Stem Cell Research


 


Biotechnology and biomedicine have brought us many benefits. By raising the quality of life, they have made it possible for us to take significant steps beyond what even our parents and grandparents dreamed of. On the other hand, they have also raised many biological problems that contemporary man has to resolve. One of them is the issue of stem cell research. Stem cell research is best done using human embryos rather than any other types of human cells.


            First of all, a stem cell is a type of undifferentiated cell that differentiates into other kinds of cells in the human body. It has the ability to grow into any other types of cell – either a stem cell or other specialized types such as a brain cell or red blood cell. Because of this ability, the stem cells in adult human beings function as a repair system. When there are damaged cells in the body, the stem cells divide and replace the damaged ones. Adult stem cells are even used for transplants.


Researchers believe that many diseases that are genetically linked such as diabetes, diseases of the heart, and some types of cancer can be treated or cured simply by focusing on the stem cells. The process is to extract DNA from people who have these diseases and the scientists would then create stem cells with the genetic flaw. In effect, these could be used to grow other cells for comparison between normal and flawed stem cells.


            There are two ways by which stem cells can be obtained in humans. First is by extracting stem cells from human embryos and the other option is by extracting stem cells from other human cells from adult tissues. Either way, the stem cells can still be used for research without doing any harm. Adult stem cells and embryo stem cells both have similarities and differences, and for that matter also have its own advantages and disadvantages. In the next few paragraphs, these will be discussed, including why human embryonic stem cells are more appropriate for stem cell research.


Let us first focus on adult stem cells. Adult stem cells can be found in many tissues and organs in the body. A potential advantage of using adult stem cells is that these cells could be expanded in culture and could be introduced again to the body of the patient. Since these are the same cells containing the same make-up, there would be no issue of the new cells being rejected by the immune system of the body. This is on very big advantage of using adult stem cells for transplants.


However, although they are found in many organs and tissues of the adult human body, their numbers are still few. Adult tissues that reportedly contain stem cells are the bone marrow, brain, skin, blood vessels, skeletal muscles, liver, and peripheral blood. They can only differentiate into cell types of their tissue origin. For example, stem cells in the brain can only differentiate into new brain cells.


            One major disadvantage of extracting stem cells from other human tissues in an adult human being is that they are difficult to remove and are limited in quantity. Adult stem cells are very rare in these tissues that are already mature. When stem cells are used to replace tissues, a large amount of stem cells are needed and since adult stem cells are limited in quantity, this poses a problem during replacement. This is one major reason why it is not best to use adult stem cells for stem cell research. However, there is some evidence that suggests that adult stem cells not exactly be like that.


Embryonic stem cells, on the other hand, do not posit such problems. It is important to understand first that embryos used for stem cell research are obtained usually from frozen embryos left from in-vitro fertilization. There are ethical issues involved in this matter. However, for this paper, the argument is that stem cell research is best done using human embryos and not adult tissues.


            Embryonic stem cells have the ability to differentiate into all cell types of the body, unlike adult stem cells which have limited differentiation. Additionally, stem cells from the embryo can be grown in culture, thus proliferating them and producing a desired number of stem cells that are needed for a transplant. The only problem with embryonic stem cells is that transplant rejection could happen. However, this has not been extensively studied in laboratories.


            In conclusion, the main reason as to why stem cell research is best done using embryonic stem cells is simply because they are easily obtained and can be cultured to produce the large numbers that are needed.


 


 



Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com


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