There's no great alternative to fetal tissue

Fetal tissue research has always been contentious — and even more so in this political environment. However, scientists warn, there simply isn’t a good replacement for these controversial cells.

That didn't stop the NIH from recently ringing up University of Wisconsin transplantation professor Will Burlingham, asking if he’d be interested in a little extra cash in exchange for creating humanized laboratory mice. His animals are outfitted with a human-like immune system — and the NIH hopes they may be able to supplant fetal tissue that comes from abortions.

But there are reasons why it's not that simple.

“The consensus is that there are certain things about fetal tissue that make [it] unique,” Paul Knoepfler, a professor at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, told STAT. “Certain experiments can really only be done on actual fetal tissue.”

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