"AIDS: Of Mice and Men"

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1992. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

"AIDS: Of Mice and Men"

Advocate (12/29/92) No. 619, P. 70
Solomon, Nancy

Abstract: The four-year-old ban on fetal-tissue research is expected to be lifted by President-elect Bill Clinton's new secretary of health and human services. For many years researchers have been implanting thymus tissue from human fetuses into mice that, due to a genetic defect, are born without an immune system. Such mice have successfully developed human immune systems and can therefore be infected with HIV. The mice are called SCID-hu, for severe combined immune deficient with a human immune system. Proponents say the research will pave the way for thymus transplants that could bolster the immune systems of AIDS patients. Fetal tissue research provides unique advantages because the immature cells grow fast once transplanted and have less chance of rejection than adult organs. The ban on fetal tissue thwarted research on thymus transplants in AIDS patients. In 1987, John Dwyer reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine that he had transplanted thymus tissue into 15 people in the late stages of AIDS. A total of 8 of the subjects experienced a temporary repopulation of T cells. He said that he doubted the transplants would replenish the immune system but using the transplants along with a virus-blocking agent deserves additional study. Some scientists say that it will take genetic engineering for thymic transplants to be effective. But Joseph Rossi, a molecular geneticist with the Beckman Research Institute at City of Hope, California, said, "If they have AIDS and you put in naive cells, they're attacked by HIV. You could do an immune reconstitution if you could genetically alter the naive cells to be resistant to HIV. That's the only way to do it in my mind."

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