DAWN WALTON
The Globe and Mail
27 May 2005

http://tinyurl.com/bjufj

CALGARY -- Multiple sclerosis researchers are investigating how hormones and proteins can be used to trigger the body's own stem cells into producing myelin, the protective sheath around nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that is destroyed by the disease.

The use of stem cells in research has been controversial, but an international team led by scientists at the University of Calgary says it is breaking new ground without running into ethical roadblocks.

It's really taking a different view of how you can use stem cells. Rather than growing them and transplanting them, we're actually trying to get them to be part of a self-repair, an intrinsic repair, said Samuel Weiss, director of the university's Hotchkiss Brain Institute.

The Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada announced a $2.25-million grant yesterday that will fund further stem-cell research at the university in collaboration with the U.S.-based Mayo Clinic and the Montreal Neurological Institute.

At the same time, Teva Neuroscience Canada announced a $1-million grant to create an electronic database of medical records at Calgary's MS clinic, which has more than 4,000 patients. Canada has one of the highest concentrations of MS sufferers in the world; southern Alberta has one of the highest concentrations in the country.

The cause of the debilitating illness is unknown, but researchers have suggested it could be a combination of genes, diet and the environment.

Canadian and U.S. researchers are working on a variety of therapies to help keep myelin in the nervous system alive and healthy. They are also using magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, to monitor the progression of the disease and whether myelin will repair itself. Key in that repair is determining how stem cells, already present in the adult brain and spinal cord, can be targeted to produce new myelin.

Since MS occurs in dozens of places in the brain and spinal cord, transplanting stem cells seems fruitless, Dr. Weiss said. Instead, researchers have been experimenting with targeting stem cells that have already been located, and getting them to move toward the parts of the brain and spinal cord that need them. Researchers are discovering that administering proteins and hormones can get that process under way.

We don't pretend this is the only way stem cells should be generated. In some cases, it may be that embryonic stem cells are what [is] necessary, Dr. Weiss said. It's taking a bit of a different approach to using stem cells, but one that we feel is possible, is exciting, and is particularly relevant to MS as a disease.

Last week, scientists in South Korea created embryo clones of men, women and children for stem-cell research, raising a host of ethical questions.

Spare parts might some day be developed from embryonic stem cells, like those extracted by Korean researchers, because they can grow into any tissue type in the human body. But embryonic stem-cell research has come under fire from those who believe life begins at conception. They argue creating human embryos for research, but not letting them fully develop, is murder. In Canada, it is against the law to create a human embryo for research purposes.

Stem cells exist in adults, but only in small numbers. The challenge will be getting them to produce myelin where it's needed. Researchers said it could take a few years to determine if the process is effective in animal models, and years longer before it could be tested on people.

http://www.stemcellnews.com/articles/stem-cells-multiple-sclerosis_ms.htm