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Embryonic stem (ES) cells are the cultured derivatives of the blastocyst inner mass, obtained at a time point when cells have not yet irreversibly committed to the ultimate differentiation programs that will lead to organogenesis. Though derived from the blastocyst, once removed and expanded they become an artifact of cell culture; ES cells as we know them do not actually exist in nature. Though they indeed harbor the genetic potential of an organism, this characterizes them no more uniquely than any other somatic cell, whether of the skin, the organs, the blood, or the brain. What does distinguish a stem cell is a genome relatively free of the methylation-associated restrictions that determine which genes can and cannot be expressed as development proceeds. Absent these restrictions, any cell can reveal its latent potential to differentiate into any other cell of that individual. This fundamental concept has led to the acquisition of stem cells not only from the blastocyst, but from the embryonic germinal ridge, and even from adult cells following somatic cell nuclear transfer, by which stem cells are in effect generated by nuclear transfer into enucleated oocytes.
Stem cells are thus the product of a process, and for that matter, potentially of a number of different processes. Yet does any one of these processes—blastocyst culture, somatic cell nuclear transfer, embryonic germ cell culture—yield cells that are any more sanctified than the next? Do or should they enjoy different levels of ethical concern or legal protection? Does any stem cell have inherent or even inalienable rights? And …
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Letters: Rapid online correspondence
- Reply to Pullicino et al
- Neurology and the stem cell debate
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