HSC Research Paper
From brain cells to skin cells, our body is made up of 200 different types of specialized cells. One of the most versatile types of cell is a stem cell. Stem cells are cells that have not been specialized yet; in other words, they do not have a specific job. For example, nerve cells work to send signals throughout your body, while stem cells do not have any specific functions. But they do possess the ability to develop into all of the other different types of specialized cells in our body. With regenerative abilities, stem cells are capable of renewing themselves through cell division and when the stem cell divides to create another cell, the new cell has the potential to either stay a stem cell or differentiate into a
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For over 40 years, they have been used to successfully treat the cancers of blood, including lymphoma and leukemia. HSCs have showed a widespread of potential clinical uses and today, researchers continue to advance their knowledge of stem cells and dig deeper with hopes of widening the clinical uses of HSCs.
The first evidence of HSCs came from victims of the nuclear bombing in 1945. Research indicated that the victims, who died over a prolonged period, had compromised hematopoietic systems; in other words, their bodies were unable to regenerate either white blood cells to protect against infections or platelets to clot their blood. To further their understanding, an experiment was conducted on mice, in which they were exposed to radiation, identical to the citizens of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The mice, which were given the minimal lethal dose, died of hematopoietic failure during the two weeks following after the radiation exposure, similar to the citizens. Scientists later discovered that they could rescue the mice from hematopoietic failure by injecting cells from blood-forming organs of healthy mice. This discovery uncovered the importance of the hematopoietic system and its functions, such as the bone marrow’s role in the regeneration of blood and immune cells.
Early research of HSCs primarily focused on characterizing HSCs from other cells. Identifying and differentiating HSCs from other cells proved to be easier said than done,
Attempts were made to fertilize mammalian eggs outside of the human body and in the early 1900s, it was discovered that some cells had the ability to generate blood cells. In 1968, the first bone marrow transplant was performed to successfully to treat patient’s severe combined immunodeficiency. There have been many stem cell discoveries since the early 1900’s but the two majors were in 1998 when, Thompson, from the University of Wisconsin, isolated cells from the inner cell mass of early embryos and developed the first embryonic stem cell lines. Then, in 1999 and 2000, scientists discovered that manipulating adult mouse tissues could produce different cell types.
Many scientists believe that embryonic stem cell (ESC) research is the key to curing diseases such as cancer and HIV. Stem cells are so important to biomedical research because they are primitive cells that are capable of replicating indefinitely producing a multitude of different types of cells. This means that one of these pre-determined cells has to potential of becoming any range of over two hundred tissues with epithelial cells to blood and
Stem cells are cells that have the potential to become almost any cell in the human body, during the early developments of life. Stem cells have the possibility to generate all of tissues within a human as well. Each stem cell can either stay a stem cell or become a more specialized cell. The stem cells that are unspecialized are capable of renewing themselves or possibly being induced to become organ specific cells or tissue cells with special functions. Most stem cells have a constant supply to replace other cells that are injured, diseased, or even aged.
Scientists are interested in stem cells for their ability to become any type of cell in the body, a process called differentiation. Theoretically, this allows for limitless possibilities in disease
The first and most evident issue relating to HES cell research is that by obtaining the embryonic stem cells it destroys potential human life. “Scientist discovered how to derive embryonic stem cells in 1981” (What Are).
All blood cells and components have vital roles making it necessary that they are replenished continuously; this is achieved by haematopoiesis, where there is a differentiation of a population of pluripotent cells, known as haematopoietic stem cells. HSCs are unspecialised cells that can be differentiated into multiple lineages (figure 1) of mature blood cells (Park et al., 2015). Not only do these cells possess the potential for multipotency they also have the ability of self-renewal, making them a suitable curative to be used in transplantation. Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is an evolving technique which involves the intravenous infusion of HSCs designed to restore effective haematopoiesis, bone marrow and immune system
Stem cells have the ability to develop into many different cell types in the human body, and are used as an internal repair system. By dividing itself, the stem cell can create two more cells that have the potential to either stay as a stem cell or evolve into another specialized cell such as a red blood cell, a brain cell, or a muscle cell.
When these problems occur in a person's lifetime, stem-cell based therapies can be an opportunity to solve these tragedies in life. Treatments are found in the branch of regenerative medicine and have just recently been successfully tested-the first bone-marrow cell transplantation was performed in the year 1957-on live patients with cancer. These therapies are discussed in further detail in the"IIV Stem Cell Transplantation" chapter.
A procedure known as transplantation consists of the transfer of cells, tissue or organ from one part of the body to another or from one person to another (National Cancer Institute, no date). Haemopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are unspecialized cells that have the ability to self-renew and the ability to differentiate into the HSCs lineage (Figure 1) for instance as white blood cells (WBCs), red blood cells (RBCs) and platelets. Treatment for a range of haematological disorders usually requires transfusion and transplantation (Knight, 2013). To obtain HSCs for transplantation there are three main sources. They are the bone marrow (BM), peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) and umbilical cord blood (UCB) (Smith and Wagner, 2010). A haploidentical donor is another source where the HLA match is not complete and there is a match of one haplotype. HSCs can be transplanted by an autologous, allogeneic and syngeneic donor (Hatzimichael and Tuthill, 2010). HSCs transplantation is carried out to eliminate the condition by myeloablation (prevent immune system attacking/rejecting new graft), to prevent the body being attacked by the new immune system derived from the new HSCs by graft versus host disease (GvHD) and to avoid rejection of the graft by immunosuppression (Buckland, 2017).
Stem cells are a class of non-specialized cells that can differentiate into almost any specialized cell in our body. They have the remarkable potential to
These marrow failure syndromes include aplastic anemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, and acute myeloid leukemia all of which can only be cured with HSCT (Latour et al., 2015). If HSCT is not performed, the only remaining treatments are supportive. The process of HSCT is as follows: one and a half liters of stem cells and fluid are collected from the donor patient, usually from the pelvis, by needle aspiration. The transplant patient has to be admitted to a hospital ten days before the procedure to receive saline fluids, a central line, intensive chemotherapy, and immunosuppression. The chemotherapy can be with or without radiation and is used to ensure death of all of the damaged stem cells. Immunosuppression, by medicines or plasmapheresis, is used to ensure that the body does not reject the donor stem cells. After these steps have been completed, the donor stem cells will pass through a filter to remove bone fragments and fat cells and will eventually travel into the receiving patient’s bone marrow. The patient will stay in a sterile environment and will continue to receive transfusions until engraftment occurs. The patient’s platelets and red blood cells will fully recover in two to six months (Silverman et al., 2007). A case study done in 2005 reported that there had only been 24 stem cell transplantations for SDS patients. Of the 24
Robert Good of the University of Minnesota completed a bone marrow transplant between two non twin siblings. IN 1981, two scientists conducted separate studies on the embryos of mice and isolated embryonic stem cells. This was the first time anything of the sort had been done. In 1997, two Canadians discovered that leukemia comes from the stem cells that make our blood cells, supporting the idea that many cancers come from stem cells that are not working properly (2). In the last decade and half, the federal government has begun funding stem cell research, which greatly accelerated knowledge about this field. Recently, parents have started to store some of their newborn children’s embryonic stem cells in stem cell banks that can be used later on in life to regenerate organs and tissues if necessary.
that can be found in both children and adults. The difference between the two cells are the
Stem cell research is argued to be unethical and unnecessary, however, refusing to choose not to discover treatments for those who suffer is unethical and immoral. Stem cells are used for more than just research; once a specific study is complete and found to work, they use it on humans to treat diseases. Stem cells are used for development of many treatments for all kinds of patients. Stem cells are very popular in regards to patients with leukemia (Genetic Science Learning Center). Leukemia is a cancer of white blood cells which are the cells that are supposed to protect our bodies from diseases and foreign objects. With leukemia patients, their body is unable to fight off this disease. Chemotherapy and radiation are very common treatments for patients with cancer, however, it can be a very painful process for the patient (Genetics Science Learning Center).
Till and McCulloch described the two hallmarks of Haematopoietic stem cells to be long term self-renewal and the ability to differentiate into all various types of specialized blood cells, with one stem cell able to produce around a million mature blood cells after 20 divisions. The differentiation of these stem cells result in committed hemopoitic progenitor cells which give rise to cells from both the myeloid (monocytes, macrophages,neutrophils, basophils,eosinophils, erythrocytes, mega-karyocytes, platelets and dendritic cells) and lymphoid lineage (T-cells and NK-cells).