Print“When you look at the issue of stem cells in China, you see the Yin-Yang of a scientific powerhouse mixed with controversial clinical application of stem cell therapies.”
While the international research community condemns the practice of Chinese clinics administering unproven stem cell therapies to domestic and foreign patients, the Chinese government’s investment in regenerative medicine research is turning the country into a force in the emerging field. Chinese researchers have become the world's fifth most prolific contributors to peer-reviewed scientific literature on regenerative medicine according to a study by the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health.
The study, published in the journal Regenerative Medicine, says China is pouring dollars into regenerative medicine research and aggressively recruiting high-caliber scientists trained abroad in pursuit of its ambition to become a world leader in the field.
Chinese contributions to scientific journals on regenerative medicine topics grew to 1,116 in 2008, up from just 37 in 2000. That number of articles was surpassed only by contributions from researchers in the United States, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
The McLaughlin-Rotman Center study authors say the accomplishment is all the more astonishing given that China's international credibility has been and still is severely hindered by global concerns surrounding Chinese clinics, where unproven therapies continue to be administered to thousands of patients. New rules to govern such treatments were recently instituted but need to be strictly enforced in order to repair China's global reputation, the study authors say.
“When you look at the issue of stem cells in China, you see the Yin-Yang of a scientific powerhouse mixed with controversial clinical application of stem cell therapies,” says Peter Singer, McLaughlin-Rotman Centre's Director. “The overall picture at the moment is ambiguous but in the future, given the measures that have been put in place, the science can be expected to rise and the controversy to fall.”
Until May 2009, clinical trials to determine the effectiveness of stem cell therapies were not required. Now proof of safety and efficacy through clinical trials is required by China's Ministry of Health for all stem cell and gene therapies. The change was made after international experts, joined by top Chinese researchers, protested that treatment centers were acting against commonly accepted principles of modern scientific research and successfully called on China to regulate new treatments and ensure patient safety.
Despite the new rules, however, stem cell treatments are still available at over 200 hospitals across China to patients of diseases such as ataxia, Lou Gehrig's disease, traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, diabetes, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, autism, cerebral palsy, stroke, optic nerve hypoplasia and many others.
The study notes several Chinese firsts in the area of regenerative medicine and says among current research efforts are mid-stage clinical trials of cord blood stem cells and oral lithium to treat patients with spinal cord injuries by China SCINet, a consortium of 27 medical facilities. Other clinical trials are underway on the use of stem cell therapies to treat patients of heart attacks, artery obstruction, and liver and neural diseases. Elsewhere in China, studies are underway on the potential use of stem cells to treat Type 1 diabetes, Parkinson's disease, heart, liver and blood diseases, eye cataracts, and to combat aging.
“China is an important player in regenerative medicine," says Dominique McMahon, one of the authors of the study. “Despite the media's focus on stem cell tourism, the international community needs to recognize that Chinese researchers are making important contributions to the science of this field, and China should be included in international discourses on standards and regulations.”
January 08, 2010
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