Comparison Of Embryonic Stem Cells And Parkinson's Disease

In the past twenty years, many drugs have been developed to treat the disease. Although the cause of Parkinson's disease is still unknown, scientists have been developing methods of treatment and therapy. The idea is to replace dopamine in the brain, which is accomplished, to some extent, with the administration of L-Dopa. In conjunction with other drugs, L- Dopa "inhibits the enzymes that break down L-dopa in the liver, thus making a greater part of it available to the brain" (5). This treatment is very successful, but it only hinders the disease for a time and it is by no means a cure. That leaves us with stem-cells and the role they play in treatment of Parkinson's disease.

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.

Researchers successfully attained embryonic stem cells from the embryos of mice in 1981, which led to the discovery of this process in human beings in 1998 (National Institutes of Health, 2001). Embryonic stem cells are derived from an in vitro embryo between five days and seven weeks. Regenerative medicine can benefit greatly from the characteristics of embryonic stem cells. This process enables damaged organs and tissues to heal themselves with the help of implanted stem cells matching the organ (Hunziker, 2010, p. 1). There are two traits

There are multiple ways for stem cells to be obtained such as: Taking the cells from aborted embryos or fetuses, umbilical cords, adult tissues, or artificially creating embryos with a process known as a somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). In this process “the nucleus of an egg is removed and replaced by the nucleus from a mature body cell, like a skin cell” (Arnes). Also known as cloning. However, creating embryos like this do not create stable stem cells. And taking stem cells from umbilical cords has the possibility to transfer unknown genetic disease and “has not yet demonstrated health and

Embryonic stem cell research could provide many medical advanced. Studying the stem cells could help prevent diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer's, and heart disease.

Umbilical cord mesenchymal cells would be isolated from Wharton’s jelly of babies born by c-section with the mother’s consent. The umbilical cords would be placed in Hank’s Balanced Salt Solution containing penicillin, streptomycin sulfate, and amphotericin B. The umbilical cord would be washed in alcohol and phosphate-buffered saline. With the amnion and blood vessels removed the left over umbilical cord would be chopped up into 5mm diameter pieces and placed into 35x10mm petri dishes. The umbilical mesenchymal cells would be cultured as per Yousefifard et al.’s methods. Excess blastocysts that would otherwise be discarded during in-vitro fertilization were collected from a local fertility clinic with full informed consent of the mothers. The embryonic stem cells would be then isolated from the inner mast cells of those blastocysts. These embryonic stem cells would then be cultured and differentiated into neural stem cells as per Nicoleau et al.’s methods. To ensure the identities of both cell types their surface antigens were checked using flow

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

Adult stem cells are found in abundance all over the body in specific organs and tissues such as the brain, peripheral blood and liver. The region in which they are found is key to their function; for example, it is easier to stimulate cardiomyocyte stem cells to differentiate into cardiac muscle than it is to use bone marrow stem cells for the same purpose. Embryonic stem cells are cells which are grown from other cells found in the embryo when they are just a few days old.Embryonic steam cells are grown in laboratories from a group a cells found in the embryo very early on. Human embryonic steam cells are taken from embryos that are 5 to 6 days old.Embryonic stem cells are extracted from embryos and often these steam cells are taken from embryos that develop from eggs that have been fertilized in vitro. In vitro fertilization clinics use donated eggs for the purpose of research.Given that researchers may be able to study all cell types via embryonic stem cells, they have the potential to make breakthroughs in any disease. Similar to other cells, embryonic steam cells have the ability self-renew and differentiate. However, embryonic steam tells are differ from other cells, they have the ability to form into various types of cells in the body.Their versatility allows embryonic steam cells to repair several diseased

How is the therapy done? Cellular therapy is usually performed in one of two ways. First, fetal animal cells (either fresh or frozen) can be injected or administered intravenously directly into the patient. If the fetal cells have been freshly removed from the animal, then they are suspended in an isotonic salt solution and injected into the patient. Frozen cells, which have been either lyophilized or frozen in liquid nitrogen, are generally screened for viruses and bacteria before they are injected since they do not have to be used immediately (U.S. Congress, 1990). Medra, Inc. refers to this method as Fetal Stem Cell Therapy, and claims that "rarely has a single treatment modality offered so much

by sampling the amniotic fluid, which contains cells and chemicals which are fetal in origin.”(4) This

In the new discoveries of the treatment for Parkinson’s disease in the informative article by Matthew Mientka titled “A New Parkinson's Disease Treatment? Fetal Dopamine Stem Cells Thrive After Transplantation In The Brain” and in a secondary informative article referring to the same finding of a treatment for Parkinson’s

However there are three methods into using stem cell research. One method is Adult Stem Cells (ASC), which are undifferentiated cells found throughout the body after development. These cells multiply by cell division, to replace and repair other ones. A less popular stem cells that is still in testing is Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (IPS). Induced pluripotent stem cells “are adult cells that have been genetically reprogrammed to be like an embryonic stem cell. Which are forced to express factors that are important for maintaining the properties of embryonic stem cells.” The process of IPS cells are showed in the image above from the person to the dish. Many scientist are wanting to do more research with these cells since they don’t use embryos. But the most popular and most effective is Embryonic Stem Cells (EPC). EPC comes from embryos. They remove the nucleus of the embryo and inject DNA from the adult cell into it. The egg begins dividing forming clumps of cells. After it forms a blastocyst the Stem cells are harvested and the embryo is destroyed. The process is also shown in the image above. Starting from a sperm to becoming ready in the dish for

As everything in life isn’t simple, facing adversities during the research of stem cells is completely normal. For example, both adult and embryonic stem cells present difficulties during the investigation. Spite of stem cells exist in adult tissue, they’re not present in big amounts, so they can be hard to find and to extract for growth. They may also be difficult to grow into large batches of unspecialized cells in the laboratory, which is very necessary if they’re needed in a disease treatment. Their ability to transform into different kinds of cells seems to be limited. On the other hand, embryonic stem cells are easier to grow into batches of unspecialized cells, but the method of extraction goes against many morals. Embryonic stem cells

In order to extract and harvest these stem cells the living human embryos must be destroyed. Once obtained, these flexible cells are cultivated and stored in laboratories and replicate every 2-3 days which makes them very popular amongst HESC researchers for these cells can be made into many specific cell types like heart and nervous cells (Guinan, 305-9).

Embryonic stem cell research has led to medical benefits to aid in curing diseases and many cancer cases that have grown in today’s society. Tissues throughout the body have a specific single layer of cells that can regenerate daughter cells. These daughter cells, or embryonic cells, have the capabilities to regenerate and build tissues or organs. These cells can aid in a lifelong regeneration process for tissues throughout the body. In vitro studies have shown that these cells can be placed in a specific area where there is large amounts of tissue damage due to injury or disease and completely rebuild this tissue into a completely new, fully functioning tissue. (Weissman, 2005, p. 1). However, people will argue the fact that embryonic stem cells have not been cleared to work in the human body. This is true that Weisman has only found it to work in mice and in genetically made organs, tissues, and muscle. Facts have shown that