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Stem cells

US policies on human embryonic stem cells

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Abstract

The United States is a federal union with separate state jurisdictions. In part owing to the sometimes heated debate about public support for human embryonic stem-cell (ESC) research, there has been restricted federal support and little central regulation of this research to date. Instead, guidelines developed by scientific organizations have set principles for oversight and good practice for this research. These guidelines are functioning well, have influenced developing state regulations and, one hopes, will affect any future federal regulation.

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Figure 1: Derivation of human embryonic stem cells.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank A. Charo, G. Daley, F. Sharples, S. Stayn and K. Wilson for their helpful suggestions on the content of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Richard Hynes is at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA. rohynes@mit.edu,

    Richard O. Hynes

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Glossary

Chimaera

An organism that is composed of cells from at least two genetically different sources. The cells could be from the same or separate species.

Cybrid

A cell with a nucleus from one cell and cytoplasm from another. For example, it is possible to reprogramme a somatic cell nucleus by inserting it into the cytoplasm of an oocyte or another pluripotent cell.

Embryonic stem cell

(ESC). A primitive (undifferentiated) cell that is derived from early embryos. These are usually derived from the blastocyst (50–250-cell stage), but are sometimes derived from the morula (16–32-cell stage). ESCs have the potential to become a wide range of specialized cell types.

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell

A cell that has been derived from a somatic cell by reprogramming the nucleus to induce pluripotency, using exogenous genes or other factors.

Nuclear transfer

(NT). Replacing the nucleus of a cell with the nucleus of another cell.

Pluripotency

The capacity of a cell to develop into cells of all three germ layers (endoderm, ectoderm and mesoderm) and most cells and tissues of an embryo.

Reproductive cloning

The generation of viable organisms from cloned pluripotent cells.

Reprogramming

The alteration of the epigenetic programme of a nucleus or cell to change its differentiation capacity. For example, a differentiated cell of limited potential is reprogrammed by nuclear transfer (NT) or by the introduction of exogenous genes (currently using retroviruses but alternative methods are being researched).

Retroviruses

RNA viruses that are used as carriers or vectors to introduce genes into the genomes of cells. Retroviruses are used in basic research and have been used in gene therapy, in which they have been reported to induce cancer in a limited number of patients.

Somatic cell

Any cell other than a germ cell or a germ-cell precursor.

Stem cell

A cell that has the ability to divide extensively in vivo or in culture and to give rise to specialized cells.

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Hynes, R. US policies on human embryonic stem cells. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 9, 993–997 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm2528

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