Stem cell scientists may be waiting longer than anticipated for answers to ethical arguments surrounding their research, according to a UW-Madison study.
The study focused on the effectiveness of induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells, a new cell type discovered by UW-Madison researchers James Thomson and Junying Yu.
However, the new research found that while the 2007 discovery proved adult skin cells could be transformed into the building blocks for human organs just like embryonic stem cells—but without the associated controversy—the new cells produced less consistent results.
""So if the efficiency for [transforming] an embryonic stem cell is 90 percent, the efficiency for IPS cell differentiation might be like 20 percent,"" UW professor Su-Chun Zhang, the report's senior author, said.
Zhang's team, led by fellow UW scientist Baoyang Hu, found that IPS cells are much less predictable than embryonic stem cells, so transforming them into any one of the intended cell types—whether brain, blood, nerve or another kind of cell—for transplants and other purposes is difficult, but not impossible.
""It doesn't deter the use of IPS cells per se. It tells people that the IPS cell technology is not there yet,"" Zhang said.
The use of embryonic stem cells was pioneered by Thomson in 1998 while researching at UW-Madison. President Barack Obama recently removed restrictions on embryonic stem cell research implemented under former President George W. Bush, but the method is still contested by many for its destruction of human embryos.
Despite the need for improved techniques, Zhang said he doesn't expect the inefficiencies associated with IPS cells to last long.
""I'm kind of optimistic because the technology for IPS really moved very fast, at least in terms of the past few years … so hopefully people will find a novel way of doing things and to overcome that issue. That's my hope,"" Zhang said.
Zhang's study was published in the Feb. 15 edition of the ""Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences"" journal.
