Can Brain Cells Be Grown From Corpses? Stem cells grown from dead bodies

By BBC News Online's Helen Briggs

American scientists have grown brain cells harvested from dead bodies.

They say cadavers are a potential source of stem cells, the master cells that have the ability to develop into all the body's different tissues.

Doctors believe it might one day be possible to use stem cells to repair brain damage caused by strokes or Parkinson's disease.

But the research has been overshadowed by ethical objections about the source of the tissue, as well as legal bans to such work in some countries.

Master cells

Stem cells are the body's master cells, having the ability to "differentiate" into a wide variety of cells used for different purposes in the body.

Experiments in rodents have shown that stem cells from embryos or adults could potentially treat a range of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's and Parkinson's.

However, the source of stem cells for human medical research has raised ethical concerns.

Many researchers believe cells taken from embryos are the best candidates for developing new medical treatments. However, the work is banned in some countries because of ethical objections.

Recent work has shown that adult stem cells could provide a viable alternative.

Now a US team has shown that dead bodies can also be used as a source of stem cells.

'Careful evaluation'

Writing in the scientific journal Nature, a team led by Fred Gage at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, report a technique for sourcing stem cells from human post mortem samples and surgical specimens.

When placed in a succession of solutions in the lab, the tissue of two patients - an 11-week-old baby boy and a 27-year-old man - yielded immature (progenitor) brain cells.

Since then, the team has successfully used the technique on other samples taken from people from different age groups, even from tissue extracted nearly two days after death.

But the scientists warn that the work raises "complex ethical and societal issues" which must be carefully addressed.

"Careful evaluation and consideration of the relative merits of post-mortem or adult-derived cells and foetal progenitor cells will be necessary," they write.

Ethical issues

Professor Peter Andrews of the University of Sheffield, UK, leads a research team that works on stem cells.

"There do appear to be true stem cells in the brain that do under certain circumstances renew themselves," he told BBC News Online.

"In theory, if you had a source of such immature brain cells you might be able to treat something like Parkinson's disease."

He said the use of cadavers as a potential source of stem cells raised a different set of ethical issues from those associated with using stem cells from embryos.

Britain's Royal Society recently suggested in a report that one day people could donate their stem cells in much the same way that they are currently asked to offer their organs for transplant.

But vice president of the Royal Society, Professor Brian Heap, said a raft of questions still need to be answered before such issues can be addressed.

He told BBC News Online: "It's very important that we have a full public discussion about progress in this important field."

Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Wednesday May 2, 2001 2:17 PM ET

Scientists Isolate, Grow Brain Cells From Corpses

LONDON (Reuter) - Researchers have isolated and cultivated brain cells from human corpses in a scientific feat that could provide a new source of stem cells for research and developing medical treatments.

Professor Fred Gage and his colleagues at the Salk Institute in California obtained the brain cells that can grow, divide and form specialized brain cells from tissue samples of people shortly after their deaths.

Their achievement, reported in the science journal Nature on Wednesday, could overcome the ethical obstacles of using stem cells derived from embryos.

``I find it remarkable that we have pockets of cells in our brain that can grow and differentiate throughout our lives and even after death,'' Gage said in a statement.

Stem cells are master cells that can grow into virtually any type of cell in the body. Embryos are the richest source of human stem cells but their use has been dogged by ethical debate.

Right-to-life and religious groups oppose the use of stem cells from early embryos. Scientists want to use the cells to develop treatments for diseases ranging from Parkinson's, diabetes and cancers to leukemia, hepatitis and stroke.

Gage and his team used biopsy or post-mortem tissue from 23 people ranging from 11 weeks to 72 years old. Tissue taken from younger individuals provided more viable cells.

The scientists used special growth factors to obtain cells from the tissue, which they said was a crucial element to their success.

``This study employed a pool of cells from extracted tissue. We haven't yet isolated individual cells from that pool and followed them to see if a single cell can give rise to multiple classes of brain cells,'' Gage explained.

All of the cells used in the research were from people who had suffered from brain disorders. Gage and his colleagues were using them to study the cell biology of the various brain diseases.

``Cells recovered from healthy individuals could provide a model for understanding how to stimulate and guide the normal processes of brain cell growth and differentiation, lending insight to how growth might be stimulated in people suffering from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's,'' said Gage.

The scientists are also planning to transplant the brain cells into animals to see if they survive and differentiate.

``Testing in whole animals is the only way to know if adult tissue can be a source of stem or progenitor cells for transplant purposes to treat neurodegenerative disease,'' Gage added.

Stem cells are derived from the cells of aborted fetuses, blood cells taken from the umbilical cord at birth and adult tissue. Stem cells from early embryos offer the greatest potential for human benefit.