Scientists 'exaggerated' claims about regenerative medicine

SCIENTISTS HAVE exaggerated claims about the potential benefits likely to come from regenerative medicine and the use of stem cells, the director of a research institute in Spain has said.

While major advances had been made with the technology, it was not going to cure all diseases, said Prof Josep Planell of the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia, who will join ethicist Dr Leen Trommelmans of the Catholic University of Leuven Belgium to address a session of the EuroScience Open Forum today, the last day of the conference. The issue concerns the promise and the reality of regenerative medicine.

Speaking in advance of the session, Prof Planell discussed the challenges facing regenerative medicine, which seeks to build replacement tissues after injury. Examples include growing replacement skin for use with leg ulcers or after burns, but also the use of stem cells to help repair damage after a heart attack. “When a tissue is damaged it leads to a scar, so the battle for regenerative medicine is against scars,” he said.

The ability to turn ordinary tissues into stem cells was a huge discovery he said, but researchers still do not know how they will react if introduced into damaged organs. “We have made a very big advance with [these] cells, but suggestions we might be curing all diseases – not at this time,” he said.

“I think expectations are too high because we don’t yet have the basic knowledge to deliver it. I think we should be more cautious.”

Dr Trommelmans talked about the lack of progress by ethicists in tackling problems associated with regenerative medicine and the use of stem cells. “So far, regenerative medicine has been under the radar, not much work on ethics has been done for it,” she said.

“Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine are very complex both in the process and in the products involved.” Stem-cell use posed an even greater challenge, she said. Those debating the issue had become extremely polarised.

“It is very unlikely we will ever reach a solution on this.” Even on the issue of tissue donation there were ethical questions to be settled, like the rights and duties of tissue donors and recipients.

It was essential to think about these issues and have an ethical framework in place before products begin to reach the market, she added.