Pluripotent Stem Cell Essay

Embryonic cells should be allowed to be used because of the medical benefits they provide. They can be used to cure diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, traumatic spinal cord injury, Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy, heart disease, and even vision and hearing loss (nih.gov 2009). There is no problem using them for medical purposes and it is not immoral to use them for this reason. Embryonic cells have the potential to save lives. Therefore, the usage of embryonic cells outweighs the ethical issues.

In modern technology, it is possible to reprogram matured somatic cells in pluripotent cells by introducing factors that can induce cell in situ reprogramming. (1) This technique is highly useful in medicine, including acting as a model for drug and clinical testing, development of drugs.

In the contemporary world of today, the issue of embryonic stem cell research is one of this controversial significant topic regarding which there is neither fair/moral agreement nor understandable, wide-ranging laws. As far as the ethical debate is concerned, it focuses on the verifiable piece of information that stem cell research consists of destroying the very early embryos of the human beings. The federal government has restricted the financial support for stem cell research to research that makes use of the stem cells obtained from a small amount of stem cell "lines" (Shapiro, 2006).

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are pluripotent and are obtained from the inner mass of a 4-5 day old human blastocyst that consists of approximately 100 cells (“Stem cell research,” 2009).

Research into embryonic stem cells holds a lot of promise thanks to its recognized potential to treat a wide range of conditions such as physical trauma, degenerative conditions, and genetic diseases. However, human embryonic stem cell research is a controversial issue for many as the creation of embryonic stem cell line requires the destruction of a human embryo. This ethical dilemma has resulted in research being held back as the debate rages on rather it’s right to use embryos in research. Despite this, embryonic stem cell research should be allowed to continue because of its potential.

“Now science has presented us with a hope called stem cell research, which may provide our scientists with many answers that have for so long been beyond our grasp.” (Nancy Reagan). Most cells within our bodies perform one specialized task. Contrary to these single job cells are stem cells. These cells are unspecialized and can morph and perform any task that is needed within the body. However, the way that stem cells are harvested has caused a lot of controversy. The way that the stem cells are taken destroys the embryo. We should support the recent decision to allow embryonic stem-cell research in the United States and federally fund the work to use these stem cells to cure diseases. Better stem cell research would provide safer procedures and medical practices for everyone.

As technology advances, the use of embryonic stem cell research has also expanded. Stem cells have shown promise in personalized medicine as they are undifferentiated and easily conform with the surrounding cells. There are two areas of research that stem cells are showing massive potential, cell regeneration and organ transplantation. It is thought that stem cells have the capability to “model genetic disorders in a reliable fashion such that no other method allows. It seems likely that we could use stem cells to model cells with genetic disorders and figure out how to mute certain genes, thus eliminating or drastically reducing the effects of the disease,” (1). Although embryonic stem cells (ESC) are showing great potential towards medical advancements, there are many people who are opposed to the idea of using these cells due to the aggressive nature in which we extract ESC.

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

While embryonic stem cells can restore and repair tissue, there also can be a risk when inducing them into

The stem cells that originate in the inner mass found in embryos a few days old are grown in the laboratory and are referred to as embryonic stem cells. A branch of these cells are embryonic germ cells, and these are derived from egg and sperm cells in a five to ten week old fetus. Both of these types of stem cells are pluripotent. In embryonic stem cells, the blastocyst cells divide and eventually develop into all of the tissues and organs of human beings. Embryonic stem cells are capable of being grown in the laboratory from blastocysts and made to differentiate into nerve, liver, muscle, blood, and other cells. (Morgani, et al.

In 1981, scientists began to derive embryonic stem cells from mouse embryos. A decade later a more in depth study was discovered to be able to take human embryonic stem cells and grow them in laboratories. At first, the discovery was used only for in vitro fertilization procedures but until recently, in 2006, scientists made a breakthrough of embryonic stem cells used to be reprogrammed genetically with specialized adult cells. Embryonic stem cells, also known as pluripotent cells, can generate to become about two hundred types of cells in a human body and can specialize to do what they were programmed to do. This is due to the fact that embryonic stem cells can grow in large sums of numbers. Because of their ability to generate into specific

The iPSC’s were different from the host cells because a piggyBac vector was introduced into the hiPSC. A piggyBac vector is a genetic element that literally does what it sounds like, gives a piggyback between vectors and chromosomes, and cuts genes, carries them, and pastes them into a new position. This specific piggyBac vector used to distinguish the host cells from the iPSC’s stably expressed GFP (green fluorescent protein) gene under a ubiquitous promoter. The promoter was EF1 (elongation factor used to push gene expression in vitro and in vivo). The authors knew their transplantations of iPSC’s were successful because once the cells were introduced they observed continuous GFP fluorescence. The GFP fluorescence was observed even after differentiation of neural-linage.

Human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are pluripotent cells isolated from blastocysts, and are highly useful in studying human development (Itzkovitz-Eldor et al., 2000 p. 88). Although the National Institute of Health states that “it is not known if iPSCs and embryonic stem cells differ in clinically significant ways”, iPSCs are already being used to achieve the same results as ESCs in some applications without the use of embryos, removing the ethical concern associated with ESCs (National Institutes of Health, 2009). ESCs are capable of differentiating into all cell types, and can be used as a source of differentiated cells. In the report by Itskovitz-Eldor et al., they discuss the induced differentiation of ESCs in suspension into embryoid bodies, including the three embryonic germ layers. The authors state that “the ability to induce formation of human embryoid bodies that contain cells of neuronal, hematopoietic and cardiac origins will be useful in studying early human embryonic development” (Itzkovitz-Eldor et al., 2000 p. 88).

In the Nature paper “Bidirectional developmental potential in reprogrammed cells with acquired pluripotency”, published in 2014 and now retracted, Haruko Obokata et al. described a new methodology for the conversion of somatic cells into pluripotent cells, without genetic manipulation or DNA transfer. Somatic cells were subjected to sublethal stimuli and, therefore, named “stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency” (STAP). The research consisted in introducing mouse somatic cells into a very acidic solution (low pH) or subjecting the external cell membranes to pressure. These stressful environmental stimuli led the somatic cells to a cell reprogramming. Obokata and colleagues, therefore, presented a fast, simple and cheap method of

Pluripotent cells are all types of somatic cells and germ cells of an adult organism. They appear for a short period of mammalian embryonic development (Nikolic et. al., 2015). Pluripotent stem cell lines were derived from mammalian embryos and adult tissues using different techniques and from different sources-inner cell mass of the blastocyst, primordial germ cells, parthenogenetic oocytes, and mature spermatogonia- as well as by transgenic modification of various adult somatic cells (Mullen and Rosales, 2010). The inner