The Stem Cell Debate: What Does It All Mean?
by What are stem cells? What role do they stand to play in research for cures and treatment for disease?
How can researchers get embryonic stem cells?
When couples go to an in vitro fertilization clinic they often have excess embryos that were not used in the fertilization process. These are later donated to research facilities. Therapeutic cloning of embryos is one of the major debate issues. In theory, scientists take a woman’s unfertilized egg and remove the nucleus. A male with a disease such as diabetes donates a somatic cell. The nucleus is removed from the donor cell. The donor nucleus is injected into the egg. The egg becomes a blastocyte and the stem cell collection can take place. To date, this has not been successful in humans. Another newly discovered technique has reprogrammed skin cells to become functionally identical to embryonic stem cells. This technique could end the arguments and research into therapeutic cloning.
What role do stem cells play in disease treatments and cures?
Stem cells, because of their capability to divide and replicate the specialized cells which can not replenish themselves, have the potential to replace damaged or dead cells (cell based therapies.) For example: In type I diabetes the pancreas cells that normally produce insulin are destroyed by the immune system. It may be possible to direct the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells in cell culture to generate insulin-producing cells. Theoretically, these created cells would be transplanted and cure diabetes.
Studying stem cells may hold answers to how conditions like birth defects or cancer come about.
By studying how to turn genes on and off using stem cells, scientists could identify events that occur during development which lead to genetic diseases. Stem cells could also be used to test new medications for safety.
Adult stem cells are already used in bone marrow transplants.
Dangers associated with stem cells
Embryonic stem cells require specific signals to know which type of cell it is needed to replenish. Otherwise, the stem cells will differentiate into many different types of cells. This results in a condition called teratoma (giant tumor.)
The stem cells could differentiate into the wrong tissue or be rejected all together by an immune response.
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Post Commentpro stem cell
On August 22, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Really great article. It was very informative and easy to understand. I am in favor of stem cell research and hope others see the outstanding pros.
Jie T. Elins
On August 22, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Thanks for the very informative article.
Lauren Axelrod
On August 22, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Interesting article and very well researched. Well done! A topic to get people talking.
hiho
On March 25, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Enjoyed reading your article Jo. I am a very strong supporter of stem cell research. The problems of real people with real illnesses and real-life difficulties far outweigh the “moral problems” of stem cell research and therapeutic cloning.