Injection Therapy using Stem Cells
Imagine a future where Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases are looked at in the same regard as polio. Imagine a different and truly personal kind of medicine that avoids the use of potentially risky and invasive procedures. Regenerative medicine has the promise to be just that. Using injection therapy which involve the injection of stem cells which undergo differentiation that will repair damaged tissues. This process happens when one parent (stem) cell divides into two daughter cells. One of the two daughter cell will remain a stem cell, the other daughter cell will specialize into a specific type of tissue cell.
Embryonic stem cells are a type of stem cell derived from embryos that are pluripotent, which can able differentiate into any kind of specialized cells that form tissue cells. Embryonic stem cells have been held as the gold standard in regenerative because of their versatility to become virtually any tissue. Induced-pluripotent stem cells have been discovered more recently. They are somatic stem cells (used to replace old and dead cells with newly synthesized ones e.g. skin cells) that are reprogrammed backwards
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This tissue area is susceptible to periodontal disease, which is a serious infection that breaks down the gum and the jawbone. Periodontal diseases will form pocket-like structures around the tooth, creating a gaps for bacteria to potentially grow. Over the course of this disease the pockets become deeper, an unhealthy pocket depth is more than 4mm. A 2006 clinical study developed a treatment using mesenchymal stem cells in a platelet gel to combat the symptoms of periodontal disease. Patients treated with this injection therapy method reported a significantly reduced pocket depth, increased clinical attachment level of the tooth, virtually no bleeding and tooth motion (Yamada et al;
It has the ability to form any type of specific cell and thus has the greatest potential for treatments in the near future. A more recent development in stem cell research is the creation of induced pluripotent cells, which are adult cells that become undifferentiated through a series of treatments. Induced pluripotent stem cells have a number of benefits because the destruction of embryos is not necessary and there are no issues with immune response or rejection because the cells come from the patient. However, it will be a long time before this type of cell become widely used on humans because the method used is not completely understood and has negative side effects. In animal testing, “…the virus used to introduce the stem cell factors sometimes causes cancers” (“Stem cell basics”). Therefore, embryonic stem cells should be an important part of stem cell research. Even if induced pluripotent cells can replace embryonic cells in the future, the knowledge gained from current embryonic cell research would still be very applicable. Unfortunately, research is very time and resource intensive, which is where the debate of federal funding comes into play.
Pluripotent stem cells are the stem cells that can only differentiate into a limited range of differentiated cells. (2) They have the ability to give rise to all somatic cells from ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm, as well as gametes. Naturally it can be found in embryos as Embryonic stem cells (ES cells). Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells or iPSC) are the pluripotent stem cells that are generated directly from adult cells, first discovered by Shinya Yamanaka in 2006 by using a set of reprogramming factors (Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc or LIN28 and Nanog) (3) to reprogram mature cells back to a pluripotent state (4).
"Embryonic stem cells are special because they are the only cells that can make all parts of the body,” said Douglas Melton, in an interactive videoconference available at athome.harvard.edu. The conference was hosted in New York and broadcasted to Cambridge, Washington D.C., and Naples, Florida on March 2, 2004. "Embryonic stem cells can do everything. So if you want to work on replenishing tissues, that’s where you go."
Embryonic stem cells (hESC) are pluripotent. They are obtained from the inner mass of a 5-6 day old human blastocyst that consists of approximately 100 cells (Bongso & Lee, 2005, p. 3).
Embryonic stem cells are found in human blastocysts (Marcovitz 17). A blastocyst is a very young embryo (just a few days old) that contains around 200 undifferentiated stem cells (Marcovitz 17). German Zoologist Valentin Hacker coined the term “stem cell” after he discovered them in a blastocyst of a crustacean (Marcovitz 18). Embryonic stem cells were collected for the first time in 1988 by Dr. James Thomson of University of Wisconsin and by Dr. John Gearheart of Johns Hopkins (Panno 76). These stem cells are unspecialized; they do not perform a specific function like cells such as muscle and nerve do (“Stem Cells”). They are also pluripotent, meaning they have the ability to divide and become specialized cells (“Stem Cells”). This is why stem cells hold so
Tissue specific stem cells can create different cells for different organs and are obtained from different organs and tissues. Embryonic stem cells can increase every cell type in an adult body and are obtained from the blastocyst, a ball of cells formed a couple of days after an egg cell is fertilized. Mesenchymal stem cells are typically obtained from bone marrow and can produce bone and fat cells. Induced pluripotent stem cells are made in a science lab by changing tissue specific cells into embryonic cells and they help scientists research normal development.
. Embryonic stem cells have been identified by scientist as a type of stem cell that can advance regenerative medicine. The potential of regenerative medicine ranges from allowing pancreatic cells to produce insulin for diabetics to reconnecting the nerves in severed spinal cords. However, the greatest potential embryonic stem cells presents are its ability to change into any of the more than 200 different cell types in the body. This ability to change into any cell type can produce cures for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, or any of the other conditions that stem cell therapy might help therefore improving the lives of those who live with these
When the topic of stem cell research, and/ or treatment, people generally automatically jump to the conclusion of embryonic stem cells, when in retrospect according to Eurostemcell.org, an organization based website that is dedicated to supplying the public with the latest news and information on stem cells. According to the article there a few different types of stem cells. The first type of stem cell is, embryonic. Embryonic stem cells are grown in a laboratory from embryos cells at an early stage. The second type of stem cell is tissue stem cells. Tissue stem cells are found in all different parts of the body. Lastly the third type of stem cell is, Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS), or 'reprogrammed' stem cells. IPSC are similar to embryonic stem cells but they are from adult specialized cells.
There have been an argument about whether embryonic stem cell research should be used or not. Embryonic stem cells are derived from the inner mass of a human embryo. They are pluripotent which means they can grow into most cells. They can also become all cell types of the body. Embryonic stem cells have the capability of spreading themselves indefinitely in an undifferentiated state.
First of all, it is important to stabilize that most stem cells are restricted to model a specific type of descendants. For example, dermis stem cells can only create skin cells, hematopoietic stem cells can only generate blood cells and so on. In contrast, embryonic stem cells have the capability to develop all type of
The ability to manipulate the stem cell corresponding to a specific organ/tissue remains important. A type of stem cell that can be manipulated is the embryonic stem cell. These stem cells descend from embryos aging from three to five days (Watt) (Driskell). During earlier stages, scientists describe embryonic stem cells as “blastocysts” which contain over one-hundred and fifty cells (Watt) (Driskell). They duplicate into more cells or transform to any cell located in the body (Watt) (Driskell). This “duplication” allows embryonic stem cells to regenerate and repair diseased tissues. Embryonic stem cells gain importance in cancer treatments—if doctors diagnose patients with leukemia, then during chemotherapy, the doctor can infuse embryonic stem cells into the body. Since the cells are young, they can repair the targeted cell, aiding cancer treatments and the patient. In addition, this technique is used with another type of embryonic stem cell called “pluripotent stem cells”. Pluripotent stem cells originate as inner mast cells (cells
Embryonic Stem Cell Research are pluripotent stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of a blastocyst. I believe that the use of Embryonic Stem Research is beneficial to society because these cells have unlimited potential. They can allow permanent repair to failing organs by injecting healthy cells into the damaged organ. They also can used for finding and preventing cures for cancers, Parkinson’s disease, birth defects, spinal cord injuries, and strokes. However, Stem Cell Research is a controversial topic, especially when referring to Embryonic Stem Cell Research.
In addition to research, these types of stem cells are used to restore and repair damaged tissue in all kinds of diseases. Embryonic stem cells are so useful because they have pluripotency, which means that they can differentiate into any human cell type. The cell types that they are commonly induced in are neural, heart, liver and insulin pumping beta cells that are similar to the pancreas. Since these embryonic stem cells can be differentiated into so many types of cells, they are able to treat diseases like: Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes and many more.
Embryonic stem cell research has been deemed by multiple scientists to be completely necessary and irreplaceable by any other type of stem cell. For example, although induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) exist, they are new and have not been researched enough to replace embryonic stem
Embryonic stem cells are another type of stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are derived from the fetus. It is said that, using stem cells is compared to the destruction of an embryo to an abortion. Discarding the embryo is though that human life is ultimately de-valued. Anyone who supports the use of embryonic stem cells says that it is not equal because it is in the womb ( Mumaghan). Embryonic stem cells cannot be used directly because of the fact that they may cause tumors (Top ten stem cell