Current Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines Contaminated; Join ASH Advocacy Efforts

According to research by investigators at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine and the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, stem cell lines from human embryos, which are grown with animal-derived cells, have become contaminated with a product that human cells are genetically unable to make that compromises their potential therapeutic use in human subjects.

All human embryonic stem cell lines currently approved for study under federal funding in the US have been grown on or derived from a so-called feeder layer of mouse cells.

The cells take up a sialic acid called N-glycolylneuraminic acid from the animal cells (Neu5Gc), and researchers report in the journal Nature Medicine that approximately six to ten percent of total sialic acids in human stem cells are made up of Neu5Gc.

(More details of the study can be found in a UCSD press release.)

Despite this news, Director of NIH Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., has indicated the Bush Administration’s commitment to its current restrictive policy on stem cell research in a recent op-ed. ASH has established a policy supporting all avenues of stem cell research. Please join ASH’s advocacy campaign to urge President Bush to remove current funding restrictions on stem cell research.