Brussels, 06/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - In the context of the symposium organised at the European Parliament under the patronage of the chairperson of the Committee on Women's Rights, Anna Zaborska (EPP, Slovakia), attended by a majority of women MEPs including German Green member Hiltrud Breyer and the Italian elected Green representative of La Margherita, Patrizia Toia, Professors Colin McGuckin (University of Newcastle) and Eliane Gluckman (Hôpital Saint Louis, Paris) stressed the importance of the work conducted on umbilical cord blood and the enormous advantage that such research has from the ethical point of view compared to that on human embryonic stem cells.
Eliane Gluckman began by expressing regret that no project on umbilical cord cells had been taken on board under the financing for the 6th Framework Programme for Research and Development (FPRD). She deplored the fact that five years had been lost, trusting that the same omission would not be made in the next FPRD. Unlike embryonic or adult stem cells, the stem cells of the umbilical cord are already used and have allowed treatment for some 5,000 patients. Illnesses treated with such a method include leukaemia and lymphomia, as well as thalassemia and drepanocytosis. The most recent research has shown that the umbilical cord does not only contain cells with haematopoietic differentiation but also multi-potent cells likely to produce different tissue. This discovery opens the scope for research on cells which, just a few years ago, it was believed could only be useful in haematological indications. Eliane Gluckman presented a comparative table of the three kinds of stem cells. Embryonic cells present undeniable advantages in terms of capacity of differentiation, proliferation and autologus use or use against allergens. They pose, however, serious ethical problems and major inconveniences: great chromosomic instability, a high risk of cancer, and no short or medium term therapeutic application. Umbilical cord blood cells present comparable advantages and do not have any ethical disadvantages as they come from hospital waste. They are immature and entail practically no immunological reaction on the part of the receiver. There is zero risk of infection being transmitted between donor and receiver. The main inconveniences come from the very low quantity of non haemotopoietic cells (30%) present in the cord cells. Hence the need to improve purification and isolation techniques. Adult cells present more or less the same advantages but have more disadvantages: the need for invasive action on the donor, greater risk of infection, and possible rejection. Finally, adult cells age quicker and present limits in terms of capacity and duration of life.
Returning to the public and private activities of storing cord blood, Eliane Gluckman stressed that the United States Congress has recently voted aid of $79 million for US banks. She again denounced proliferation in the United States, Asia and to a lesser extent Europe (mainly in Germany and the Netherlands) of private banks which, in exchange for payment, store cordon blood with a view to very hypothetical use on one's own person. She urged in favour of support for European public banks that respect ethical rules (no charge and anonymity) and quality and security standards. “The competition of American banks terrorises us”, she admitted, stressing that they sell a graft at $25,000 when the cost of removal and conservation does not exceed $2,000. Another reason points to the development of European banks: the very great differences of histocompatibility (HLA) of American and European populations.
Although it is essential to make room for research on cord blood cells in the 7th FPRD (in three years' time under the 5th FPRD), the Eurocord project which “is begging to rise up from its ashes”, had been at the origin of no fewer than 70 publications), “this does not mean that one should give up research on embryonic stem cells, far from it!”, Eliane Gluckman exclaimed. Indeed, although such research is still far from having the prospect of therapeutic use, it is likely to bring considerable progress when it comes to knowledge in fields such as cellular or molecular biology or immunology.