 300,000 by puberty.

Studying mice egg cells and follicles, the tiny sacs in which stem cells become eggs, the Mass General researchers discovered something that didn't make mathematical sense.

Most prior research had focused on counting the healthy eggs in the ovaries, and then made assumptions about how many had died from that, Tilly said. But his lab looked at it the opposite way and focused on cell death.

"We found far too many eggs were dying than could be accounted for by the net change in the healthy egg pool," Tilly said. "We reasoned that maybe the field had missed something." They wondered if stem, or precursor cells, were repopulating the ovaries with new eggs.

Initially, the findings were met with skepticism, according to the study authors, but subsequent research bolstered the conclusions.

Those included a 2009 study from a team in China, published in Nature Cell Biology, that isolated, purified and cultured egg stem cells from adult mice, and subsequently introduced them into mice ovaries that were rendered infertile. The infertile mice eventually produced mature oocytes that were fertilized and developed into healthy baby mice.

Studies showing that women had the same capacity as mice were lacking, however.

In this study, Tilly's team used tissue from Japanese women in their 20s and 30s with gender identity disorder, who had their ovaries removed as part of gender reassignment surgery.

The researchers isolated the egg precursor cells and inserted into them a gene from a jellyfish that glows green, then inserted the treated cells into biopsied human ovarian tissue. They then transplanted the human tissue into mice. The green fluorescence allowed researchers to see that the stem cells generated new egg cells.

Tilly said the process makes evolutionary sense. "If you look at this from an evolutionary perspective, males have sperm stem cells that continually make sperm. Because species propagation is so important, we want to make sure it's the best sperm, so don't want sperm sitting around for 60 years waiting to get used," he said. It makes no sense from an evolutionary perspective that "females will be born with all the eggs they will have and let them sit there," he noted.

Hershlag, meanwhile, said much remains to be overcome.

"Ultimately, in our field only one thing counts," he said, "and that is if you can make an egg that can make a healthy baby."

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more on how human embryos develop.

Link:
Stem Cell Finding Could Expand Women's Lifetime Supply of Eggs

By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff

Massachusetts General Hospital researchers reported today they have discovered a rare stem cell in women’s ovaries that they hope one day might be used to make eggs, a claim already generating vigorous debate among scientists familiar with the research.

For decades, it has been thought that women are born with a finite supply of eggs, limiting their reproductive years. Doctors have sought ways of extending the fertility of women, especially as many wait later in life to begin having children.

The research, led by Jonathan Tilly of Mass. General and appearing in the journal Nature Medicine, opens the door to the possibility of taking tissue from a woman’s ovaries, harvesting stem cells from that tissue, and then creating eggs.

But scientists not involved with the Mass. General research said such an approach -- if it is even possible -- sits far in the future and will require considerably more work. Several scientists said Tilly, who co-founded a company focused on developing novel infertility treatments, had not yet made a convincing case that the stem cells he discovered can yield viable eggs, a critical first step.

Tilly has been a lightning rod in the field of fertility medicine since 2004, when he challenged the orthodoxy that women do not produce new eggs. In a research paper published that year, Tilly laid the foundation for the findings reported yesterday.

“There was a lot of backlash. It wasn’t surprising, given the magnitude of the paradigm shift that was being proposed -- this was one of the fundamental beliefs in our field,” Tilly said. “The subsequent eight years have been a long haul.”

In his new study, Tilly extended research by Chinese scientists published in 2009. He developed a technique that allowed scientists to sift out rare stem cells within the ovaries of mice that were tagged and implanted into the ovaries of normal mice. In the mouse ovaries, the stem cells produced eggs, which were removed and fertilized in a laboratory dish. They developed into embryos, although scientists did not use the embryos to produce mice.

Tilly and his team then wanted to know if such cells existed in humans, too.

The research team obtained ovarian tissue removed from young women undergoing sex change operations in Japan and performed the same experiment they’d done with the mouse ovaries. Much to their excitement, they discovered the rare, egg-producing cells in humans.

In later experiments, the human stem cells were used to produce cells that appeared to be eggs. In part because of ethical limitations, researchers were not able to show that the eggs could be used to create human embryos.

Tilly said that he has patented the stem cells and licensed the technology to OvaScience, the startup he co-founded.

Outside researchers described the findings as intriguing and provocative but also raised many questions. Scientists said it was still far from certain that the eggs created in the experiments could be used to produce babies. And they expressed concern that the findings could falsely inflate the hopes of women struggling with infertility.

Dr. David Keefe, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at New York University Langone Medical Center, said he and other clinicians who see patients would like more than anything to have greater options for women to overcome infertility. But he said the Mass. General researcher had a history of leaping ahead from basic research findings to suggest clinical possibilities.

“Those of us who take care of patients are extremely protective of their hopes,” Keefe said. He noted that a few years ago, he saw half-a-dozen patients who wanted to delay their fertility decisions because of earlier research at Mass. General.

Even if the new findings are immediately replicated in labs around the world, Keefe said, “it’s so far from being clinical that it’s predatory to not be circumspect about it. Humility is an absolute requirement in this field. You’re dealing with people’s hopes and dreams.”

A 2005 study led by Tilly and done in mice suggested bone marrow transplants might offer a way to restore fertility. A year later, a separate group of Harvard researchers showed that this was unlikely to be true. Tilly himself no longer believes this is a way to restore fertility.

“The big difference in that work, now in retrospect, is these non-ovarian sources [of stem cells] don’t appear to do the job,” he said.

Tilly’s work in the past has divided researchers and failed to persuade many in the field that his interpretations are correct.

Teresa Woodruff, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University said she had already drawn up a chart of the claims made in the paper, the evidence to support those claims, and the questions they raise. Still, she said, “I do think he’s pushing the envelope in a way that does push all of us to think more broadly.”

Evelyn Telfer, a cell biologist at the University of Edinburgh, who criticized some of Tilly’s earlier work, said she is excited about the new findings. Tilly said that next month, he will fly to Scotland to begin a collaboration with Telfer.

“What he’s saying is we can get these cells,” Telfer said, “and I think it’s pretty convincing.”

The new paper doesn’t offer evidence that such stem cells are active in the ovary, supplying eggs during a woman’s lifetime. But the powerful cells could provide new insights into the important and poorly understood process in biology of egg-formation and allow scientists to look for drugs that might increase the activities of these stem cells, in order to overcome fertility problems.

Skeptics and supporters agreed on one thing: much work lies ahead.

“That’s science,” said Hugh Clarke, a professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at McGill University. “Of course, dogma should be challenged, but we shouldn’t assume dogma has been overturned based on a single report.”

Carolyn Y. Johnson can be reached at cjohnson@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @carolynyjohnson.

Excerpt from:
Massachusetts General researchers discover stem cell that makes eggs

Breakthrough stem cell research at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. has the potential to revive endangered species. Researchers at the Center for Regenerative Medicine are aiming to turn stem cells into gametes. Once new eggs and sperm are created, “test tube babies” can be born, possibly preserving a species.

In 1972, researchers preserved skin cells of certain endangered species at the Frozen Zoo, hoping that future technology would help to revive populations, and today Scripps researchers are combining the frozen skin cells with human stem cells to generate stem cells specific to the animal. Stem cells are turned into gametes through re-programming, a process in which retroviruses are used to bring the cells back to earlier stages of development. Last month, scientists created mouse sperm cells through this process.

Scientists view this method of species preservation as a last resort when cheaper, simpler means have failed. For instance, the white rhino, whose population is numbered at seven in the world, would benefit immensely since other methods of trying to save the species have failed. Scientists also hope to help the drill, a West African primate threatened by hunting and habitat degradation.

—compiled by Michelle Lim

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One Response to “Rescuing the white rhino?”

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Maven Semantic (http://www.mavensemantic.com) announces updates to their Embryonic Stem Cells research database.

The new database is now available to marketing, business development, competitor intelligence, KOL, medical affairs and related departments in the life sciences sector.

The database currently tags 27,000 individuals working in Embryonic Stem Cells. http://bit.ly/zc0cU4.

Top 10 Countries for Embryonic Stem Cells Research (ranked by number of senior researchers)

Leading organisations in Embryonic Stem Cells research include:

Albert Einstein College of Medicine Baylor College of Medicine Brigham and Women's Hospital California Institute of Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences Cornell University Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Duke University Medical Center Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Genome Institute of Singapore Harvard Medical School Howard Hughes Medical Institute Hubrecht Laboratory Indiana University School of Medicine Institut Pasteur Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences Institute of Human Genetics Institute of Molecular Embryology and Genetics Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Karolinska Institute Keio University School of Medicine Lund University Mount Sinai Hospital New York University School of Medicine Seoul National University University College London University of Cambridge University of Chicago University of Massachusetts Medical School University of Michigan University of Pennsylvania University of Toronto University of Tsukuba Weill Medical College of Cornell University Zhejiang University

The database also includes pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies, CROs, hospitals, government labs and other organisations active in the Embryonic Stem Cells research field.

Sample companies in database include:

AgResearch Ltd Amgen Inc Axiogenesis AG Cellartis AB Cellular Dynamics International, Inc Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd DNAVEC Corporation ES Cell International Pte Ltd F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd Genentech, Inc GENPHARM INTERNATIONAL, INC Geron Corporation Hayashibara Biochemical Laboratories, Inc Illumina, Inc Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG Invitrogen Corporation Japan Science and Technology Corp KENNEDY KRIEGER, INC Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc

What is Maven:

- Largest database of international medical professionals, with over 6,000,000 people and over 500,000 medical organisations;

- All records are downloadable to excel or in-house database, with email, postal address and phone contacts;

- Profile and segment the entire database using over 47,000 diseases and therapeutic areas

For more information visit http://www.mavensemantic.com/

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Maven Semantic: Embryonic Stem Cells Research Database

Newswise — The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) is pleased to announce the winner of the 2012 McEwen Award for Innovation, a coveted prize in the field of stem cell research and regenerative medicine. The 2012 recipient is Rudolf Jaenisch, MD, Founding Member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in recognition of his pioneering discoveries in the areas of genetic and epigenetic control of development in mice that directly impact the future potential of embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells for therapeutic utility.

The McEwen Award for Innovation is supported by the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The $100,000 award honors original thinking and groundbreaking research pertaining to stem cells or regenerative medicine that opens new avenues of exploration towards the understanding or treatment of human disease or affliction.

“Rudolf Jaenisch has consistently contributed new and groundbreaking discoveries to stem cell biology and regenerative medicines that have changed the way stem cell research is conducted, said Fred H. Gage, PhD, ISSCR President. “Importantly, Rudolf not only has an uncanny sense of the next big question, but also conducts his experiments with such thoughtful and critical experimental design that his results have an immediate impact. This critical attention to detail and experimental design has greatly benefited the many gifted students that have passed through his lab and now populate many of the major stem cell centers throughout the world. Rudolf is very deserving of this award.”

Winner of the inaugural McEwen Award for Innovation in 2011, Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, ISSCR President-Elect agrees. “Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch has always been on the cutting-edge of our field and his research has been a source of inspiration not only for myself, but has influenced the careers of some of our most esteemed colleagues.”

Dr. Jaenisch will be presented with the award at the ISSCR 10th Annual Meeting, in Yokohama, Japan, on Wednesday, June 13, 2012.
***
The International Society for Stem Cell Research is an independent, nonprofit membership organization established to promote and foster the exchange and dissemination of information and ideas relating to stem cells, to encourage the general field of research involving stem cells and to promote professional and public education in all areas of stem cell research and application.

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ISSCR Honors Stem Cell Research Pioneer with Prestigious McEwen Award for Innovation

To: HEALTH, MEDICAL AND POLITICAL EDITORS

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Stem Cell Action Coalition opposes Virginia House Bill No.1, the so-called Virginia "personhood bill." The Virginia Senate Committee on Education and Health is scheduled to take the matter up this week.

The language of the personhood bill states, in part, that the laws of Virginia "shall be interpreted and construed to acknowledge on behalf of unborn children at every stage of development all of the rights, privileges and immunities available to other persons, citizens and residents." The bill further states "unborn children shall include the offspring of human beings from the moment of conception until birth at every stage of biological development."

HB 1 arguably would apply to every aspect of Virginia law thus profoundly impacting inheritance, adoption, guardianship, civil and criminal liability by according the same rights as adults and children to a single cell.

The personhood bill would surely interfere with reproductive and related rights of women and couples along several fronts. These interferences include making it exceedingly difficult for couples in Virginia to seek in vitro fertilization as a means of creating families and donating for research IVF-created embryos not needed for implantation or not sufficiently healthy for implantation. Moreover, the law would prevent the pursuit of medical research in Virginia that utilizes human embryonic stem cells.

In this twisted new world, Virginia researchers deriving embryonic stem cells from donated embryos might be charged with capital crimes, even murder. Couples donating embryos to research might be designated as accessories to these crimes. Microscopic embryos, consisting of a few cells in lab dishes or frozen in IVF clinics might be designated as wards of the state and by mandate have legal guardians appointed on their behalf.

Human embryonic stem cell research has been described by scientists as the "gold standard" for those seeking to develop cures based on stem cell technology for many diseases and maladies such as Parkinson's, ALS, diabetes, MS, macular degeneration and other causes of blindness, spinal cord injuries, and other medical conditions for which there is no known cure.

Bernard Siegel, J.D., spokesperson for the Coalition and executive director of the Genetics Policy Institute commented, "It is a sad day indeed when the Commonwealth of Virginia should become an outpost for extremism by impeding potentially lifesaving scientific research. Thomas Jefferson would be appalled. The wise voters of Colorado (twice) and Mississippi overwhelmingly rejected personhood amendments to their state constitutions.

The profound implications of the personhood bill cannot be wished away by its sponsors. Passage of this bill would be an affront to couples trying to avail themselves of modern infertility treatments, stem cell researchers targeting cures and to all Virginians suffering from chronic and life threatening disease. Passage of HB 1 is akin to crushing hope.

Human embryonic stem cell research holds the promise of discovering the root causes of disease, serves as a tool for drug discovery, and will surely lead to regenerative medicines and cell therapies for repairing or replacing damaged tissues and organs.

Microscopic cells in a lab dish, that by a couples' decision, will never be implanted in a womb, should not be defined as 'people'," Siegel continued.

HB 1 represents a concerted move by opponents of all forms of early termination of pregnancy and medical research involving human embryos to attempt to pass laws to define "person" as the being that comes into existence at conception. In addition to Virginia, similar efforts to pass "personhood" legislation are underway in Oklahoma, Mississippi and in other states.

The Stem Cell Action Coalition has 75 nonprofit affiliated organizations including patient groups, medical philanthropies, scientific and medical societies and public interest organizations all dedicated to advancing scientifically meritorious and ethically responsible research.

The Stem Cell Action Coalition serves as an engine to unite the pro-cures community. It recognizes that human embryonic stem cell research must be a national public health priority at all branches and levels of government, not only as a matter of the medical health of the individuals who comprise the United States, but also as a matter of national financial health. The Coalition sponsors a web site http://www.stemcellaction.org and can be found on Twitter @StemCellAction and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/stemcellaction.

SOURCE The Stem Cell Action Coalition

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Stem Cell Action Coalition Opposes Virginia Personhood Bill

Monkeys suffering from Parkinson's disease show a marked improvement when human embryonic stem cells are implanted in their brains, in what a Japanese researcher said Wednesday was a world first.

A team of scientists transplanted the stem cells into four primates that were suffering from the debilitating disease.

The monkeys all had violent shaking in their limbs -- a classic symptom of Parkinson's disease -- and were unable to control their bodies, but began to show improvements in their motor control after about three months, Kyoto University associate professor Jun Takahashi told AFP.

About six months after the transplant, the creatures were able to walk around their cages, he said.

"Clear improvements were confirmed in their movement," he said.

Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurological illness linked to a decrease in dopamine production in the brain. There is currently no medical solution to this drop off in a key neurotransmitter.

The condition, which generally affects older people, gained wider public recognition when Hollywood actor Michael J. Fox revealed he was a sufferer.

Takahashi said at the time of the implant about 35 percent of the stem cells had already grown into dopamine neuron cells, with around 10 percent still alive after a year.

He said he wants to improve the effectiveness of the treatment by increasing the survival rate of dopamine neuron cells to 70 percent.

"The challenge before applying it to a clinical study is to raise the number of dopamine neuron cells and to prevent the development of tumours," he said.

"I would like to make this operation more effective and safe" before clinical trials, Takahashi said.

Takahashi said so far he had used embryonic stem cells, which are harvested from foetuses, but would likely switch to so-called Induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells, which are created from human skin, for the clinical trial.

His team, which has also transplanted iPS cells into monkeys, are now looking to see if the primates with Parkinson's disease show similar improvements in their motor control.

Scientists say the use of human embryonic stem cells as a treatment for cancer and other diseases holds great promise, but the process has drawn fire from religious conservatives, among others.

Opponents say harvesting the cells, which have the potential to become any cell in the human body, is unethical because it involves the destruction of an embryo.

The Japanese government currently has no guidelines on the use of human stem cells in clinical research.

In October last year, the Court of Justice of the European Union banned the patenting of stem cells when their extraction causes the destruction of a human embryo, a ruling that could have repercussions on medical research.

Scientists warned that the ruling would damage stem cell research in Europe, while the Catholic church hailed it as a victory for the protection of human life.

The rest is here:
Stem cell implants boost monkeys with Parkinson's