Stem Cell Research

Stem Cell research and its funding have caused a lot of controversy throughout the past years. Stem cells are cells that are present in all living organisms. These cells have the potential to grow into any type of cell, including blood cells, nerves, muscles, and pancreatic cells. Stem cell research is essential because of the beneficial aspects it has to offer. Stem cells could potentially treat conditions such as Alzheimer 's, Parkinson 's, birth defects, strokes, Diabetes, cancer, and help in the reconstruction of severely damaged organs. Although stem cell research withholds great potential for many medical advances, a lot of controversy surrounds the sources and methods of obtaining stem cells and the possibility of improper usage of the knowledge acquired from research and experimentation. It is necessary for scientist to continue research as well as recognizing any ethical issues that may be present.

The controversy due to embryonic stem cells is quite debatable. Both sides present many strong reasons that prove their point, but it is still, frankly, nearly impossible to take a stand from an unbiased view. "This is the first study showing that embryonic stem cells can be used for brain and spinal cord repair in an animal model of a human neurological disease," said researcher Oliver BrŸstle (a neuropathologist at the University of Bonn in Germany) referring to the study done on rats (CNN). Just like Oliver BrŸstle many scientists around the world agree that embryonic stem cell show much welcomed hope of cure of spinal and brain repair. In addition to healing spinal and brain injuries, the embryonic stem cells can also treat diabetes, a disease which 54%

Imagine a world where human life expectancy has increased greatly and we can grow any failing organ in our body and where people on the national human organ transplant list don't die waiting or even doesn't exist. Well this world won't exist anytime soon due to the stem cell controversy still floating around. The stem cell controversy is still to this day a topic of debate in the scientific and religious community. According to medicine.net the uses of human stem cells are, but not limited to: treating diabetes, heart

First of all an understanding of what a stem cell is, where it comes from, and the significance of it's medical potential is essential. Stem cells are the "master cells" that form the human body or whatever other animal it is from. Stem cells can be extracted from adult tissues, bone marrow, umbilical cord blood ( ), and embryos in the blastocyst stage. Although scientists have found ways to manipulate the stem cells from adult sources into other types of cells, they claim that they are less capable of deriving the desired tissue and are not "biologically equivalent" ( ) to stem cells extracted from embryos.

cells which can help treat people suffering from diabetes. Even tissues can be grown again by

stem cells were discovered a long ago that they can be beneficial for fighting against the killer diseases but after passing of two decades of the discovery it has been profound that (hESCs) are being tried as a treatment for two noteworthy illnesses: heart fail and type 1 diabetes.

Through the use of stem cells, a variety of different methods can be used to replace damaged cells in the human body with healthy ones. The first of these strategies is direct implantation of the cells. Stem cells can be injected straight into the organ that is affected or into the veins. This allows the stem cells to target the malfunctioning organ through the cytokines and chemokines it releases. Another strategy takes on a transplantation approach. That is, that the stem cells are specialized and harvested outside of the body before they are injected, or transplanted, into the diseased organ. Lastly, growth factors and drugs can be prescribed to

Heart disease, cancer, and diabetes have drastically hindered, or even taken the lives of people you may know and love. While these three diseases consistently rank in the top ten leading causes of death in the United States, we as a country are steered toward pharmaceutical drugs in order to alleviate pain and ultimately mask their life altering effects on us. Adult stem cells is the future for diseases such as these. Up until now, the research from biologists combined with real life medical procedures in the adult stem cell field has put mankind within sight of remarkable success. Everything from reversing disease to lowering the cost and failures of pharmaceutical testing, is entirely possible with adult stem cells. The United States

“Every twelve minutes another name is added to the national organ transplant waiting list” (Donate life America, 2009) (para. 1&2). The National Center for Health Statistics (2008) website states “652,051 people die every year of heart disease, 75,119 die of diabetes, 43,901 die of nephritis, nephritic syndrome, and nephrosis [kidney disease].”

Because of their ability to differentiate into specialized cells, embryonic stem cells can have the potential of treating a wide range of diseases. Some of these diseases include heart disease, Parkinson 's disease, and diabetes (Kelly 5). The regenerative properties of stem cells allow scientists to potentially restore damaged muscle, and perhaps even damaged nerve tissue. The discovery of embryonic stem cells is so important that it opened up a new field of medicine called regenerative medicine. Although embryonic stem cells are not the answer to all diseases known to man, other types of stem cells are being used to effectively treat

Stem cell research has shown enormously promising results, and deserves to be pursued by scientists worldwide. In the short time stem cell research has been around, amazing things have happened, and continue to happen. For example according to the article “9. Can Stem Cells Repair a Damaged Heart?” Research on mice has showed promising result with the injection of bone marrow cells into damaged ventricle walls. In their studies, scientists were able to take a group of bone marrow cells with a high capacity to develop into other cell types, and get them to form new cardiomyocytes, vascular endothelial, and smooth muscle cells. Cardiomyocytes are the heart muscle cells that contracts to eject the blood out of the heart's ventricles, and vascular endothelial are the cells that line all vesicles (both veins and arteries). Smooth muscle cells are the cells in smooth muscles, such as the ventricles in the heart. The creation of new cardiomyocytes, vascular endothelial, and smooth muscle cells lead to the generating of newly formed heart muscle, including coronary arteries, arterioles, and capillaries (Can 2015). If this technology can be translated from mice to humans, this could revolutionize the way we see modern medicine today. There could be an end to people dying waiting for heart transplants, and catastrophes resulting from heart attacks. The ramifications are endless. Additional advancements have been made in the area of the pancreas. As stated in the article “7. Stem Cells and Diabetes”, “ promising studies indicate that insulin-producing cells can be cultivated from embryonic stem cell lines” (Diabetes 2015). This could mean new treatments, and possibly cures, for diabetes. Despite the fact that embryonic stem cell, which is the most promising type of stem cell research, results in the destruction of an embryo it provides the opportunity for hundreds

The stem cells from embryos are usually undifferentiated cells meaning they are effective in the treatment of certain diseases and in cell-based therapies (Siegel and Andrew, 2016). They have the ability to move to sites where there’s damage, where they proliferate and differentiate into new cells, when introduced into a patient (NIH, 2015). An example may be that they can possibly be used to produce healthy heart cells in the laboratory and then transplant them into patients suffering with chronic heart disease (NIH, 2015). This can increase the extrinsic value for using embryos for research. Another example is they can be used in the treatment of type 1 diabetes. This is supported by new studies that suggest that it may be possible to control the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells in cell culture to form insulin-producing cells for transplantation therapy to cure people suffering from diabetes (NIH, 2015). Current tests involve drug molecules being tested in mice and rats first, but the results are not always accurate and do not correlate with what happens in the human body. As a result, many scientists now believe that testing drugs on stem cells from human embryos could have more accurate results than current tests

Stem cells are at the center of a new field of science called regenerative medicine. Stem cells are unique cells that are unspecialized and have the ability to proliferate and develop into many different cell types by forming more daughter cells, which become new stem cells or differentiate to become specialized cells. They have the potential to treat diseases, such as Parkinson's, diabetes and cancer. They may be used to rejuvenate organs, reducing the need for organ transplants. The discovery of stem cells is a rapid progressing field in medicine and research.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States (“Heart Disease”). This disease can be treated using embryonic stem cells. The goal is that when the tissue of the heart is damaged, embryonic stem cells can be specialized into heart cells and replace the damaged ones, giving the heart the ability to beat and function as normal (Murnaghn). The initial research that has been conducted on laboratory animals such as mice has suggested that this may be a possibility (Murnaghn). Embryonic stem cells can also treat people with type I diabetes. Type I diabetes is an incurable, chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin (Santos-Longhurst). The pancreatic cells that are supposed to produce the insulin are damaged by the immune system causing imbalanced blood sugar levels (Murnaghn). Research is showing a possibility in specializing the stem cells into cells capable of producing insulin, which when transplanted into diabetics, would remove their need for insulin injections (Murnaghn). Furthermore, patients with cancer may also benefit from embryonic stem cell transplants. Cancer, the disease caused by an uncontrollable division of abnormal cells in a part of the body, is the cause of one in every four deaths in the United States (“Cancer Statistics”). A common treatment of this disease has

Stem Cells today are being used in things such as testing for prescription drugs. They use them in these drugs to test if the drug can kill differentiated cells. Stem Cells can also be used for people who have type 1 Diabetes. They could help restore or heal the damaged pancreas in side the person 's body.