Two new papers have just been published documenting further advances with induced pluripotent stem cells—stem cells that are “embryonic-like” but that are not derived from embryos. When the announcement was made about the successful attempts at creating induced pluripotent stem cells from adult cells in humans, I wrote an article for the Weekly Standard about how this discovering would mark “The End of the Stem Cell Wars.” These most recent papers confirm that induced pluripotent stem cells should allow peace for all parties—in fact, it appears that these cells are proving to be superior to embryonic stem cells in certain respects. One of the initial worries about the method, however, was that the viral vectors used to introduce the transcription factors that reprogram the adult cells to a pluripotent state might cause cancer. But one of the just-released papers, authored by Dr. Shinya Yamanaka–the researcher behind the previous ipsc discoveries–notes that the cancer risk can be overcome.

Here’s a summary of the Yamanaka results:

In this latest study, published in the Feb. 14 issue of Science, the Japanese researchers prove these stem cells are made from normal mature adult cells, and they show that these stem cells can be implanted using a retrovirus without fear of causing cancer.

“This is a real nice follow-up and confirmation of the previous papers that looked at inducing normal cells to become stem cells,” said Dr. Hugh Taylor, an associate professor at Yale University School of Medicine.

“The question that still existed from the previous paper was whether these stem cells were some sort of adult stem cells,” Taylor said. “This paper shows that these stem cells are fully differentiated adult cells, that they can be reprogrammed into stem cells,” he added. “You can probably take almost any adult cell and turn it into a stem cell.”

In addition, there has been a fear that using a retrovirus to implant stem cells results in an increased risk of cancer. This study showed that doesn’t happen, Taylor said. “It proves, without a doubt, that these cells are safe for human use,” he noted.

However, Taylor thinks the cells need to be studied over a longer period to ensure they don’t have an elevated cancer risk.

“It will still take years of basic research before we become able to use iPS cells to treat patients,” said lead researcher Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, from Kyoto University in Japan. “We are doing our best to bring it to clinics as quick as possible.”

Here is the paper.

The second paper, from a team of researchers at Harvard, does some important background work in the reprograming methodology. Science Daily summarizes:

Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers have taken a major step toward eventually being able to reprogram adult cells to an embryonic stem cell-like state without the use of viruses or cancer-causing genes.

In a paper released online today by the journal Cell Stem Cell, Konrad Hochedlinger and colleagues report that they have discovered how long adult cells need to be exposed to reprogramming factors before they convert to an embryonic-like state, and have “defined the sequence of events that occur during reprogramming.”

The full paper is here.

What was common sense for my grandmother.

Science Daily reports:

Active father figures have a key role to play in reducing behaviour problems in boys and psychological problems in young women, according to a review published in the February issue of Acta Paediatrica.

Swedish researchers also found that regular positive contact reduces criminal behaviour among children in low-income families and enhances cognitive skills like intelligence, reasoning and language development.

Children who lived with both a mother and father figure also had less behavioural problems than those who just lived with their mother.

The researchers are urging healthcare professionals to increase fathers’ involvement in their children’s healthcare and calling on policy makers to ensure that fathers have the chance to play an active role in their upbringing.

The review looked at 24 papers published between 1987 and 2007, covering 22,300 individual sets of data from 16 studies. 18 of the 24 papers also covered the social economic status of the families studied.

“Our detailed 20-year review shows that overall, children reap positive benefits if they have active and regular engagement with a father figure” says Dr Anna Sarkadi from the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health at Uppsala University, Sweden.

The Daily Mail summarizes the study here. And you can read the full journal article here.

All of this should be well known to anyone who has read the “Princeton Principles on Marriage” (available online here and a review here).

LifeSiteNews reports:

65-year-old Raleane “Rae” Kupferschmidt’s relatives were told by doctors that she was “brain dead” after she had suffered a massive cerebral haemorrhage in mid-January. Her family had taken her home to die and were in the process of grieving and planning her funeral when she awoke and was rushed back to hospital.

In accordance with her own wishes, doctors had removed Rae’s breathing tube and were waiting for her to die. She was taken home from the hospital, and while friends and family gathered to say a last good bye, Kupferschmidt’s daughter Lisa Sturm used an ice cube to wet her mother’s dry lips. When her mother sucked on the ice cube, she thought it was only an instinctive reaction. She said, “I knew suckling is a very basic brain stem function, so I didn’t get real excited. But when I did it again she just about sucked the ice cube out of my hand, and I looked at my aunt and said, ‘Did you see that?’”

“So I leaned down and asked, ‘Mom… Mom, are you in there?’” Sturm said. “And when she shook her head and mouthed, ‘Yes,’ we all just about fell over.”

Rae was rushed back to the hospital and underwent surgery to drain the blood clot from her skull. After surgery, she recovered her strength and is now undergoing physical therapy and can walk with the aid of a walker. Doctors expect her to be walking on her own within weeks. Rae says she does not remember anything during her coma.

…

Doctors at United Hospital said they are amazed by Rae Kupferschmidt’s recovery. One told Good Morning America, “I’ve been here for ten years and I’ve never seen anything quite like this.”

Rae told Good Morning America, “God’s got something for me to do. When I learn it, I’ll unfold it and follow it.”

Read the entire report here.