Human fetal tissue long used in research, including Polio breakthrough

Science

Human fetal tissue long used in research, including Polio breakthrough

Controversy over Planned Parenthood’s supplying fetal tissue for research has focused attention on a little-discussed aspect of science. Some of the organization’s affiliates, in fewer than five states, provide the tissue, according to Planned Parenthood. Tissue from elective abortions and miscarriages is used for a wide variety of purposes. Scientists who want to regenerate organs and tissues may use it to learn how the human body makes them in the first place. Others look for defects in early development that can cause disease or miscarriage, or study normal development, which can guide therapeutic strategies. The tissue is also used to learn how medicines or toxins affect a fetus.

The use of fetal tissue isn’t a new idea. Scientists have worked with it since the 1930s. The 1954 Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded for work with fetal tissue that led to developing a vaccine against polio. The National Institutes of Health spent $76 million on human fetal tissue research in fiscal 2014. It’s being used right now in research on AIDS and muscular dystrophy, for example. Some experimental treatments for spinal cord injury and macular degeneration involve transplanting fetal cells into patients. And European researchers recently began a study of putting fetal tissue into patients’ brains to treat Parkinson’s disease, a strategy that has had mixed results in the past.