Revolutionary Medicine: Stem Cells
By Shannon Gordinier
Stem cells are unspecialized cells derived from embryos or adults that have the capacity to develop into specialized cells and regenerate themselves. They can develop into all the specialized cell types that organize themselves into the different tissues and organs that make up an individual. An egg that has been fertilized is called a totipotent stem cell. This single cell is capable of dividing repeatedly and will ultimately contribute cells to each specialized body component. This means this cell will create more that will become heart cells, liver cells, bone cells and many others.
A three to five day old embryo is a hollow mass of cells called a blastocyst. There are inner cells of about thirty (about thirty inner cells?) in the blastocyst that are the stem cells. These cells, are known as pluripotent cells, meaning they have the capacity to develop into most of the specialized cell types. An adult stem cell's major function is to replace aging or damaged cells. Skin stem cells are constantly differentiating to replace the ones that naturally fall off, but many other adult stem cells remain deactivated until a tissue becomes damaged. Pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells reside in bone marrow and are very active, too. They regenerate themselves and divide into many blood cells.
Embryonic stem cells are donated with informed consent from the mother. Unwanted embryos tend to be from abortions, and it is great they are being used for a good reason because otherwise they would just be thrown out, or extra embryos created by in vitro fertilization for the treatment of infertility (<rephrase second half of sentence, it is confusing). The stem cells will continually divide, usually for about six months, and will be added to culture dishes for study. The original thirty cells will have duplicated and yield millions of embryonic stem cells.
There are three major areas of stem cell research. The first area seeks to discover and understand the steps in the intricate process of differentiation. Some diseases, such as cancer, or birth defects occur from problems during the differentiation process. Another area is exploring the potential uses of stem cells in drug development. For example, a cancer cell group can be made from stem cells to test how well an anti-tumor drug works. The last area focuses on the use of stem cells in the treatment of diseases and medical conditions.
Stem cells have a great potential in replacing organ transplants. Many people die because they are on a long waiting list for transplants. This is because there are many more people than there are organs available. Sometimes the recipient of an organ will have their own immune system attack and reject the transplanted organ causing them to shut down and die (them or the organ?).
People with Parkinson’s disease, cardiovascular diseases and burn victims could benefit from stem cells as well. Parkinson’s disease is when a person’s brain cells are destroyed. It is possible to insert stem cells, grown in a culture, into the brain and over time they will become functioning brain cells. This is the same for people who have suffered a heart attack. For burn victims, doctors will grow stem cells outside of the patients body and force them to differentiate into skin then graft the tissue back on. Effective transplantation of blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells found in bone marrow has been done since the 1960s. It can treat lymphoma, leukemia, and other blood inherited disorders.
Bone Marrow stem cell transplantation is very complex. First, several months of myeloma treatment is given to the patient to reduce the size the of tumor present. Following this therapy, stem cells are collected. Stem cells are generally harvested from the back of both hip bones from the patient. High doses of chemotherapy are given to the patient to eliminate more of the tumor. Next the stem cells are inserted directly into the bloodstream using an IV. They travel to the bone marrow and replace the cells lost during the chemotherapy. It takes two to four weeks for the stem cells to produce WBCs, RBCs and platelets.
There have been several successful attempts on transplanting stem cells into a patient. In 2008, doctors got a trachea from a donor but stripped it of the living cells and replaced them with the recipients own stem cells. Another was in 2011 when scientists created a plastic trachea and covered it with adult stems from the own patient. On October 21, 2014 a man was able to walk again after undergoing stem cell transplantation. He was paralyzed from the chest down where a knife had severed his spine in 2010. It took less than five weeks to completely reconnect it and about twenty five months of physiotherapy to be able to walk. Stem cells from his brain were grown in a culture then transplanted to his spine. Doctors repaired the nerves and used strips of nerve fibers from his ankle to reconnect the spinal cord.
Stem cell research has helped so many people world wide recover from diseases and live longer. Many people don’t like embryonic stem cell research because during the process the embryo is destroyed. What they don’t realize is that most of the embryos are given to scientists because the mother wanted an abortion so the unwanted embryo would have been discarded anyway. We need stem cell research so medical solutions can take giant leaps forward.
[photo, Joseph Elsbernd, by Dominick licensed by CC BY 2.0]
By Shannon Gordinier
Stem cells are unspecialized cells derived from embryos or adults that have the capacity to develop into specialized cells and regenerate themselves. They can develop into all the specialized cell types that organize themselves into the different tissues and organs that make up an individual. An egg that has been fertilized is called a totipotent stem cell. This single cell is capable of dividing repeatedly and will ultimately contribute cells to each specialized body component. This means this cell will create more that will become heart cells, liver cells, bone cells and many others.
A three to five day old embryo is a hollow mass of cells called a blastocyst. There are inner cells of about thirty (about thirty inner cells?) in the blastocyst that are the stem cells. These cells, are known as pluripotent cells, meaning they have the capacity to develop into most of the specialized cell types. An adult stem cell's major function is to replace aging or damaged cells. Skin stem cells are constantly differentiating to replace the ones that naturally fall off, but many other adult stem cells remain deactivated until a tissue becomes damaged. Pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells reside in bone marrow and are very active, too. They regenerate themselves and divide into many blood cells.
Embryonic stem cells are donated with informed consent from the mother. Unwanted embryos tend to be from abortions, and it is great they are being used for a good reason because otherwise they would just be thrown out, or extra embryos created by in vitro fertilization for the treatment of infertility (<rephrase second half of sentence, it is confusing). The stem cells will continually divide, usually for about six months, and will be added to culture dishes for study. The original thirty cells will have duplicated and yield millions of embryonic stem cells.
There are three major areas of stem cell research. The first area seeks to discover and understand the steps in the intricate process of differentiation. Some diseases, such as cancer, or birth defects occur from problems during the differentiation process. Another area is exploring the potential uses of stem cells in drug development. For example, a cancer cell group can be made from stem cells to test how well an anti-tumor drug works. The last area focuses on the use of stem cells in the treatment of diseases and medical conditions.
Stem cells have a great potential in replacing organ transplants. Many people die because they are on a long waiting list for transplants. This is because there are many more people than there are organs available. Sometimes the recipient of an organ will have their own immune system attack and reject the transplanted organ causing them to shut down and die (them or the organ?).
People with Parkinson’s disease, cardiovascular diseases and burn victims could benefit from stem cells as well. Parkinson’s disease is when a person’s brain cells are destroyed. It is possible to insert stem cells, grown in a culture, into the brain and over time they will become functioning brain cells. This is the same for people who have suffered a heart attack. For burn victims, doctors will grow stem cells outside of the patients body and force them to differentiate into skin then graft the tissue back on. Effective transplantation of blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells found in bone marrow has been done since the 1960s. It can treat lymphoma, leukemia, and other blood inherited disorders.
Bone Marrow stem cell transplantation is very complex. First, several months of myeloma treatment is given to the patient to reduce the size the of tumor present. Following this therapy, stem cells are collected. Stem cells are generally harvested from the back of both hip bones from the patient. High doses of chemotherapy are given to the patient to eliminate more of the tumor. Next the stem cells are inserted directly into the bloodstream using an IV. They travel to the bone marrow and replace the cells lost during the chemotherapy. It takes two to four weeks for the stem cells to produce WBCs, RBCs and platelets.
There have been several successful attempts on transplanting stem cells into a patient. In 2008, doctors got a trachea from a donor but stripped it of the living cells and replaced them with the recipients own stem cells. Another was in 2011 when scientists created a plastic trachea and covered it with adult stems from the own patient. On October 21, 2014 a man was able to walk again after undergoing stem cell transplantation. He was paralyzed from the chest down where a knife had severed his spine in 2010. It took less than five weeks to completely reconnect it and about twenty five months of physiotherapy to be able to walk. Stem cells from his brain were grown in a culture then transplanted to his spine. Doctors repaired the nerves and used strips of nerve fibers from his ankle to reconnect the spinal cord.
Stem cell research has helped so many people world wide recover from diseases and live longer. Many people don’t like embryonic stem cell research because during the process the embryo is destroyed. What they don’t realize is that most of the embryos are given to scientists because the mother wanted an abortion so the unwanted embryo would have been discarded anyway. We need stem cell research so medical solutions can take giant leaps forward.
[photo, Joseph Elsbernd, by Dominick licensed by CC BY 2.0]