Stem-Cell Advances Show Promise Ahead ; The Success of Studies Using Amniotic Stem Cells Shouldn’t Curtail Other Research Efforts.

New research being done on stem cells found in human amniotic fluid may unlock remarkable medical advances without generating the ethical battles that have bedeviled embryonic stem-cell research.

Studies at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina suggest the cells, found in the fluid that surrounds and supports a fetus in a mother’s womb, could be transformed into a host of different human tissue types.

Because stem cells can be chemically persuaded to develop into different structures, some scientists think they will eventually be able to grow replacement organs and body parts.

Amniotic cells can be easily isolated from fluid drawn during standard tests conducted during pregnancy. Since they don’t involve the destruction of fertilized embryos, their use is seen as less objectionable to those who believe life begins at conception.

One Boston researcher has successfully used amniotic stem cells to grow tissue later used to repair defective tracheas and diaphragms in sheep. He’s already petitioned the Food and Drug Administration for permission to use the same technique on children born with herniated diaphragms.

Yet it’s unclear whether amniotic stem cells are as flexible as those derived from embryos, which must be able to differentiate into all of the body’s different organs and structures.

Further exploration may determine that their utility is limited. That’s why it’s important that other lines of research continue unabated.

In-vitro fertilization techniques produce far more embryos than can be implanted in hopeful mothers, with the result that many are discarded.

The federal government’s ban on the funding of most embryonic stem-cell research is short-sighted.

In the fight against disease, doctors should have more options, not fewer.

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