Opposition to embryonic stem cell research cites 65 diseases cured by adult stem cells; are they right?

David A. Prentice, a scientist with the conservative Family Research Council is one of the people advocating tight restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. According to an article in the July 15th Washington Post and a letter to the editor of Science magazine, Prentice's claims that adult stem cells have at least as much medical potential as embryonic cells are not supported by even the references he gives in his examples.

Shane Smith of the Children's Neurobiological Solutions Foundation in Santa Barbara, Calif.; William B. Neaves of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Mo.; and Steven Teitelbaum of Washington University in St. Louis went through Prentice's footnoted documentation and concluded that most of his examples are wrong. For example:

• A study cited by Prentice as evidence that adult stem cells can help patients with testicular cancer is in fact a study that evaluates methods of isolating adult stem cells.

• Similarly, a published report that Prentice cites as evidence that adult stem cells can help patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma does not address the medical value of those cells but rather describes the best way to isolate cells from lymphoma patients and grow them in laboratory dishes.

• And Prentice's reference to the usefulness of adult stem cells for patients with Sandhoff disease -- a rare nerve disorder -- is "a layperson's statement in a newspaper article".

"All told, the scientists concluded, there are only nine diseases that have been proved to respond to treatment with adult stem cells." (Washington Post).

The Post quotes from the Science letter as follows:

By promoting the falsehood that adult stem cell treatments are already in general use for 65 diseases and injuries, Prentice and those who repeat his claims mislead laypeople and cruelly deceive patients.

Prentice, in a brief voice message left for a Post reporter, is quoted as saying, "I appreciate them pointing out some of the things . . . that need to be changed and updated." But, the Post reports that "he accused the letter writers of 'mental gymnastics' by focusing narrowly on proven therapies, as opposed to the large number of diseases for which the value of adult stem cells is now being tested."

The issue of adult vs embryonic stem cell research has been discussed here in the Genetizen blog several times. To see these entries, adult stem cells in the search box on this page.

Marie Godfrey, PhD