Embryonic Stem Cells
“Embryonic stem cells...are in effect, a human self-repair kit,” (Christopher Reeve, activist – Larry King show). For the advancement of science, stem cells are infinitely valuable, especially when considering all the potential applications in the field of medicine. Stem cell usage is a very controversial topic, because most people think of abortions, cloning, and other negative topics when they hear the term stem cell.
However I think those thoughts are because they don’t understand what a stem cell is, where it comes from, or its monumental possibilities that could greatly benefit the medical field.
There are already demonstrations of Stem cells possibilities, because treatment with stem cells has already
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Pluripotent cells could help with things like re-growing a kidney or leg ligament, if yours has been damaged.
Pluripotent stem cells can create the possibility for a renewable source of replacement tissues and cells, which means a large number of diseases could be cured and treated.
This includes debilitating diseases, Parkinson, Alzheimer, Leukemia, Down syndrome, muscular dystrophies, retinal degeneration, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteo-arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, brain repair, skin for burn victims, and maybe even cancer and diabetes (stemcellnetwork.com).
Finally Multipotent cells can be found in children and adults, in blood, bones, and etc.
They only have specific functions, and can no longer do anything besides those functions. However, Multipotent cells are still useful in replacing or replenishing any damage cells that are similar to the specialized type, which means less people waiting on organ donors. That would be a tremendous accomplishment, because thousands of people die each while waiting for an organ transplant. (MRC).
When scientists completely learn how stem cells work, they could be able to create tissues needed to treat patients with various types of sickness and disease. For example, Birth defects and cancer arise do to abnormal cell specialization and cell division. If scientists were to understand how to manipulate these
Pluripotent stem cells are just like Totipotent cells, but they can only become cell derived from the three germ layers, which contain over 200 specialized cells. Multipotent stem cells can only become blood cells, such as red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets. Unipotent stem cells can only transform into one type of tissue or specialized cell, but it can divide over and over again (Wikipedia). These embryonic stem cells can divide again and again through mitosis (a type of cell division in all body parts except reproductive parts). Medical specialists and leading scientists conclude, that these cells could help cure as many as seventy-three diseases, which up to now were thought incurable (NIH).
Many, as of currently incurable diseases plague the Earth. Thanks to technological advancements and better understandings of cells, scientists believe that it may be possible to cure diseases by the use of embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are cells obtained from an embryo when they are only a few days old. Because they have only begun to differentiate, these cells have the capability of developing into any cell in the human body, and that's why they can be used for the progression of medicine. Scientists hope to cure some diseases but if that isn't possible they at least hope to create treatments using them.
Scientists need the opportunity for research and they have researched that stem cells can do a lot of things such as having the potential to treat many diseases. (Devitt 14)
Second, the stem cells have been proven to help make adult cells grow. Scientist believe
In the 21st century, disease is rampant and for most diseases, we have no cure because we haven 't researched them long enough to find a specialized cure. One option that we have is human embryonic stem cell (HESC) research. HESC research consists of using human embryonic stem cells, which are very flexible and adaptive to create the necessary cells to develop future cell-based therapies for currently untreatable diseases, such as leukemia, various types of cancer along with the regeneration of organs and tissues. There are multiple applications of stem cell research include being used to study the development of a complex organism, replace damaged cells and treat disease, study disease and they could provide a resource for testing new medical treatments. (What are the potential applications.) HESC research offers the “hope of cures for chronic and debilitating conditions, such as juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries and blindness.” (Vestal.) On the other hand, this research also represents “a revolutionary path to discovering the causes and cures for many more human maladies.” (Vestal.)
Totipotent stem cells are able to do everything. They can take form of all the tissues in your body. Pluripotent stem cells are cells made from the inner cell mass. These cells are capable of turning into all but some of the body’s cell types. Multipotent stem cells are the cells that usually only produce the type of cell from which they came. So if a lung cell were multipotent, it would divide and turn into a lung cell. That is the same for a heart cell, fat cell, or muscle cell.
Secondly, embryonic stem cell research is able to create new sciences devoted to curing and treating diseases that yesterday, we wouldn’t even dream of. A few examples include cancer, blindness, deafness, diabetes, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, Parkinson's disease, respiratory disease, spinal cord injuries, strokes, and so many more. With new sciences brings so many more new career fields and therapies for chronic diseases and
May be a treatment for many cancers because doctors will be able to remove the organs affected by cancers and then use the patient's own stem cells to regrow their organ.
The topic of stem cells is a controversial one that many do not want to talk about, but perhaps stem cells could help in the treatment of
Stem cells have been used in the world before to develop vaccines for diseases basically eradicating them. These diseases include small pox, chicken pox, and the MMR vaccine. The development of these vaccines has made it easier to conduct research on synthesizing a cure in diseases that are more complex. The breakthrough research from those cures has furthered our, “...understanding of diabetes, MS, and Parkinson’s disease that offer the potential for new treatments and cures.” (Allum 6) The cures that we have found in the past have helped with research for developing new ones. The more complex diseases would be diseases that affect the brain and the nervous system this could include autism and cerebral palsy. To find new treatments for diseases like this would be a major breakthrough because it would affect more than just the patient, it would also affect the lives off loved ones because the patient finally received the care that they needed. Developing cures for diseases like this could affect millions of lives by themselves, but those three diseases are not the only ones they are trying to treat and they could affect millions more lives. Other diseases that researchers are attempting to find new treatments for are all types of cancer and AIDS. Stem cells have already been used to try to cure cancer and AIDs and it is showing promising results. The cells that they used treated and show promising results to making improved treatments, or even cures for, “...lung diseases; cancers; autoimmune diseases…” (Bishop 4) and many other diseases. If scientists could find cures for diseases like cancer then it would be an incredible breakthrough because it would save millions of lives, and it could prevent people from going through radiation treatments. Since there has already been promising results from tests then scientists may be close to discovering a cure for cancer, and this would change so
Usually most people don’t think about things such as stem cells or embryos being used in scientific research; however, embryonic stem cells have showed they are useful because they have the ability to create any cell type in the human body. In contrast to the embryonic stem cells adult stem cells are more specialized; which makes embryonic cells more useful for a wider range of research. Stem cells are also able to be genetically modified to target specific genes that have diseases: such as, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, heart injuries and even conditions like autism are just a few examples. Although stem cells are already seen as a great scientific advancement, with genetically modified cells a new treatment for cancer may have been discovered.
Although some people have an issue with Stem cell research this could be a field of research that could lead to discovery of the cures of many diseases such as cancer.
The most promising use of stem cells is in the field of nerve damage. Your body stops creating nerve cells right when you are born, so if your nerves get damaged, you cannot create any new cells. People who are paralyzed in
Certainly nobody has one-hundred percent confirmed the possibilities for stem cells cures. However, the possibilities for stem cells come at somewhat of a cost. Not many people have thought about the dangers of the stem cell treatments. Stated in an article published by Gale, “Even once embryonic stem cells can be produced in quantity overcoming the inefficiency of today 's methods and potential problems (e.g. efficacy of viruses in implanted cells, use of c-Myc that is known to play a role in the progression of cancer), further research will be needed to determine and provide the correct instructions for an embryonic stem cell to grow into its desired path....” (Sutherland). Not knowing how to properly grow the stem cell into its desired path can result in treatment rejection and also major side-effects including muscle spasms and uncontrolled movements/shaking. So, stem cells have potential to be useful in the future but should not be used for any official treatments yet.
Stem cell therapy has helped researchers learn more about the growth of human cells and their development Stem cell therapy has many medical benefits. Researcher found a way to use stem cell to clone animals and organs. Stem cell therapy shows unlimited potential in the treatment of a number of conditions like Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, cancer, diabetes and possible organ failure. Stem cell research will allow scientists to test a number of potential medicines and drugs without continuing experimental test on animals and humans. The drug can be tested on a population of cells directly.