Many a pregnant woman has moments when her fetus seems like a little parasite, all take, take, take. But new research suggests that a fetus may also be giving back a lifelong gift: cells that appear to act like stem cells, migrating to diseased organs in the mother and trying to fix them.
Tufts-New England Medical Center researchers report in today's Journal of the American Medical Association that they have found evidence of such transformed fetal cells in the livers, thyroids, and spleens of women who have been pregnant.
"If we can prove these are stem cells, and harvest them from the blood or tissue of a woman who's been pregnant, they could have therapeutic potential for that woman, her children, and perhaps even unrelated individuals," said Dr. Diana Bianchi, chief of medical genetics at the hospital and senior author on the paper.
The findings could also affect the national debate over stem cells, she said, in that they raise the possibility of obtaining stem cells, which can change into many tissues of the body, without the ethical issues involved in creating or destroying human embryos. President Bush has sharply restricted federal funding for research on human embryonic stem cells to keep the government from supporting research that he believes destroys human life.
In an editorial, the AMA journal said the work raised "novel and exciting" possibilities, and added: "The time may soon come when the prenatal child heals the mother and perhaps in the far distant future becomes the ultimate health insurance for the whole family."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/07/07/fetuses_give_mothers_a_gift_of_cells_study_says/
Tufts-New England Medical Center researchers report in today's Journal of the American Medical Association that they have found evidence of such transformed fetal cells in the livers, thyroids, and spleens of women who have been pregnant.
"If we can prove these are stem cells, and harvest them from the blood or tissue of a woman who's been pregnant, they could have therapeutic potential for that woman, her children, and perhaps even unrelated individuals," said Dr. Diana Bianchi, chief of medical genetics at the hospital and senior author on the paper.
The findings could also affect the national debate over stem cells, she said, in that they raise the possibility of obtaining stem cells, which can change into many tissues of the body, without the ethical issues involved in creating or destroying human embryos. President Bush has sharply restricted federal funding for research on human embryonic stem cells to keep the government from supporting research that he believes destroys human life.
In an editorial, the AMA journal said the work raised "novel and exciting" possibilities, and added: "The time may soon come when the prenatal child heals the mother and perhaps in the far distant future becomes the ultimate health insurance for the whole family."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/07/07/fetuses_give_mothers_a_gift_of_cells_study_says/
