Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act Re-introduced Unchanged From Legislation Vetoed by President Bush
Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has a personal interest in passing embryonic stem cell legislation for not only millions of others in dire need of this life improving research, but also for his Navy vet nephew who became quadriplegic from a spinal chord injury while serving in the US Navy.
It was announced yesterday that new research shows some promise from stem cells found floating in amniotic fluid and able to be harvested from a fairly common and relatively safe procedure called amniocentesis. Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School after seven years of research published a study yesterday in the journal Nature Biotechnology about the latest source of stem cells which they have named amniotic fluid-derived stem (AFS) cells, Anthony Atala, M.D., senior researcher and director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine Atala said in a release:
"In addition to being easily obtainable, the AFS cells can be grown in large quantities because they typically double every 36 hours. They also do not require guidance from other cells (termed 'feeders') and they do not produce tumors, which can occur with certain other types of stem cells. The scientists noted that specialized cells generated from the AFS cells included all three classes of cells found in the developing embryo - termed ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm. In their high degree of flexibility and growth potential, the AFS cells resemble human embryonic stem cells, which are believed capable of generating every type of adult cell.
"'The full range of cells that AFS cells can give rise to remains to be determined,' said Atala. 'So far, we've been successful with every cell type we've attempted to produce from these stem cells. The AFS cells can also produce mature cells that meet tests of function, which suggests their therapeutic value."
The new bill sponsored by Senator Harkin is unchanged from the bill passed by both houses of Congress last year, the only time President Bush sought to dust off his veto pen, as Harkin makes clear on his Web site:
"The bipartisan bill, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (S. 5), is exactly the same as the bill that both houses of Congress passed last year. Not a word was changed. The House passed it 238 to 194, and the Senate passed it 63 to 37.
Regrettably, the President chose to exercise the first - and, so far, the only - veto of his administration to reject the bill. He ignored the overwhelming majority of the American people. He ignored scores of Nobel laureates. He ignored his top scientists at the National Institutes of Health. And with one stroke of his pen, he dashed the hopes of millions of Americans who are suffering from diseases and other debilitating conditions."
Why would President Bush do such a thing? Because he is totally beholden to right-wing extremist religious "conservatives" who use their misguided influence to drive scientific fact from the United States to other countries. Those countries will pull ahead of the US in terms of ability and breakthroughs until the stranglehold that the religious right has on US government research is broken forever. Solid research must trump religious fervor and outdated mythical thinking or the United States will lose its place as the leader in medicine and medical technology around the world.
The Baptist Press yesterday said:
"The announcement of the newly discovered cells, however, did not deter at least some stem cell researchers from their plans to pursue destructive experiments. 'They are not a replacement for embryonic stem cells,' Harvard researcher George Daley told The Post."
What the Baptist Press disingenuously leaves out for their readers is the language in the bill about the ethics involved. The bill provides three tests that embryonic stem cells used for research must meet before even being considered eligible:
"(1) The stem cells were derived from human embryos that have been donated from in vitro fertilization clinics, were created for the purposes of fertility treatment, and were in excess of the clinical need of the individuals seeking such treatment.
(2) Prior to the consideration of embryo donation and through consultation with the individuals seeking fertility treatment, it was determined that the embryos would never be implanted in a woman and would otherwise be discarded.
(3) The individuals seeking fertility treatment donated the embryos with written informed consent and without receiving any financial or other inducements to make the donation."
In other words, what Baptist Press and others of their ilk fail to tell their readers is that these cells are going to be discarded and wasted regardless of whether this research proceeds in the United States or not. Privately funded research is ongoing and they don't mention that. And they do not tell their readers that the embryonic stem cells in question will be destroyed making the whole ethical question moot. Indeed, experts are firm in their beliefs that all types of stem cell research should be pursued and real breakthroughs will take much longer without federal funding of this valuable research:
"The scientific community stands firm that research, not ideology, must determine stem cells' true promise - and that embryonic stem cells so far are backed by the most promising evidence that one day they might be used to grow replacements for damaged tissue, such as new insulin-producing cells for diabetics or new nerve connections to restore movement after spinal injury.
"Let's let the laboratories worldwide figure out which ones are the best for the task at hand, and that's discovering treatments and cures for people who need them," adds bioethicist Christopher Scott, who heads the Stanford Program on Stem Cells and Society.
He is tracking how batches of embryonic stem cells created by U.S. researchers are being shipped abroad, and worries that other countries more aggressively pursuing the field may be first to turn the master cells into cures unavailable to Americans.
'Will patients have to travel to Australia to get the therapies?' he asks."
Clearly, Americans will be faced with a lack of treatment or have to travel outside of the country for these breakthroughs if the religious right is allowed to trump science and reason with superstition and myth, and it is past time to separate their influence from science in the US. Let the soothsayers of the radical right take care of their own lives but don't let them hold back American science anymore.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Schwarzenegger Wants Universal Health Care for California
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled a bold new plan Monday to give every person in California health insurance coverage — and other states are already joining in.
Schwarzenegger has proposed a sweeping health care plan to cover California's 6.5 million uninsured, including all children, regardless of their immigration status.
"I think this year in Sacramento, we can make history," he said.
Schwarzenegger's plan reflects a growing nationwide trend. Many states are now getting involved in health care reform and some observers say more will address the issue this year.
"I'd say just about all 50 of them would tell you they're wrestling with serious health care reform," said Jim Frogue, of the Center for Health Transformation.
More and More Americans Uninsured
The reason more states are interested in health care reform is an increasing number of uninsured Americans. About 42.4 million are uninsured, and eight in 10 come from working families, just like Cliff Whalen.
Whalen is a single father in Massachusetts raising a 9-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter. He is a personal care attendant, caring for his quadriplegic brother, and earns about $25,000 a year.
Whalen's children are covered by health insurance. That's a relief, but Whalen can't afford to insure himself.
"I work 50 hours a week," he said. "I'm not looking for free insurance, I'm asking for something I can afford."
Whalen expects that to change. He lives in Massachusetts, where a universal health care plan was passed last year. When it kicks in, he will be eligible to buy into cheaper care.
Why are states, many with Republican governors, now getting support for universal care, when so many frowned upon the idea during the President Clinton's years in office?
"In '94, the people who were insured thought it was somebody else's problem," said Leif Wellington Haase, a health fellow at the Century Foundation. "Now, many people feel it could be their problem."
Schwarzenegger said his plan ultimately will save $10 billion a year by cutting costs and redirecting money already in the health care system.
Critics are skeptical, but states are clearly experiencing a growing health care crisis. Already this year, more than six states have set up commissions to look into expanding coverage this year.
Schwarzenegger has proposed a sweeping health care plan to cover California's 6.5 million uninsured, including all children, regardless of their immigration status.
"I think this year in Sacramento, we can make history," he said.
Schwarzenegger's plan reflects a growing nationwide trend. Many states are now getting involved in health care reform and some observers say more will address the issue this year.
"I'd say just about all 50 of them would tell you they're wrestling with serious health care reform," said Jim Frogue, of the Center for Health Transformation.
More and More Americans Uninsured
The reason more states are interested in health care reform is an increasing number of uninsured Americans. About 42.4 million are uninsured, and eight in 10 come from working families, just like Cliff Whalen.
Whalen is a single father in Massachusetts raising a 9-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter. He is a personal care attendant, caring for his quadriplegic brother, and earns about $25,000 a year.
Whalen's children are covered by health insurance. That's a relief, but Whalen can't afford to insure himself.
"I work 50 hours a week," he said. "I'm not looking for free insurance, I'm asking for something I can afford."
Whalen expects that to change. He lives in Massachusetts, where a universal health care plan was passed last year. When it kicks in, he will be eligible to buy into cheaper care.
Why are states, many with Republican governors, now getting support for universal care, when so many frowned upon the idea during the President Clinton's years in office?
"In '94, the people who were insured thought it was somebody else's problem," said Leif Wellington Haase, a health fellow at the Century Foundation. "Now, many people feel it could be their problem."
Schwarzenegger said his plan ultimately will save $10 billion a year by cutting costs and redirecting money already in the health care system.
Critics are skeptical, but states are clearly experiencing a growing health care crisis. Already this year, more than six states have set up commissions to look into expanding coverage this year.
Monday, January 8, 2007
Overweight Girls Risk Obesity And Heart Disease As Women
US Scientists have shown that if a girl is overweight before she is a teenager, she is more likely to be obese and have a higher risk of heart disease as a woman.
This study, by researchers at the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, is published in The Journal of Pediatrics.
The scientists took data from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study (NGHS) where measurements are taken from girls every year between age 9 or 10 and 18. They then followed them up at 21 to 23 years. 1166 Caucasian and 1213 African-American girls took part in the research.
The research focused on the extent to which the girls were overweight, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), based on body mass index (BMI). They also looked at cardiovascular risk factors using blood pressure and lipid levels (HDL cholesterol and triglycerides).
The results showed there was a significant difference between the white girls and the black girls, both at age 9 and as they grew into adulthood. 7 per cent of the white girls were overweight in their pre-teens, rising to 10 per cent on reaching adulthood. Of the black girls, 17 per cent were overweight at age 9, reaching to 24 per cent in adulthood.
The blood pressure and cholesterol levels also increased gradually, year by year, in the overweight groups.
Another startling finding was that being overweight as a pre-teen makes it between 11 to 30 times more likely that you will be obese as an adult, and this is also associated with an increased risk of heart disease.
The main conclusion of the study is that a significant relationship exists between risk of heart disease in adulthood and being overweight by the age of 9.
According to the CDC, 17 per cent of US adolescents are overweight, and 61 per cent of these have at least one factor, like high blood pressure or cholesterol, that increases risk of heart disease in later life.
Overweight kids are more likely to suffer joint and bone problems, and have psychological difficulties such as social stigmatization and low self-esteem. They are also more likely to become obese as adults and in addition to being at higher risk for heart disease, they are also more likely to get type 2 diabetes, some types of cancer, and osteoarthritis.
Many parents will look at this research and see the age range around 9 and 10 and point to the very understandable problems of raising a pre-teen, or "tween" in our day and age. This is the crucial time when kids (and girls seem to do this earlier than boys) start listening to their peer group and pay less attention to what their parents tell them about diet and exercise. It's not "cool" to follow Mum and Dad's advice.
However, look more closely, because this reasearch suggests that the problem occurs much earlier, in the years leading up to the nines and tens, while children are very much under the influence of parenting behaviour and attitudes.
It would seem that the health education challenge is not just of tweens, but of parents too.
"Childhood Overweight and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study."
Douglas R. Thompson, PhD, Eva Obarzanek, PhD, Debra L. Franko, PhD, Bruce A. Barton, PhD, John Morrison, PhD, Frank M. Biro, MD, Stephen R. Daniels, MD, Ruth H. Striegel-Moore, PhD.
The Journal of Pediatrics Volume 150, Issue 1, Pages 18-25 (January 2007).
This study, by researchers at the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, is published in The Journal of Pediatrics.
The scientists took data from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study (NGHS) where measurements are taken from girls every year between age 9 or 10 and 18. They then followed them up at 21 to 23 years. 1166 Caucasian and 1213 African-American girls took part in the research.
The research focused on the extent to which the girls were overweight, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), based on body mass index (BMI). They also looked at cardiovascular risk factors using blood pressure and lipid levels (HDL cholesterol and triglycerides).
The results showed there was a significant difference between the white girls and the black girls, both at age 9 and as they grew into adulthood. 7 per cent of the white girls were overweight in their pre-teens, rising to 10 per cent on reaching adulthood. Of the black girls, 17 per cent were overweight at age 9, reaching to 24 per cent in adulthood.
The blood pressure and cholesterol levels also increased gradually, year by year, in the overweight groups.
Another startling finding was that being overweight as a pre-teen makes it between 11 to 30 times more likely that you will be obese as an adult, and this is also associated with an increased risk of heart disease.
The main conclusion of the study is that a significant relationship exists between risk of heart disease in adulthood and being overweight by the age of 9.
According to the CDC, 17 per cent of US adolescents are overweight, and 61 per cent of these have at least one factor, like high blood pressure or cholesterol, that increases risk of heart disease in later life.
Overweight kids are more likely to suffer joint and bone problems, and have psychological difficulties such as social stigmatization and low self-esteem. They are also more likely to become obese as adults and in addition to being at higher risk for heart disease, they are also more likely to get type 2 diabetes, some types of cancer, and osteoarthritis.
Many parents will look at this research and see the age range around 9 and 10 and point to the very understandable problems of raising a pre-teen, or "tween" in our day and age. This is the crucial time when kids (and girls seem to do this earlier than boys) start listening to their peer group and pay less attention to what their parents tell them about diet and exercise. It's not "cool" to follow Mum and Dad's advice.
However, look more closely, because this reasearch suggests that the problem occurs much earlier, in the years leading up to the nines and tens, while children are very much under the influence of parenting behaviour and attitudes.
It would seem that the health education challenge is not just of tweens, but of parents too.
"Childhood Overweight and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study."
Douglas R. Thompson, PhD, Eva Obarzanek, PhD, Debra L. Franko, PhD, Bruce A. Barton, PhD, John Morrison, PhD, Frank M. Biro, MD, Stephen R. Daniels, MD, Ruth H. Striegel-Moore, PhD.
The Journal of Pediatrics Volume 150, Issue 1, Pages 18-25 (January 2007).
Amniotic Stem Cells Offer Alternative to Embryonic
Stem cells from amniotic fluid may open a third avenue of research for scientists seeking to regenerate human tissue that is less controversial than embryonic cells and more versatile than adult stem cells.
The amniotic cells don't carry the same ethical and political concerns as stem cells harvested in a way that requires destruction of embryos. They also are easier to work on in the laboratory than adult stem cells, and may be able to grow into a wider variety of cells, the researchers said.
The finding may help kick-start use of amniotic cells by companies seeking to develop therapies for disease such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's or diabetes. The amniotic cells are equally as capable as embryonic cells in forming fat, liver, nerves, blood vessels and other tissue, the researchers said.
``This is a third class of stem cell that is derived from the fetus and routinely available with amniocentesis,'' said Kenneth Chien, director of the cardiovascular disease program at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute in Boston and a Massachusetts General Hospital cardiologist. ``These cells are falling somewhere in between.''
Amniocentesis, in which a needle is used to remove fluid from the womb for testing, is routinely used during pregnancy.
Embryonic stem cells are the first cells created after conception. Because they can turn into any other cell type, scientists hope they may one day be used to help replace damaged or missing material in the brain, heart and immune system. The method for removing them from embryos has created a national political debate over ethics.
Hidden Stem Cells
Adult stem cells, in contrast, are hidden in tiny numbers inside developed organs. They grow into other cell types only when the body needs them to replace or help repair the body part they're linked to. As a result, some stem cell experts say the adult cells are unlikely to provide treatments for complex disorders such as Parkinson's.
Amniotic cells may be ``one more alternative among the cells that can be used for this kind of research,'' said Anthony Atala, the lead researcher, in a Jan. 5 telephone interview. ``Everything we have tried to date, we have been able to do.''
The study was published online yesterday in the journal Nature Biotechnology. Atala is director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Rolling Back Limits
Companies including Geron Corp. and Advanced Cell Technology Inc. are developing treatments from human embryonic stem cells. Democrats are preparing to introduce legislation that will roll back limits on research funding for embryonic stem cells that President George W. Bush set in 2001 because of reluctance to allow the destruction of embryos.
Atala said he discovered amniotic cells seven years ago and has been studying them ever since to make sure that they're ``pluripotent,'' meaning that they can form a wider variety of cell types than adult stem cells. The amniotic stem cells can also double in number every 36 hours, dividing at least 250 times without mutating, while aging-related structures on their chromosomes, called telomeres, remain intact, he said.
Using naturally occurring body chemicals called growth factors, Atala stimulated the amniotic cells to make brain cells. When he injected them into the brain-diseased mice, they connected with other brain cells and appeared ready to function.
Don't Form Tumors
One major difference is that, unlike embryonic stem cells, the amniotic cells don't form tumors, called teratomas, that contain a variety of cell types, Atala said. That may offer an advantage if the cells turn out to be able to regenerate tissues that are lost in Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and other disorders, he said.
``It makes sense because the cells are further down the line in development,'' he said. ``You don't see fetuses getting tumors.''
Lack of ability to form teratomas is an important distinction from embryonic stem cells, said Leonard Zon, a Harvard Medical School stem cell researcher who also works at Children's. Embryonic stem cells are unique in that they just one of them can reconstitute an entire organism, he said.
Atala's cells may be a form of adult stem cell called mesenchymal cells, Zon said. Aastrom Biosciences Inc., based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and other companies work with that cell type.
`No Evidence'
There's no evidence that research on the amniotic cells is a replacement for work on embryonic stem cells, which have shown the ability to replace cells throughout the body, said Eve Herold, director of public policy research and education at the Genetics Policy Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit research advocacy group.
``There is only one `card-carrying' pluripotent human embryonic stem cell,'' she said in a statement distributed by PR Newswire. ``Patients demanding cures must reject any attempted spin on this story claiming the work with fetal cells is an actual alternative to current embryonic stem cell research.''
Several laboratories have already used amniotic cells to make muscle, bone, cartilage and tendons, as well as heart, nerve and liver cells, said Dario Fauza, a Harvard Medical School professor of surgery at Children's Hospital in Boston, in a telephone interview today. Fauza said he proposed using the cells for treatment in 2001 and has been trying to grow tissues from them to perform surgery on newborns and fetuses.
The study holds ``in-depth information on the previously known fact that the amniotic fluid holds unique stem cell populations,'' Fauza said in an e-mail today. ``The fact that different types of stem cells are present in the amniotic fluid has been known since the early nineties, though they certainly need to be better defined.''
Replicate the Work
Many laboratories have claimed to have found cells outside the embryo that share the ability to become a wide variety of tissues, said Jeanne Loring, a researcher at the Burnham Institute in La Jolla, California, who has been working with stem cells for 20 years. Other laboratories will have to replicate the work with the amniotic cells before it's accepted, she said.
``We're all very cautious because people have been wrong so many times,'' she said Jan. 5 in a telephone interview.
Laboratories across the U.S. and Europe are working with amniotic stem cells, Atala said. They normally constitute about 1 percent of cells in the amniotic fluid and, with 4.5 million births annually in the U.S. alone, could be obtained by many more laboratories, he said.
If further experiments show that the amniotic stem cells can make tissues that will function in human nerves, liver, heart or other organs, banks of them could be established to provide treatment, he said.
``These are still very early days,'' Harvard's Chien said. ``A lot of steps have to be taken before we know that these cells are useful and can be produced in sufficient quantities, but this is the beginning of a different approach.''
The amniotic cells don't carry the same ethical and political concerns as stem cells harvested in a way that requires destruction of embryos. They also are easier to work on in the laboratory than adult stem cells, and may be able to grow into a wider variety of cells, the researchers said.
The finding may help kick-start use of amniotic cells by companies seeking to develop therapies for disease such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's or diabetes. The amniotic cells are equally as capable as embryonic cells in forming fat, liver, nerves, blood vessels and other tissue, the researchers said.
``This is a third class of stem cell that is derived from the fetus and routinely available with amniocentesis,'' said Kenneth Chien, director of the cardiovascular disease program at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute in Boston and a Massachusetts General Hospital cardiologist. ``These cells are falling somewhere in between.''
Amniocentesis, in which a needle is used to remove fluid from the womb for testing, is routinely used during pregnancy.
Embryonic stem cells are the first cells created after conception. Because they can turn into any other cell type, scientists hope they may one day be used to help replace damaged or missing material in the brain, heart and immune system. The method for removing them from embryos has created a national political debate over ethics.
Hidden Stem Cells
Adult stem cells, in contrast, are hidden in tiny numbers inside developed organs. They grow into other cell types only when the body needs them to replace or help repair the body part they're linked to. As a result, some stem cell experts say the adult cells are unlikely to provide treatments for complex disorders such as Parkinson's.
Amniotic cells may be ``one more alternative among the cells that can be used for this kind of research,'' said Anthony Atala, the lead researcher, in a Jan. 5 telephone interview. ``Everything we have tried to date, we have been able to do.''
The study was published online yesterday in the journal Nature Biotechnology. Atala is director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Rolling Back Limits
Companies including Geron Corp. and Advanced Cell Technology Inc. are developing treatments from human embryonic stem cells. Democrats are preparing to introduce legislation that will roll back limits on research funding for embryonic stem cells that President George W. Bush set in 2001 because of reluctance to allow the destruction of embryos.
Atala said he discovered amniotic cells seven years ago and has been studying them ever since to make sure that they're ``pluripotent,'' meaning that they can form a wider variety of cell types than adult stem cells. The amniotic stem cells can also double in number every 36 hours, dividing at least 250 times without mutating, while aging-related structures on their chromosomes, called telomeres, remain intact, he said.
Using naturally occurring body chemicals called growth factors, Atala stimulated the amniotic cells to make brain cells. When he injected them into the brain-diseased mice, they connected with other brain cells and appeared ready to function.
Don't Form Tumors
One major difference is that, unlike embryonic stem cells, the amniotic cells don't form tumors, called teratomas, that contain a variety of cell types, Atala said. That may offer an advantage if the cells turn out to be able to regenerate tissues that are lost in Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and other disorders, he said.
``It makes sense because the cells are further down the line in development,'' he said. ``You don't see fetuses getting tumors.''
Lack of ability to form teratomas is an important distinction from embryonic stem cells, said Leonard Zon, a Harvard Medical School stem cell researcher who also works at Children's. Embryonic stem cells are unique in that they just one of them can reconstitute an entire organism, he said.
Atala's cells may be a form of adult stem cell called mesenchymal cells, Zon said. Aastrom Biosciences Inc., based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and other companies work with that cell type.
`No Evidence'
There's no evidence that research on the amniotic cells is a replacement for work on embryonic stem cells, which have shown the ability to replace cells throughout the body, said Eve Herold, director of public policy research and education at the Genetics Policy Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit research advocacy group.
``There is only one `card-carrying' pluripotent human embryonic stem cell,'' she said in a statement distributed by PR Newswire. ``Patients demanding cures must reject any attempted spin on this story claiming the work with fetal cells is an actual alternative to current embryonic stem cell research.''
Several laboratories have already used amniotic cells to make muscle, bone, cartilage and tendons, as well as heart, nerve and liver cells, said Dario Fauza, a Harvard Medical School professor of surgery at Children's Hospital in Boston, in a telephone interview today. Fauza said he proposed using the cells for treatment in 2001 and has been trying to grow tissues from them to perform surgery on newborns and fetuses.
The study holds ``in-depth information on the previously known fact that the amniotic fluid holds unique stem cell populations,'' Fauza said in an e-mail today. ``The fact that different types of stem cells are present in the amniotic fluid has been known since the early nineties, though they certainly need to be better defined.''
Replicate the Work
Many laboratories have claimed to have found cells outside the embryo that share the ability to become a wide variety of tissues, said Jeanne Loring, a researcher at the Burnham Institute in La Jolla, California, who has been working with stem cells for 20 years. Other laboratories will have to replicate the work with the amniotic cells before it's accepted, she said.
``We're all very cautious because people have been wrong so many times,'' she said Jan. 5 in a telephone interview.
Laboratories across the U.S. and Europe are working with amniotic stem cells, Atala said. They normally constitute about 1 percent of cells in the amniotic fluid and, with 4.5 million births annually in the U.S. alone, could be obtained by many more laboratories, he said.
If further experiments show that the amniotic stem cells can make tissues that will function in human nerves, liver, heart or other organs, banks of them could be established to provide treatment, he said.
``These are still very early days,'' Harvard's Chien said. ``A lot of steps have to be taken before we know that these cells are useful and can be produced in sufficient quantities, but this is the beginning of a different approach.''
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Adults living with children eat more fat
Adults living with children eat more saturated fat -- the equivalent of nearly an entire frozen pepperoni pizza each week -- than do adults who do not live with children, according to a University of Iowa and University of Michigan Health System study.
This press release issued by Eurekalert says the finding was based on data from the federal government's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III. The UI-led study was made public Saturday, and the paper will appear in the Jan. 4, 2007, online edition of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.
Most family diet studies have examined how adults influence children's eating habits, but few studies have considered how children or their habits may be associated with adults' food intake, said Helena Laroche, M.D., an associate in internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and the study's primary author.
"The analysis shows that adults' fat intake, particularly saturated fat, is higher for those who live with children compared to adults who don't live with children," Laroche said.
This press release issued by Eurekalert says the finding was based on data from the federal government's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III. The UI-led study was made public Saturday, and the paper will appear in the Jan. 4, 2007, online edition of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.
Most family diet studies have examined how adults influence children's eating habits, but few studies have considered how children or their habits may be associated with adults' food intake, said Helena Laroche, M.D., an associate in internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and the study's primary author.
"The analysis shows that adults' fat intake, particularly saturated fat, is higher for those who live with children compared to adults who don't live with children," Laroche said.
FDA calls cloned meats, milk safe
By Jeremy Manier
Tribune staff reporter
Published December 28, 2006, 10:16 PM CST
Supporters of cloning livestock have maintained for years that meat and milk from cloned cattle look and taste the same as food that comes from animals made the old-fashioned way.
On Thursday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took that claim a step further by issuing a report that concludes cloned animals are as safe to eat as ordinary livestock. The FDA's official risk assessment could clear the way within the next year for approval of food products from cloned animals and their offspring.
In fact, the scientific review was positive enough that the main bar to FDA authorization may be an American public that tends to view cloning as a suspect and troubling technology.
Groups that oppose putting cloned animals in the food supply slammed the FDA report, arguing that there's been little time to study long-term health effects of cloning or its effects on food. The first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep, was born in 1996, and since then agricultural researchers have cloned pigs, cattle and goats, though always in small numbers.
The FDA's report concluded that studies have found no difference in the composition of food from cloned animals versus their normal counterparts.
"Meat and milk from clones and their offspring are as safe as food we eat every day," said Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's center for veterinary medicine.
Cloned animals are expensive to produce, and it's unlikely that significant amounts of meat or milk from such livestock would go directly into the food supply. Instead, agricultural companies envision cloning as a breeding tool. Breeders would clone prize specimens and then use each clone to yield offspring through conventional breeding techniques.
Concern over health issues
But consumer groups that oppose cloning said studies suggest the technique may result in health problems for some animals. Activists contend that some clones have weakened immune systems and may require more drugs to be free of disease-causing bacteria such as E. coli.
Many opponents also were troubled by the FDA's indication that it would not require labeling of food derived from cloned animals. A fact sheet the FDA provided for consumers states there is "no science-based reason" for using labels to identify food from clones.
Even if that's true, labeling "doesn't have to be for any scientific reasons," said Michael Hansen, senior scientist at Consumers Union, the non-profit organization that publishes Consumer Reports. Some consumers, he said, object to genetic tampering of any kind.
"A lot of people oppose cloning for [personal] reasons, and they'd want to know if this is in their food," he said. "Those reasons are perfectly valid."
Aware of the negative gut reaction many people have to using clones in the food supply, the FDA issued responses Thursday to what it called cloning myths. The agency's material compares clones to identical twins, describing the latter as "naturally occurring clones."
It's true that both clones and identical twins have duplicate complements of DNA, the chemical code that passes on inherited traits. But clones are produced quite differently than normal identical twins, and that technique is the source of researchers' questions about cloning's health effects.
Scientists make clones by removing the DNA from an egg cell and replacing it with DNA from the cell of an adult. The cloning process appears to reset the adult's genetic code so that it can execute the developmental program of an embryo, but that transformation may not be perfect in all cases. Some scientists believe the embryonic clone may use, or "express," its genes in ways that could affect the clone's health when it grows up.
Perhaps because of those differences in gene expression, most embryonic clones do not survive to birth, though experts say the rate has improved as researchers learn more.
Cloned cattle and sheep also are prone to a problem called large offspring syndrome, in which the fetus grows to an abnormally large size. But that issue is not unique to cloning; it also arises in animals produced by other techniques, such as in-vitro fertilization.
For the purposes of the FDA's risk analysis, the agency was especially interested in the composition of milk and meat taken from cloned animals. The agency looked at studies that compared clones with normal animals on numerous chemical measures, including levels of proteins, amino acids, fatty acids and vitamins. The data came from companies that are producing cloned animals, as well as from academic and government researchers.
'Identical to normal animals'
The comparisons showed that cloned animals were practically indistinguishable from ordinary ones, said Matthew Wheeler, a researcher in animal reproduction technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who was one of three external peer reviewers of the FDA report.
"It's quite clear that in the animals that were presented, the compositional analysis was identical to that of the normal animals," Wheeler said.
Wheeler agreed with critics of the FDA report that there should be more extensive studies on the safety of cloned food products, but he said it would be impractical to wait decades until all the results are in. He also said the FDA's critics are right about the need for labels.
"This technology does have some advantages, and I truly believe that, but I also think the public has a right to know," Wheeler said.
A taste of what might happen if cloned food products get final approval can be found in the freezers at Cyagra Inc., an Elizabethtown, Pa., company that has produced animal clones on a small scale since 2001. Steve Mower, director of marketing for the company, said he and his co-workers decided to try the meat themselves after the company slaughtered 11 cloned cattle as part of a meat analysis study.
"I've been eating cloned beef for two years now, and I can tell you there's no difference," Mower said. "I'm still as overweight now as I was then."
jmanier@tribune.com
jmanier@tribune.com
Tribune staff reporter
Published December 28, 2006, 10:16 PM CST
Supporters of cloning livestock have maintained for years that meat and milk from cloned cattle look and taste the same as food that comes from animals made the old-fashioned way.
On Thursday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took that claim a step further by issuing a report that concludes cloned animals are as safe to eat as ordinary livestock. The FDA's official risk assessment could clear the way within the next year for approval of food products from cloned animals and their offspring.
In fact, the scientific review was positive enough that the main bar to FDA authorization may be an American public that tends to view cloning as a suspect and troubling technology.
Groups that oppose putting cloned animals in the food supply slammed the FDA report, arguing that there's been little time to study long-term health effects of cloning or its effects on food. The first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep, was born in 1996, and since then agricultural researchers have cloned pigs, cattle and goats, though always in small numbers.
The FDA's report concluded that studies have found no difference in the composition of food from cloned animals versus their normal counterparts.
"Meat and milk from clones and their offspring are as safe as food we eat every day," said Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's center for veterinary medicine.
Cloned animals are expensive to produce, and it's unlikely that significant amounts of meat or milk from such livestock would go directly into the food supply. Instead, agricultural companies envision cloning as a breeding tool. Breeders would clone prize specimens and then use each clone to yield offspring through conventional breeding techniques.
Concern over health issues
But consumer groups that oppose cloning said studies suggest the technique may result in health problems for some animals. Activists contend that some clones have weakened immune systems and may require more drugs to be free of disease-causing bacteria such as E. coli.
Many opponents also were troubled by the FDA's indication that it would not require labeling of food derived from cloned animals. A fact sheet the FDA provided for consumers states there is "no science-based reason" for using labels to identify food from clones.
Even if that's true, labeling "doesn't have to be for any scientific reasons," said Michael Hansen, senior scientist at Consumers Union, the non-profit organization that publishes Consumer Reports. Some consumers, he said, object to genetic tampering of any kind.
"A lot of people oppose cloning for [personal] reasons, and they'd want to know if this is in their food," he said. "Those reasons are perfectly valid."
Aware of the negative gut reaction many people have to using clones in the food supply, the FDA issued responses Thursday to what it called cloning myths. The agency's material compares clones to identical twins, describing the latter as "naturally occurring clones."
It's true that both clones and identical twins have duplicate complements of DNA, the chemical code that passes on inherited traits. But clones are produced quite differently than normal identical twins, and that technique is the source of researchers' questions about cloning's health effects.
Scientists make clones by removing the DNA from an egg cell and replacing it with DNA from the cell of an adult. The cloning process appears to reset the adult's genetic code so that it can execute the developmental program of an embryo, but that transformation may not be perfect in all cases. Some scientists believe the embryonic clone may use, or "express," its genes in ways that could affect the clone's health when it grows up.
Perhaps because of those differences in gene expression, most embryonic clones do not survive to birth, though experts say the rate has improved as researchers learn more.
Cloned cattle and sheep also are prone to a problem called large offspring syndrome, in which the fetus grows to an abnormally large size. But that issue is not unique to cloning; it also arises in animals produced by other techniques, such as in-vitro fertilization.
For the purposes of the FDA's risk analysis, the agency was especially interested in the composition of milk and meat taken from cloned animals. The agency looked at studies that compared clones with normal animals on numerous chemical measures, including levels of proteins, amino acids, fatty acids and vitamins. The data came from companies that are producing cloned animals, as well as from academic and government researchers.
'Identical to normal animals'
The comparisons showed that cloned animals were practically indistinguishable from ordinary ones, said Matthew Wheeler, a researcher in animal reproduction technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who was one of three external peer reviewers of the FDA report.
"It's quite clear that in the animals that were presented, the compositional analysis was identical to that of the normal animals," Wheeler said.
Wheeler agreed with critics of the FDA report that there should be more extensive studies on the safety of cloned food products, but he said it would be impractical to wait decades until all the results are in. He also said the FDA's critics are right about the need for labels.
"This technology does have some advantages, and I truly believe that, but I also think the public has a right to know," Wheeler said.
A taste of what might happen if cloned food products get final approval can be found in the freezers at Cyagra Inc., an Elizabethtown, Pa., company that has produced animal clones on a small scale since 2001. Steve Mower, director of marketing for the company, said he and his co-workers decided to try the meat themselves after the company slaughtered 11 cloned cattle as part of a meat analysis study.
"I've been eating cloned beef for two years now, and I can tell you there's no difference," Mower said. "I'm still as overweight now as I was then."
jmanier@tribune.com
jmanier@tribune.com
Vietnam reports first suspected bird flu cases in humans in a year
HANOI, Vietnam: Four members of a family in southern Vietnam have been hospitalized with symptoms of bird flu, a doctor said Saturday, the first suspected human cases in the country in more than a year.
A 36-year-old woman and her three children aged three to 13 were admitted to Nam Can Hospital in Ca Mau province this past week with fevers, coughing, decreased white blood cells and damaged lungs, said Ho Van Van, a doctor at the hospital.
The family had four chickens and five ducks, and ate one of the chickens, which had fallen sick and died, on Dec. 23, he said.
Swab samples from the four patients are being tested for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, Van said. Health officials have disinfected the family's house and neighborhood, he added.
Vietnam has been widely seen as a model for how to fight bird flu using extensive vaccinations of poultry, careful surveillance and slaughters of birds in affected areas.
However, earlier this month, it reported its first bird flu outbreaks in poultry in a year in Ca Mau and two other provinces in the Mekong Delta.
The outbreaks killed or forced the slaughter of more than 13,000 birds in the three provinces.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung decided on Friday to send 11 Cabinet members to the provinces to direct the fight against bird flu, Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan (People) reported Saturday.
Vietnam has recorded at least 42 human deaths from the H5N1 virus since late 2003, according to the World Health Organization. The country's last reports human case was in November 2005.
At least 157 people out of 261 known to have been infected with H5N1 worldwide have died, WHO says.
Most of those who died came into direct contact with sick birds, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that can be easily passed among people, potentially sparking a pandemic.
A 36-year-old woman and her three children aged three to 13 were admitted to Nam Can Hospital in Ca Mau province this past week with fevers, coughing, decreased white blood cells and damaged lungs, said Ho Van Van, a doctor at the hospital.
The family had four chickens and five ducks, and ate one of the chickens, which had fallen sick and died, on Dec. 23, he said.
Swab samples from the four patients are being tested for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, Van said. Health officials have disinfected the family's house and neighborhood, he added.
Vietnam has been widely seen as a model for how to fight bird flu using extensive vaccinations of poultry, careful surveillance and slaughters of birds in affected areas.
However, earlier this month, it reported its first bird flu outbreaks in poultry in a year in Ca Mau and two other provinces in the Mekong Delta.
The outbreaks killed or forced the slaughter of more than 13,000 birds in the three provinces.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung decided on Friday to send 11 Cabinet members to the provinces to direct the fight against bird flu, Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan (People) reported Saturday.
Vietnam has recorded at least 42 human deaths from the H5N1 virus since late 2003, according to the World Health Organization. The country's last reports human case was in November 2005.
At least 157 people out of 261 known to have been infected with H5N1 worldwide have died, WHO says.
Most of those who died came into direct contact with sick birds, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that can be easily passed among people, potentially sparking a pandemic.
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