Subject: Amniotic Fluid Stem Cells Provide Another ESCR Alternative
Source: New Scientist; October 11, 2001

Amniotic Fluid Stem Cells Provide Another ESCR Alternative

Boston, MA -- Cells taken from the amniotic fluid surrounding an unborn
child and cultivated in a laboratory could be used to repair birth
defects, the New Scientist reports.

Scientists Dario Fauza and Amir Kaviani of the Children's Hospital in
Boston told members at an American College of Surgeons meeting on
Wednesday that they found "early-stage embryonic cells" in the amniotic
fluid of pregnant women. When "scaffold[ed]" together in a laboratory
culture, the cells quickly grew into connective tissue, which could be
used as tissue grafts to repair certain birth defects such as holes in the
abdomen or chest.

Kaviani said that "just 2 milliliters of amniotic fluid" can provide up to
20,000 cells, 80% of which are viable.

In 1997, Fauza and colleagues reported that they successfully performed in
utero surgery on ewes to remove cells directly from an unborn child, then
cultured and grafted excess tissue to repair tumor sites on the newborn
lambs; however, this surgical procedure was found to increase the risk of
miscarriage.

In addition to being safer for both mother and unborn children, the
process of taking cells from amniotic fluid yielded tissue that grew "much
faster" than the cells taken directly from unborn children, the scientists
stated . Since many pregnant women already undergo amniocentesis to screen
for fetal abnormalities, doctors could simply isolate cells from the test
fluid of infants with defects and save it for future surgery, Fauza said.

Fauza added that he does not know whether the cells found in amniotic
fluid are "true stem cells," but he said that they "proliferate very
quickly."

Referring to the controversy surrounding embryonic stem cell research,
Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, a tissue engineer at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, said that amniotic fluid is a "nice, unproblematic source"
for cells used to repair birth defects. Approximately one in 5,000 infants
is born with a "body wall defect" that might be corrected with a tissue
graft.