Endocrine Insider
July 9, 2009

Earlier this week, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released its final Guidelines on Human Stem Cell Research.  NIH received more than 49,000 comments in response to its request for feedback on the draft guidelines, all of which are available through NIH’s Stem Cell Information Web site . 

The Society submitted comments on the draft guidelines, recommending that NIH create a mechanism to ensure that stem cell lines eligible for federal funding under previous policy would continue to be eligible.  Multiple respondents raised the same point, and NIH has created such a mechanism in its final guidelines.  The Society also recommended that NIH allow federal funding of research on hESC derived from somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).  NIH maintained the prohibition on SCNT in its final guidelines, stating that public debate about the ethical considerations of SCNT has been insufficient to date.  The agency stated the same reasons for prohibiting SCNT when last it revised its stem cell guidelines.

The guidelines outline the informed-consent requirements that must be followed in the donation of IVF embryos for the resultant stem cell lines to be eligible for federal funding.  In addition, the final guidelines describe a stem cell registry to be created listing eligible lines.  This resource is intended to prevent repeated approval procedures and to assist researchers in identifying hESC lines eligible for federal funding.