By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The Vatican has agreed to provide financial support to help establish the International Intestinal Stem Cell Consortium, a project that will investigate the potential use of some of the most unique stem cells found in the human body.
ABCNews.com and the Associated Press is reporting that the Vatican has already agreed to fund at least $2.7 million to the project through its Rome hospital, Bambin Gesu.
“We are trying to explore stem cell research aside from embryonic stem cells,” says Dr. Alessio Fasano, lead researcher on the project and director of the Center for Celiac Research at the University of Maryland School Medicine. “Of the adult stem cells out there, intestinal cells are the most active that we know of.”
Intestinal cells are very active and replenish themselves every few days. They are also intricately flexible, meaning they are already programmed to generate a variety of cells such as mucus cells or epithelial cells. Even more appealing is that these cells can be harvested through simple procedures such as an endoscopy.
“We want to harvest them, we want to isolate them, we want to make them grow outside our body and see if they are pluripotent [can morph into any type of cell in the body],” Fasano said.
If they achieve those goals, the next step will be to move to clinical application.
The Vatican’s Cardinal Renato Martino said the Vatican is supporting this project because it does not involve embryonic stem cells. The Church opposes embryonic stem cell research because it involves the destruction of human life, but has always been a strong supporter of adult stem cell research and this latest investment is part of its efforts to find moral alternatives to embryonic stem cells.
“Rather than say they don’t want [stem cell research], it would be more logical to say ‘Is there a better way?’,” Fasano said about the Vatican’s investment, and believes this new project may be that “better way.”
But other researchers aren’t so sure, with some fearing that the Vatican’s involvement will ultimately lead to furthering the argument against the use of embryonic stem cell research.
“I applaud the Vatican for funding any type of research,” says Dr. George Daley, director of the Stem Cell Transplantation Program at Children’s Hospital Boston, “but this is another attempt to pit adult stem cells against embryonic [ones]” when the two are used in very different ways and have potential for different conditions.
However, Fasano is hoping scientists can tinker with the more versatile intestinal cells to make them just as pluripotent as embryonic stem cells. While he is not opposed to the latter, he says using stem cells from aborted fetuses or leftover embryos from IVF clinics “would not be my first choice.”
“If we can help people while respecting the life of the living and the unborn, we’re better off — but if we had no other alternatives, I would not be opposed to using [embryonic cells].”
He hopes to have a first answer on the feasibility of the project within the next two to three years
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