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Stem Cell Research: Too Hot to Handle? Backers of a UNMC Proposal Cite Its Potential to Ease Suffering, but Regent Randy Ferlic Fears Political Heat.Medical Center Research Plan

Posted on: Wednesday, 14 July 2004, 06:00 CDT

A Nebraska researcher's plan to use human embryonic stem cells to study emphysema is not worth the political heat it would generate, a University of Nebraska regent said Tuesday.

"Our primary job is education," said Regent Randy Ferlic of Omaha. "This occupies just a very minuscule part of our mission, yet it will occupy a tremendous amount of debate and maybe ill will."

But an official with the group Nebraskans for Research said Ferlic, a physician, misses the point, saying the issue is the research's potential to help alleviate suffering.

Dr. Stephen Rennard of the University of Nebraska Medical Center has applied for a grant of up to $100,000 that, if funded, would use two of the stem cell lines that President Bush approved in 2001 for federally funded research. The cells come from embryos that were the result of in-vitro fertilization.

None of the embryos, officials said, were derived from abortions. Still, some people oppose stem cell research because it involves destroying embryos.

Bush restricted federal funding of such studies to research on stem cell lines in existence when he announced the decision in August 2001.

"While it's legal and falls within the Bush guidelines," said Ferlic, "I think it's a very poor political move on the university's behalf."

Regents Chairman Don Blank of McCook disagreed with the notion that the research would cause problems. "I don't think this particular application is going to raise much dander with anyone," he said.

Nebraska state senators who oppose stem cell research have tried repeatedly to enact a state law banning it at the medical center. Their efforts have failed, although they have succeeded in limiting how some state appropriations may be used.

Sanford Goodman, chairman of the public policy and advocacy committee of Nebraskans for Research, said Tuesday that he questions those who would be upset over the research.

"I think they need to look at the people who are suffering and realize this is going to benefit millions of people," Goodman said.

Rennard, 54, has spent his career studying lung diseases such as emphysema, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. He currently is using mice to study how lung tissue repairs itself.

Rennard has found that cells responsible for healing appear to be abnormal in lungs with emphysema and COPD. His theory is that stem cells could be induced to form normal lung cells.

Before Rennard's research could be conducted, it must be approved by the medical center's Institutional Review Board, an internal scientific review panel and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.

Approval already has been given by the first two bodies. A medical center spokesman said approval from the third group is expected next week.

The research could lead to the restoration of the function of damaged lungs. COPD affects more than 20 million Americans, killing 120,000 every year.

State Sen. Mike Foley, who has been a critic of embryonic stem cell research, said the matter "may be a controversy that the university doesn't need right now.

"I would prefer," he said, "that they continue their very fine work with adult stem cells that shows a lot of promise."

Rennard said he and his colleagues are studying adult stem cells for their ability to contribute to lung repair. He said, however, that "embryonic stem cells have considerable capability that adult cells lack" -- in particular, the ability to form new structures.

The medical center endured sharp criticism by conservative politicians, anti-abortion groups and Catholic leaders when The World-Herald in late 1999 reported the facility's use of brain cells from aborted fetuses. Another medical center researcher, Dr. Howard Gendelman, was using the brain cells in studies of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and AIDSrelated dementia.

The controversy led the university to sever its ties with Dr. LeRoy Carhart, who runs an abortion clinic in Bellevue and who was supplying fetal tissue to the medical center. It also led to the formation of a university bioethics advisory committee to set policies on using fetal cell and stem cells in research.

Gendelman's research continues with fetal tissue from the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, but he has reduced the NU center's reliance on fetal tissue.

The grant for Rennard's work -- from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute -- would come in over two to three years and was in response to a request from the National Institutes of Health. The medical center probably won't hear whether the grant request is approved until October.

Medical center research plan

An NU Medical Center researcher wants to use stem cells from human embryos created through in-vitro fertilization -- not from abortions -- to study treatments for lung diseases such as emphysema. The researcher intends to stimulate embryonic stem cells to form the specific types of specialized cells that are important to tissue repair. He would inject the cells into mice, where they could help regenerate damaged lung tissue. It is the first time UNMC researchers have proposed using federally approved human embryonic stem cell lines, the medical center said. The medical center continues to use fetal brain cells from abortions to study dementia in patients suffering from HIV, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

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