Stingray: Hair Follicle Cells Offer Embryonic Stem Cell Research Alternative

December 20, 2006

Hair Follicle Cells Offer Embryonic Stem Cell Research Alternative

by Michael McCullough at 1:05 PM

The controversy over embryonic stem cell research as shaped by the mainstream media has left most people believing that the evil President Bush is preventing embryonic stem cell research and that many miracles will come out of the research. Both beliefs are patently false. Before President Bush, there was no federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Bush vetoed federal funds for research except for a certain number of existing lines of embryonic stem cells.

Bush placed no limits on the private funding of embryonic stem cell research. The only thing limiting private funding is the fact that investors are reluctant to buy stock in companies engaged in embryonic stem cell research because the technology has yet to yield any useful results. It’s a capitalism thing. Embryonic stem cells placed in patients and animals often cause tumors. Why put your money on something that is yielding nothing useful when you can invest in companies that are actually showing good results from their research?

Contrast that with other forms of stem cell research, which has been yielding proven results since the first bone marrow transplants of the 1960s. In fact, there are over 70 conditions for which non-embryonic stem cells have provided cures or, at least, promising results. Consider the recent article in Life News.

Scientists at the Medical College of Wisconsin have found what may be another alternative to embryonic stem cells. They have found that adult stem cells from hair follicles, which don’t involve the destruction of human life to obtain, are different from other types of skin cells.

The researchers recently identified the molecular signature of hair follicle stem cells called epidermal neural crest stem cells.

The college says the study resolves conflicting scientific opinions by showing that these cells are distinctly different from other types of skin-resident stem cells.

The MCW research team has reported their findings in a recent issue of Stem Cells: The International Journal of Cell Differentiation and Proliferation.

Epidermal neural crest stem cells are found in the bulge of hair follicles and have characteristics that combine some advantages of embryonic and adult stem cells, according to lead researcher, Maya Sieber-Blum, Ph.D.

Similar to embryonic stem cells, they have a high degree of plasticity, can be isolated at high levels of purity, and can be expanded in culture.

Sieber-Blum says the hair cells are similar to other types of adult stem cells, as they are readily accessible through a minimally invasive procedure and could lead to using a patient’s own hair as a source for therapy without the controversy or transplant problems associated with embryonic stem cells.

“We see the potential for cell replacement therapy in which patients can be their own donors, which would avoid ethical issues and reduce the possibility of tissue incompatibility,” says Dr. Sieber-Blum.

Experiments with mice have thus far proved successful. It’s possible that some who are now bound to wheelchairs due to spinal cord injuries may walk again — not because a developing fetus has been destroyed, but because doctors used the patient’s own hair as a source of stem cells.

“We grafted the cells into mice that have spinal cord injuries and were encouraged by the results. The cells survived and integrated into the spinal cord, remaining at the site of transplantation and not forming tumors,” Dr. Sieber-Blum says.

The transplant of embryonic stem cells have caused problems in animal research because they have formed tumors that would cause severe problems in humans.

Sieber-Blum points out that the hair follicle cells may also be useful to treat Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Hirschsprung’s disease, stroke, peripheral neuropathies and ALS. Certain defects of the heart, and bone defects could also be treated through neural crest stem cell replacement therapy.

Why do we blog? Because information like that just presented never makes it past the censors of the mainstream media. They have convinced many Americans — perhaps the vast majority of Americans — of the great lie that only embryonic stem cell research holds any promise for the future. The reason for fostering this belief is to assuage people of their guilty feelings over abortion. Women who have had abortions need to know that God can forgive any sin and churches need to welcome them in with open and loving arms.

Christians have stepped up to the plate with Crisis Pregnancy Centers and we need to make sure that women know that they really do have a choice — the choice of life — when it comes to having a baby. We are in the world to be salt and light and we need to make sure that the world knows that embryonic stem cell research is leading us nowhere and, even if it did have medical value, it would be at the expense of the life of a child.

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