Altered nuclear transfer - A way forward for embryonic stem cell research
Altered nuclear transfer - A way forward for embryonic stem cell research
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DOI：
10.1385/scr:1:4:293
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发表时间：
2005-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Hurlbut, William B.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Hurlbut, William B.
目前关于人类胚胎道德地位的冲突反映了我们基本信念的深刻分歧，不太可能通过审议或辩论来解决。虽然目前没有联邦立法限制使用私人资金进行这项研究，但科学界有一个共识，即如果没有NIH对新创建的胚胎干细胞系的支持，这一重要研究领域的进展将受到严重限制。2005年5月，总统生物伦理理事会的一份报告《多能干细胞的替代来源》概述了在不破坏人类胚胎的情况下获得多能干细胞的几项建议。这些方法之一，改变的核移植，提出使用体细胞核移植（SCNT）技术，但具有先发制人的遗传或表观遗传改变，排除了自然胚胎发生所必需的整合和协调组织。借鉴系统生物学的见解，探讨全能性（形成整个生物体的能力）和多能性（形成所有细胞类型的能力）之间的区别。这一区别的含义是用来讨论的道德论点的不可侵犯的新生的人类生命和道德地位的实体只有部分和无组织的发展潜力。提出了在干细胞研究和发育生物学研究的更广泛的竞技场中可能打开前进的积极途径。
The present conflict over the moral status of the human embryo reflects deep differences in our basic convictions and is unlikely to be resolved through deliberation or debate. While there are currently no federally legislated constraints on the use of private funds for this research, there is a consensus opinion in the scientific community that without NIH support for newly created embryonic stem cell lines, progress in this important realm of research will be severely constrained. A May, 2005, report by the President's Council on Bioethics, "Alternative Sources of Pluripotent Stem Cells," outlines several proposals for obtaining pluripotent stem cells without the destruction of human embryos. One of these methods, Altered Nuclear Transfer, proposes to use the technology of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), but with a preemptive genetic or epigenetic alteration that precludes the integrated and coordinated organization essential for natural embryogenesis. Drawing on insights from systems biology, the distinction between totipotency (capacity to form a whole organism) and pluripotency (capacity to form all the cell types) is explored. The implications of this distinction are used to discuss the moral arguments for the inviolability of nascent human life and the moral standing of entities with only partial and unorganized developmental potential. Away forward is proposed that may open positive avenues of advance in both stem cell research and a broader arena of research in developmental biology.