-----Original Message-----
From: NEWMAN STUART [mailto:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.]
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2001 1:40 PM
To: 'CRG Forum'
Subject: Embryo stem cells
In light of recent public proclamations about the "enormous promise" of therapies based on human embryo stem cells, people might be surprised to learn that mouse embryo stem cells have been worked on for 20 years. There are many mouse models for human diseases, but there do not appear to be any scientific papers reporting cures of any of these mouse conditions with embryo stem (ES) cells. It should also be of interest that the distinguishing characteristic of mouse ES cells when they were first identified was that they caused cancer when injected into mice. This fact has not figured in the public discussions of potential therapeutic uses of human ES cells. Indeed, until human stem cells were identified and patented during the last two years there seems to have been few (or no) papers in the scientific literature (as indexed in Medline) that discussed ES cells as therapeutic agents in tissue reconstruction. The abstract of the first report of mouse ES cells is printed below.
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Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1981 Dec;78(12):7634-8
Isolation of a pluripotent cell line from early mouse embryos cultured in medium conditioned by teratocarcinoma stem cells.
Martin GR.
This report describes the establishment directly from normal preimplantation mouse embryos of a cell line that forms teratocarcinomas when injected into mice. The pluripotency of these embryonic stem cells was demonstrated conclusively by the observation that subclonal cultures, derived from isolated single cells, can differentiate into a wide variety of cell types. Such embryonic stem cells were isolated from inner cell masses of late blastocysts cultured in medium conditioned by an established teratocarcinoma stem cell line. This suggests that such conditioned medium might contain a growth factor that stimulates the proliferation or inhibits the differentiation of normal pluripotent embryonic cells, or both. This method of obtaining embryonic stem cells makes feasible the isolation of pluripotent cells lines from various types of noninbred embryo, including those carrying mutant genes. The availability of such cell lines should made possible new approaches to the study of early mammalian development.
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Stuart A. Newman, Ph.D. Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy Basic Science Building New York Medical College Valhalla, NY 10595 Tel: (914) 594-4048 Fax: (914) 594-4653 E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.