He said it was still early days and the clinical potential of human embryonic stem cells and transdifferentiated adult stem cell was as yet unknown.
"It's not an either/or situation. Most scientists working with stem cells, whether embryonic or adult, agree that in order to find clinically viable treatments research must continue on both types. Judging from animal experiments, both cell sources may in the future prove useful. There have been spectacular results using embryonic stem cells in animal models of diseases such as Parkinson's and incurable brain tumours."
Professor Sunde said that experiments with human embryonic stem cells would also provide information about the chemical signals that the human body uses to induce stem cells to differentiate into 'local' stem cells. That information would be very useful for attempts to transdifferentiate adult stem cells in vitro.
"Even in a future scenario, where the clinical use of human stem cells is based only on non-embryonic cells, the development of the methods for such use will be facilitated by data from research done on human embryonic stem cells," he said.
He concluded: "ESHRE does understand that the issue of embryonic stem cells is a sensitive one. No one is more aware of that than our members who work with embryos every day. But, my message to those members of the European Parliament who would wish to make embryonic stem cell research illegal, is to talk to the scientific and medical community and to consider very carefully the effect that a ban would have on research and on society's hopes of finding new treatments for some of the most serious and distressing diseases afflicting mankind."
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Contact: Margaret Willson
m.willson@mwcommunications.org.uk
44-0-1536-772181
European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology
30-Jun-2003