Essay On Stem Cells

Although tissue engineers and researchers have already succeeded with creating new skin, blood vessels, bone and cartilage, the more complex organs are difficult to reproduce because of their different functions. Researchers must also be concerned with the mechanisms of growing the tissue. For instance, the advantages and disadvantages are not yet clear for the length of time the cells should be exposed to the growth factors or the difference between growing the tissue outside the body or implanting the scaffold inside the body and letting the tissue grow there. Scaffolding and injectable polymers that form scaffolds in irregular areas (like bone fractures) are also being improved. Much more research is being conducted in order to grow the hearts, livers, breasts, kidneys, and other valuable organs that so many people need.

The goal of this process is strictly to harvest stem cells, resulting in the creation of “cloned organs”, which can be used to treat heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and cancer.

Organ donation provided a new therapeutic path when new drugs and devices failed to reduce the mortality and morbidity rate of patients with such illnesses as cardiovascular diseases. By replacing damaged organs or tissue with a functioning substitute, organ transplantation offers an immediate cure. Unfortunately, this “cure” is never guaranteed because of the high risk of graft rejection and that’s if a suitable donor can be found. Thus, tissue engineering has been the projected new treatment for these problems. Tissue engineering replaces the diseased or damaged tissue or organs with biofabricated counterparts made using the specifications dictated by the features of the specific tissue or organ.

Today there are nearly 5,000 people waiting for a donated heart. There are not nearly enough donated hearts to meet this demand. Unfortunately, many of these patients will die before a suitable heart is ready for them. Giving these patients a custom grown human heart is an option that would save many lives. Until very recently this was just a pipe dream.

surgical team had worked together to build a biomaterial to place in our patient to fix her

A few individuals with coronary illness and diabetes have gotten trial medications taking into account foundational cells disconnected from grown-up tissue, frequently from bone marrow, with shifting degrees of achievement. These mesenchymal stem cells, or MSCs, can develop into a few tissues including muscle, bone, ligament and fat yet there is no ensure that they will develop into heart muscle. This will left us with the answer to many people around the world why and how stem cells are stored.

In order to obtain relevant information to support this topic, databases including PubMed, Medline, UpToDate, and Google Scholar were used. Terms used in each search included and combined the following: mesenchymal stem cell, cardiac stem cells, HF, heart repair, ejection fraction, cardiac output, cardiac index, mortality.

Jonathan Butcher, at Cornell University has printed a heart valve that will soon be tested in sheep. With a dual-syringe machine, he was able to print a combination of alginate, smooth muscle cells, and valve interstitial cells, to control the valve’s stiffness.

Thump, thump… thump, thump… thump, thump. That is the sound of Nature’s most perfect machine, the human heart. It epitomizes the idea of natural engineering through its complexity and contribution to the vessel that holds it. But, can it be synthesized by the species that possesses and depends upon it? With the emerging 3D printing technology in the field of regenerative medicine, the answer may very well be yes. However, a question to consider before humanity embarks on this endeavour: do the life-saving advantages outweigh the various disadvantages?

For example, scientists at the Texas Heart Institute extracted stem cells and anti-inflammitory from fat tissue from a patient that had had a myocardial infarction. Scientists then injected the stem cells into the damaged area of the heart. They then studied patients with stem cell injections and without stem cell injections. From baseline to six months, they noticed patients without stem cells damage area increased by 5.1%, and patients with stem cells damage area decreased by 3% (Texas Heart). This study had positive affects, as did a similar one. Other scientists induced rats to have myocardial infarctions. They then extracted cardiac stem cells from the rats themselves and injected them back into the damaged area of the heart. Mortality rates decreased, and scientists noticed the aortic and myocardial walls became thicker to protect themselves from future problems (Beltrami, Barlucchi, Torella). From the use of stem cells, cardiovascular repair can greatly decrease mortality rates and increase quality of life for survivors.

There are a few different kinds of stem cells. These different type of stem cells depends on where it came from. As of now, there are only a couple sources for stem cell’s. The first kind of stem cells are adult stem cell. These adult stem cells can be obtained from specialized tissue in both children and adults. Since these cells are older, they are further along in the differentiation process, meaning they can only change into a few types of cells instead of the 200 that comes with embryonic stem cells. This is also called being pluripotent. (Miller

Embryonic stem cells are repairing damaged tissues in the body. Scientists have find a way to replace damage hearts. The United States heart failure affects more than 400,000 people a year. With the use of stem cells can be used to reconstruct the heart

Rather than relying on surgical methods meant to replace these tissues, scientists are now beginning focus on new methods that actually allow the heart to repair and replace damaged tissue. In the June 29, 2006 edition of the journal entitled, Nature, Dr. Kathryn Ivey of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease explains, “the ability of circulating cells to produce factors that are sufficient to invoke cell survival or repair responses in damaged heart cells” remains a primary objective of research cardiologists. By manipulating synthetic compounds meant to catalyze the regeneration of tissue, the new experimental method of repairing heart muscles may be able to abandon surgical procedures altogether. While the vast majority of attention is being spent on the ability to use stem cell therapy to repair congenital heart defects, some scientists are exploring alternative possibilities in organisms like the

After a heart attack, the heart is unable to regenerate cardiac muscle cells known as myocytes which diminishes the heart’s pump function. The heart tries to heal itself by changing the damaged or dead heart muscle cells into scar tissue. However, the scar tissue cannot function as a muscle so it does not contribute to the cardiac contractile force. Overtime, this leads to a greater burden on the remaining viable heart muscle which eventually leads to heart failure. Current treatments such as autologous grafting and commercially available fillers incur donor-site morbidity and volume loss over time. Other transplantation therapies do not directly address the loss of cardiac myocytes, which leads to the drive for more research in cardiac regeneration.

Scientists have even managed to coax cells to grow into 3D structures, such as miniature human organs, which can provide a more realistic way to test new therapies” ("Against Animal Testing"). A further approach is the donation of healthy as well as weak, diseased human tissue ("Against Animal Testing"). Many organs like the heart, lungs, and liver can be modeled in a computer along with data and information to carry on virtual procedures. This proves the point of how the development of computers can allow scientists to use human cells as a substitute to live