WASHINGTON — A special House committee empaneled to investigate fetal tissue research is preparing to issue 17 subpoenas to medical supply companies and laboratories, seeking the names of researchers, graduate students, laboratory technicians, and administrative personnel.

The House investigation into how some of the nation’s most prestigious universities acquire fetal tissue has prompted charges of intimidation and coercion, escalating a battle that some researchers fear could shut down studies seeking cures for Parkinson’s disease, the Zika virus, and a host of other conditions.

Representative Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, who opposes most fetal tissue research because of its association with abortion, intends to issue the subpoenas on behalf of the Republicans on the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives. The panel was created to investigate fetal tissue research after the release of surreptitiously recorded videos purporting to show Planned Parenthood officials trying to profit illegally from the sale of such tissue.

Several state investigations exonerated Planned Parenthood, and the videographers were indicted in Texas. But the House investigation spurred by the videos continues.

“We are going to review the business practices of these procurement organizations and do some investigating of how they have constructed a for-profit business model from selling baby body parts,’’ Blackburn said.

Federal law forbids profiting from the sale of human organs or tissue.

For universities, the House investigation has become deeply unsettling. University officials fear the release of the names sought by lawmakers could endanger lives if anti-abortion activists decide to target those involved in fetal tissue research.

On Nov. 27, Robert L. Dear Jr. killed three people and wounded nine at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, and said “no more baby parts’’ after his arrest.

Many of the schools and organizations blacked out names and other identifying information before submitting hundreds of pages of research documents to the committee.

But those redactions frustrated committee investigators and prompted the subpoenas.

Democrats on the House panel called the effort blatant intimidation.

“It’s one step further than McCarthyism, because McCarthy just threatened people’s jobs,’’ said Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York. “They’re threatening people’s lives.’’

House Republicans have tried and failed to cut off all federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

But some medical studies have been delayed or canceled because researchers can no longer acquire fetal tissue samples from their usual suppliers, who have grown concerned about the investigation.

Larry Goldstein, scientific director of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine in San Diego, told the committee on March 2 that a project to cure multiple sclerosis was halted because it had “basically seen supply of fetal material dry up completely.’’

Colorado State University suspended its acquisition of fetal tissue from “vendors implicated in the Planned Parenthood investigation pending the outcome of the congressional inquiry,’’ the university said in a letter to Congress in July.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston no longer accepts applications from researchers seeking fetal tissue from abortions performed there. Hospital officials took a week to explain the halt, which they eventually said was unrelated to the House investigation.

But citing the fatal shooting last year of a cardiovascular surgeon at the hospital, Brigham and Women’s insisted on knowing when The New York Times would publish this article so it could put additional security in place.

Democrats charge that the Planned Parenthood investigation is part of a broader pattern. Late last year, climate scientists accused Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, of “bullying tactics’’ after he issued a subpoena for internal deliberations on climate change at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Blackburn said intimidation was not intended.

“We all are concerned for individual safety,’’ Blackburn said. “It’s important to note that we have to have the names of some of the individuals who are carrying out these practices in order to investigate the practice.’’

Committee investigators say they have uncovered evidence of possible illegal profiteering, questionable consent forms, and inappropriate collusion between scientists seeking fetal tissue and abortion providers.

Medical school officials described the investigation as a “witch hunt’’ that could halt research on a host of illnesses.

“We’ve been trying to educate policy makers about why this research is needed and why it can’t be replicated in other ways,’’ said David Moore, senior director of government relations at the Association of American Medical Colleges, which sent a letter citing “grave concerns’’ about laws restricting fetal tissue research, signed by more than 50 medical schools and societies.

The American Academy of Pediatrics sent a letter to Blackburn noting that vaccines for chickenpox, hepatitis A, polio, rabies, and rubella are all grown in cells derived from fetal tissue.

Republicans have proposed several bills that would either ban or severely restrict fetal tissue research. “You don’t have to have the fresh fetal tissue,’’ Blackburn said.