Fetal Cell Research

Fetal tissue fact sheet

• UNMC’s fetal cell research seeks to understand how brain cells are damaged and to find ways to regenerate these damaged brain cells in neurodestructive diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and AIDS-related dementia.
   
• This research is very important to the state of Nebraska, which ranks among the top four states in the percent of people age 85 years and older. In total, these neurodestructive diseases affect more than 5 percent of Nebraska’s population.
   
• Alzheimer’s disease alone affects 4 million people nationally. That number is expected to double by 2030. Currently, about 77,000 Nebraskans have Alzheimer’s disease – enough people to fill Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.
   
• Research using fetal cells has been conducted nationally since the 1930s. For example, in 1954, human fetal cells were instrumental in the development of the polio vaccine.
   
• Most hospital diagnostic virology labs use cell lines derived from an aborted fetus as a diagnostic tool in identifying certain viral infections. These infections include viruses that cause influenza, diarrhea, encephalitis, meningitis and pneumonia.
   
• Other fetal cell lines have been used to grow the virus used for vaccines to prevent hepatitis A, chicken pox and rubella (German measles).
   
• During the past three years, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has provided funding for nearly 300 research projects in the U.S. using fetal cells. In addition to UNMC, at least 48 other academic health sciences institutions have received funding for fetal cell research during that period.  These research projects involve academic health sciences centers around the country, including such leading public universities as the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California at Berkeley, as well as neighboring institutions such as the University of Iowa, the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and the University of Minnesota.
   
• On February 1, 2001, a federal study headed by the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center found that fetal tissue implanted in patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease was successful in helping many recipients regain lost mobility or in allowing them to reduce or even stop their medications.
   
• On December 1, 2000, researchers at Harvard Medical School, Emory University, the University of South Florida, and Rush Presbyterian Medical Center in Chicago reported that five patients with Huntington’s disease demonstrated measurable progress at least one year after they received fetal tissue implants. Huntington’s disease is a degenerative neurological disorder that produces severe physical and psychiatric problems before eventually resulting in the individual’s death.
   
• At UNMC, a woman being treated for AIDS-related dementia directly benefited from fetal cell research. After fetal cell studies determined that ibuprofen could reduce the inflammation in her brain, she was given this drug in combination with others and made a remarkable recovery after being very near death. The recovery was written up in scientific journals.
   
• Data from fetal cell research conducted at UNMC and other institutions influenced the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to issue a Request for Proposals to better understand the role of the immune response in Alzheimer’s disease.
   
• UNMC has a long history of conducting research in neurodestructive diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. Only 5 to 10 percent of this research at UNMC involves the use of fetal cells. Other research areas in neurodestructive diseases that don’t involve the use of fetal cells include: numerous drug studies, a geriatric assessment program, and a clinic for memory disorders.
   
• Ordinarily, all of the fetal tissue would be incinerated and not used for any purpose. In this case, instead of discarding all of the tissue, a tiny sample of neural cells is provided to UNMC researchers.
   
• UNMC currently receives all of its fetal tissue from the University of Washington Birth Defects Research Laboratory in Seattle. This laboratory is funded by the National Institutes of Health and has provided tissue to scientists for nearly 40 years. Since its inception, the  laboratory has provided tissues to nearly 50 universities and research institutes.
   
• The University of Washington (UW) tissue program is a major supplier of embryonic and fetal tissue for NIH-funded investigators and operates in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations, including those of the American Association of Tissue Banks. The tissue program can supply tissues only for grant-funded research in laboratories based at universities and non-profit research institutes. The tissue comes from non-viable embryos and fetuses.
   
• With the UW tissue program, no inducement, monetary or otherwise, is ever given to either clinics or patients for tissue donation. Patients receive information sheets and, before donating tissue, sign informed consent forms. The donation of tissue is completely free-will. Tissues donated would otherwise be discarded. Laboratory personnel never have contact with any patient at any time.
   
• The UW provides the tissue only to grant-funded investigators at no cost. A $100 collection and processing fee is charged irrespective of the number of tissue samples obtained at any one time. No tissue is distributed to pharmaceutical companies or biotechnology firms.
   
• The collection and processing fee was mandated by the NIH two years ago to cover the laboratory’s expenses in collecting and processing the tissue. The same fee is charged to all universities and research institutes. Prior to this NIH mandate, the tissue had been provided at no cost and with no collection/processing fee.
   
• UNMC has made a strong commitment to finding cells from alternative sources other than elective abortions. It has been determined that rapid brain autopsies performed within two hours of a person’s death are the best option for procuring the necessary cells. UNMC has invested more than $700,000 to provide the infrastructure to develop alternative sources to the use of fetal cells in important research. An additional $100,000 was allocated in fiscal year 2003-04.
   
• Since starting its rapid brain autopsy program, UNMC has been successful  in procuring two of the three necessary cell types from the rapid autopsy procedure. The two cells obtained are the astrocytes and microglia, two of the support cells for neurons. Currently, UNMC has been unable to procure usable neurons from the rapid autopsy procedure. Neurons are the nerve cells in the brain that receive and send out electrical signals throughout the body.
   
• The rapid autopsy procedure has been performed on a broad age spectrum from neonates to people in their 80s. This has allowed UNMC to conduct a variety of comparative studies looking at changes in the brain at various ages – something that couldn’t be done when UNMC was only using fetal tissue.
   
• Contrary to the statements of opponents of this research, viable scientific alternatives to the use of fetal cells are not yet available in order to conduct the research ongoing at UNMC.
   
• Although federal law does not require institutions to review fetal cell research that does not involve patients, UNMC scientists using neural fetal cells in laboratory or mouse research requested a review of this research. The research was then reviewed by two campus committees, which included community members, and the executive committee of UNMC’s Institutional Review Board (IRB).
   
• UNMC researchers have attempted to share their research findings. More than 60  papers and an equivalent number of abstracts have been published in major scientific journals since the fetal cell research began eight years ago.  Eleven grants were awarded by national societies and the federal government to support these works. 
   
• Without exception, each grant was reviewed at least once and several were reviewed two or three times. Research findings have been delivered at regional and national scientific conferences as well as through meetings held at UNMC. These research presentations were delivered by students, faculty and fellows. 

• Tours of the laboratories and the Center for Neurovirology and Neurodegenerative Disorders (CNND) are available upon request. Since 1995, there have been several news releases on key articles and other initiatives.