Last update - 00:00 10/12/2007
Stem cell discovery involving Israeli helps cure anemic mice
By Ofri Ilani, Haaretz Correspondent
A team of scientists including an Israeli doctor have successfully used skin cells altered to look and act like stem cells to cure anemia in mice, the U.S. magazine Science reported over the weekend.
The team's findings proves that the breakthrough in cell metamorphosis announced last month is applicable to medical research and could be used to bypass controversy surrounding the use of stem cells from human embryos, a debate that has inhibited research.
"When the breakthrough that we had created stem cells from skin cells was announced, it was still not certain whether these cells would be useful for medical research," Dr. Yakoub Hana, a prominent member of the team and a graduate of the Hebrew University, told Haaretz.
"Our goal was to carry out an experiment that would prove that such a goal can be ascertained. It's the first time such stem cells have cured such a disease."
To create the stem cell clones, the team removed and altered mature skin cells from mice. The artificial stem cells were used to make blood cells that then replaced deformed blood cells in mice with anemia. Tests showed the mice that received the blood transfusions had been cured of their ailment. Researchers are hopeful such research could lead to the development of technology that would allow the production of healthy cell blood cells and cure humans suffering from anemia as well those ill with other diseases.
The new technology, however, is still hazardous to humans. An agent called Retrovirus, essential to the method of producing the artificial stem cells, is highly cancer-inducing.
"Current methods may cause cancers and need to be replaced with less dangerous methods," Hana said. "I believe these can be achieved within two years.
Hana, a native of the Galilee village of Rama, is a graduate of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and is currently at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
"I hope that when I finish my post-doctorate in a few years, things will be better in Israel for everybody, and I'll be better motivated to return," Hana said.