•  bangalore
• Tuesday, February 15, 2011
• Inter Press Service

Hundreds of patients are now streaming into stem cell therapy clinics all over India, despite the controversy surrounding stem cell research and even though, doctors say, no one has yet been cured by this technology.

With a 2 percent share of the 56-billion dollar world market, India enjoys one of the highest growth rates in stem cell treatment and is widely perceived to be a centre of stem cell work. But scientists across the board say successful treatments are a long way away and ethical questions, apart from health and scientific ones, have yet to be fully addressed.

'It’s a rather uncritical explanation that we’re already there,' says Dr. Jyotsna Dhawan, Dean of the Bangalore-based Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. 'There is a big gap between reality and potential in the field worldwide.'

One reason for the fuss surrounding stem cell therapy is its potential to address a plethora of medical conditions. Stem cells are cells capable of renewing themselves through cell division, with research now focused on those taken from human embryos and umbilical cord blood.

In India, 22 public and seven private research institutions are authorised to conduct stem cell research. The only stem cell therapy treatment tried and tested so far is bone marrow transplantation, allowed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Nevertheless, several hospitals and clinics across major cities in India have treatments for neurological, cardiological and reproductive areas of medicine, the largest number being in central nervous system diseases and in soft tissue repair.

In 2007, India brought out a set of guidelines on conducting stem cell research, but the guidelines are not legally binding and have no power to curb clinical implementation of stem cell therapy. Only 15 clinical trials have been officially registered so far. Dhawan said several of these went well, such as stem cell research using corneal epithelium conducted by the LV Prasad Institute in Hyderabad.

But unregistered work and treatment are being conducted in various places in India. The most prominent of these is in the New Delhi-based Nutech Mediworld clinic set up by Dr. Geeta Shroff which treats patients, many of them from abroad, through human embryonic stem cells.

Shroff’s brochure says she has not had a single patient showing any adverse side effects. 'I would have forgiven (stem cell therapy clinics) if their objective was to treat a patient,' says Dr. Pushpa Bhargav, senior scientist and former director of the Hyderabad-based Centre for Molecular Biology. 'But the patients are being used for money. How many in India have been cured? None that I know of.'

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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