I originally wrote this for the edification of my friends at Kim du Toit’s forum, where I spend my time instead of studying/researching/doing something productive. Legal Redux also happens to be a member of Life, Liberty, Property. And as I said before, I’m trying to be more active in the community, instead of merely ranting to myself. Seems like a good time to weigh in, since I don’t think there are too many biologists either among my readership or in the community.

I’m not here to argue on whether or not using embryos to create new stem cell lines is ethical or not. Instead I’m simply here to reduce and hopefully eliminate some of the disinformation spread by ‘scientists’ about embryonic stem cells and their potential to cure. As a preface, I need people to understand that scientists, like anyone else, can be petty, selfish, status-driven, and are quite capable of lying to further their own agendas. I’m not saying that all scientists are douches, just saying that you can’t trust the peer-review process and you certainly can’t trust integrity to always motivate our work, something that might be driven home by the recent Korean human cloning scandal.

A lot of embryonic stem cell researchers claim that ESC’s are the future of therapy for degenerative diseases from diabetes to alzheimers. But since they get their grant money for researching ESC’s, and their status and audience in the scientific world are directly dependent on how relevant scientists and the public feel they are, they just might be inclined to embellish a tad. A lot of people who support ESC research either morally or financially agree with these scientists’ logic. But of course, they aren’t researchers themselves, and so may be disinclined to challenge experts on the material out of a feeling of inferiority. And then, they may think that ‘Hey, these guys are biomedical scientists, surely they must be working for the betterment of mankind?’. And they are, I’m not questioning that. I went into med school because I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror if I didn’t go into a profession that directly furthered the betterment of people everywhere. But I also went this route instead of chilling with monkeys because it would probably serve as a better vehicle for my ambition. Time will tell. Eventually I want people to understand how much of our minds and our emotions are rooted in our social mammalian past. I believe this perspective will revolutionize the mental health professions for the better. But I’m speaking as a primatologist turned med student. So, just like the ESC researchers, I’m slightly biased as to the importance of my work. And, just like ESC researchers, while I’m here to give back to the people, I’m also here for myself. Point is, there are no Mother Teresas, even in the most altruistic of disciplines.

At the risk of sounding like an anarcho-socialist, let me conclude this preface by saying simply “Don’t Trust Authority. Question Everything.”

Now on to the meat. When the egg and sperm fuse, we’re left with a single-celled zygote. This one single cell contains all the genetic information and is capable of turning into every single type of cell in your body. As the cell divides, each of the daughter cells of this zygote is more restricted; it can turn into fewer types of cells. These daughter cells will eventually become stem cells. These are cells that can divide forever, and can turn into several different types of cell, each of which is a member of that lineage. There are stem cells that produce immune system-type cells. There are stem cells that produce red blood cells and platelets. There are cells that develop into nerves and their support structure (glia). This process, from the totipotent (it can turn into any kind of cell)early zygotic cells, to the multipotent(can turn into only cells in a specific lineage or family) embryonic cells to end-type cells (like red blood cells or neurons) is called differentiation. By the time the zygote has developed into an adult, almost all the cells in the body are fully differentiated; they can only make more of the same type of cell. Some can’t even do that. But in many areas, including the brain, muscle, intestine, and bone marrow, multipotent (not totipotent) stem cells remain, although largely either dormant or restricted to very specific jobs (as in bone marrow). That’s important.

Moving on, a lot of the diseases we face as we get older are a result of the differentiated adult cells dieing off and losing the ability to reproduce themselves. This is why skin gets wrinkly. The fibrocytes that produce collagen die off. This is why adult onset diabetes happens. Eventually you lose too many beta cells in your pancreas to continue making insulin. Dementia (like Alzheimers), blindness, and other disorders have also been linked to this inability of the body to repair its degraded tissue. Since the problem is the death of these adult cells, stem cells seem like ideal candidates to replenish and restore our failing tissues. And they are. It is my belief that stem cells do indeed hold the key to curing or at least ameliorating the devastating effects of these degenerative diseases.

But remember what I said? About the fact that all adults have stem cells in their body? They’re just dormant and/or hard to get to? Why aren’t we researching these? Turns out a few have. And an australian researcher, with a budget of less than 40,000 US, has already had as much or more success as the ESC guys, using self-harvested stem cells(SSC). And about the stem cells being hard to get to? He can actually do it without any kind of crazily invasive procedure, simply by sticking a pick up your nose. Turns out you can use a stem cell colony used to replenish your smell receptors to produce many types of cells. He’s done skin, bone, muscle, and nerve that I know of. All with only slightly more than the cost of my dad’s last car. And a whole lot less than what the ESC guys have spent.

Beyond the KISS principle the aussies have so elegantly demonstrated, are there any other good reasons to pursue self-harvested adult stem cells over ESC’s? Turns out there are more than a few downsides to attempting to use ESC’s instead of self-harvested adult stem cells to cure disease. And here’s the thing. It’s not like these were unexpected side effects. These could be predicted by anyone with an undergraduate class in cell biology. (It was actually my first undergrad cell bio class that caused me to raise these concerns). First thing. ESC’s share a lot of similarities with cancer cells. For one thing, unlike normal cells which can only reproduce a few times before they die, ESC’s and Cancer cells are immortal. They also have a lot of extra cellular machinery turned off, which allows them to put more energy into multiplying. Basically most cells in the adult body are designed to do a specific job; skin protects you from the outside environment, your liver detoxifies stuff, your pancreas produces insulin and digestive juices, your brain helps you think, etc. They thus expend their energy doing that job. SC’s and Cancer, on the other hand, make it their job to reproduce. And pretty much only reproduce.

Funnily enough, when ESC’s have been injected into rat and mouse models, they…tend to multiply at an explosive rate, producing tumors and metastases. Who’da thunk it?

Then lets not forget the lessons we can learn from basic immunology, lessons learned before my mother was even born. Immunocompatability. Your immune system is a highly evolved and extremely perfectionistic system…some say overly so. Every cell on your body has what are called Major Histocompatability Complexes (MHC’s). These act like little ID tags on the surface of every cell. Your immune system uses these to prevent friendly fire incidents. Although you might not be familiar with MHC’s, you are undoubtedly familiar with rejection of transplant organs, when your body not only refuses to integrate with a transplanted liver or other organ, but actively tries to kill it. This happens because the MHC’s on the transplant organ don’t match your own MHC’s closely enough, causing your immune system to try to kill the ‘invading cells’ as fast as possible. This is also why transplant patients take immunosuppressants; an attempt to keep the immune system from doing its job. Even so, this doesn’t work a huge portion of the time. And, again, even if it does, you’ll have to intentionally compromise your immune system for the rest of your life.

Ever hear the ESC guys mention that? That this has all the downsides of organ transplant with the additional possible risk of cancer-like ridiculosity? Nope, didn’t think so. But the research is out there. It was predicted. And it came true.

Turning to SSC’s, we’ve got a fairly easy source to get them from, we’ve already manipulated them into all sorts of different types, and they’re already immunocompatible. In addition, because SSC’s are naturally dormant, rather than active like ESC’s, you have to actually COAX them into proliferating and differentiating in the first place (something, which as I said we can readily do). Seems like an overall plus. All the benefits, none of the costs. And a MUCH higher return on investment for research dollars thus far. Yet ESC’s are the future of curing disease…

I have no professional stake in this fight. My research involves monkeys, and eventually theoretical aspects of psychiatry. My career will gain nothing from one school of thought triumphing over another. In fact, I actively despise cellular biologists of EVERY stripe as overt reductionists who readily ignore aspects of biology that contradict their own claims. On the other hand, I have a high personal stake in this. Everyone on my dad’s side has diabetes, there may or may not be dementia on my mom’s side (great-grandma, who did have dementia, was the only person who died of old age on that side of the family), and there’s definitely late-onset blindness in my family. All of these are prime candidates for stem cell therapy. Combine this with my nerve injury, and basically everything that has or could go wrong in my body could be cured with stem cells. I hope this has helped clear up some of the crap surrounding SC research and why I think ESC researchers who lie to the public need to be shot.

Finally, I’ll direct you to an article by a much more prestigious person, a guy who has an MD instead of just a Master’s in Monkey Science and a little under a year of medical school under his belt.