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Monitoring Stem Cell Research 
Adult Stem Cells — Addendum (October 2003) 
For the President’s Council on Bioethics 
David A. Prentice 
Since initial submission of the commissioned paper, numerous 
additional published references have documented the abilities 
of adult stem cells to stimulate regeneration of damaged 
tissues. Just a few of the most significant are mentioned here. 
Mesenchymal stem cells engineered to express the Aktl gene, 
when transplanted into mice, demonstrated the ability to 
repair and restore performance of infarcted heart, essentially to 
a normal state.® Another clinical trial in addition to those 
mentioned in the paper has shown significant improvement in 
patients with heart damage, with reduction in the area of 
damage and improved heart function after adult stem cell 
treatment.^ Three more published articles support the 
existence of a stem cell in the heart and its participation in 
cardiac regeneration.*" Stroke damage in rats was repaired 
using human neural stem cells*^ and prostate was regenerated 
in vivo in mice using adult stem cells.® Another report indicates 
that human mixed bone marrow stem cells can contribute 
significant amounts of lung tissue in patients^ and pluripotent 
stem cells were discovered in the mouse inner eaif , which can 
form all 3 primary germ layers and might lead to potential 
therapies for hearing loss. Finally, bone marrow stem cells 
were discovered to have a protective as well as regenerative 
role in diabetes.* 
ADDENDUM REFERENCES 
®Mangi AA et al., “Mesenchymal stem cells modified with Akt 
prevent remodeling and restore performance of infarcted 
hearts’’. Nature Medicine 9, 1195-1201, Sept 2003 
^Britten MB et al., “Infarct remodeling after intracoronary 
progenitor cell treatment in patients with acute myocardial 
infarction’’. Circulation 108, 2212-2218, Nov 2003 
*Urbanek K et al., “Intense myocyte formation from cardiac 
stem cells in human cardiac hypertrophy”, Proceedings of the 
National Academy of Sciences USA 100, 10440-10445, 2 Sept 
2003; Beltrami AP et al., “Adult cardiac stem cells are 
PRE -PUBLICATION VERSION 
