SA scientists generate stem cells from adults

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has announced that scientists in South Africa have generated non-embryonic stem cells for the first time. These "induced adult pluripotent stem cells" were developed from adult skin cells and can be prompted to grow into any type of adult cell, such as those in the heart or brain.

The technology is important for research into regenerative medicine, but is not yet widely used. While the technology is not novel, the development of the capacity to grow these stem cells in SA is important for researchers investigating diseases affecting Africans, said CSIR post-doctoral fellow Janine Scholefield.

The CSIR replicated techniques devised by Japanese researchers in 2007. CSIR head of gene expression and biophysics, Musa Mhlanga, said cutting-edge medical research was not useful to Africans if knowledge was being created and applied only in the developed world. Musa said that given the high disease burden in Africa, the aim was to become creators of knowledge, as well as innovators and expert practitioners of the newest and best technologies.

The CSIR said that adult-generated stem cells were more acceptable to people who objected to using stem cells from embryos. Scholefield said that the other critical thing was the cells that would be grown were an exact genetic match to the person who donated the skin cells, the problem of tissue rejection would be circumvented.

Michael Pepper, professor of immunology at the University of Pretoria, said researchers were getting closer to using stem cells as part of routine medical practice, but were still a long way off from using these cells for degenerative diseases of the central nervous system. He said there were several hundred clinical trials using stem cells under way around the world, but most were still at an early stage. At present, the only universally accepted and routinely practised medical application of stem cells was bone marrow transplants, he added.

Tamar Kahn: Business Day, 22 March 2012