Strokes are responsible for more than one
out of every 15 deaths in the United States, according to a 2004
American Heart Association report. For every death, there are many
more survivors who must cope with symptoms ranging from paralysis
to speechlessness. Rehabilitation options are limited and often
involve a process of physical therapy that is grueling for both
patient and caregiver. Even then, results are modest and little can
be done to treat the damage done to the brain by the stroke.

Neurology Prof. Jack Parent is trying to develop a method to
treat this stroke-related brain damage directly by using stem cells
— self-renewing cells that can give rise to all other kinds
of cells in the tissue in which they are present.

Parent is studying the ability of brain cells to self-repair
after a stroke. After finding that the self-repair scenario was
less promising as expected, he realized that another strategy was
necessary and looked to stem cells as an alternative.
Theoretically, stem cells could be implanted into the brain and
grow into new nerve cells to replace the ones damaged by a stroke,
he said.

Stem cells are “a potentially unlimited source of new
nerve cells for the brain,” Parent said.

But before stem cells can have any therapeutic value, more
research is needed to understand why they differentiate into
different types of cells and how to use them to produce desired
cells in humans, Parent said.

Making this research possible is a grant from the
University’s year-old Human Embryonic Stem cell center. In
September of 2003, the University received a three-year, $2.3
million grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish a
human embryonic stem cell center—one of three in the nation.
The center awards three grants of $75,000 to scientists pursuing
embryonic stem cell research each year. The researchers also
receive access to three federally approved stem cell lines.

In its first year, the center has been focused on getting stem
cell lines to the University and establishing a proper environment
for research, said K. Sue O’Shea, a professor of cellular and
developmental biology and head of the center.

“For the first year we were funded, we spent a lot of time
getting stem cells in-house and establishing (research) protocols.
We’ve got to be very careful so that we don’t change
them in any way,” O’Shea said.

Now that the center has received and produced copies of its cell
lines, its researchers are producing valuable data, said
O’Shea.

“(The researchers) are coming along. They all have some
good things that are happening and it’s enough info to see if
it’s worth it to pursue it as a line of work.”

By providing funding and access to stem cells, the center will
serve as a stepping stone for scientists to receive their own NIH
grants, O’Shea said.

Beyond the science

Mentioned by both Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry
and his running mate John Edwards on the campaign trail, embryonic
stem cell research has become a key polarizing issue in an already
heated political season. Candidates have traded blows over stem
cells while party loyalties have been tested; While President Bush
has come out against embryonic stem cell research, California Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, came out in support of
spending $3 billion of public funds on research.

This initiative dwarfs the $25 million in federal funds
President Bush has provided for stem cell research and the $100
million a year proposed by Kerry. But the major difference between
Bush’s and Kerry’s plans — the difference that
has become politically important — is that President Bush
restricted embryonic stem cell research in 2001 to the 78 lines
then in existence, while Kerry supports unrestricted research on
unlimited lines.

Supporters of embryonic stem cell research argue that more lines
need to be developed and opened in order to unlock the true
potential of stem cells, while others question the morality of
destroying embryos to obtain the cells.

Working on the front lines of embryonic stem cell research,
O’Shea is quick to weigh in on the issue. The so-called
“presidential stem cell lines” are inadequate for
research because they are not pure enough to be used in humans, she
said.

“All the cells President Bush restricted us to use were
derived in contact with mouse embryo fibroblasts — that means
they may have mouse viruses in them … It is very unlikely
that the FDA will allow the early presidential cell lines to be
transplanted into other humans,” O’Shea said. The more
recently derived lines were not in contact with mouse embryos and
therefore are not contaminated.