The Potential of Stem Cells

Stem cells are cells that have the potential to develop into different types of cells in the body. Stem cells also act as a repair system for many tissues in the body by dividing repeatedly to replenish other cells within a person (National Institutes of Health). Stem cell research seeks to further the advancement of the use of stem cells as well as to find an ethical way to study them. In November 1998, researchers found a way to isolate and culture human embryonic stem cells, (Bevington 2005). The ethics of stem cell research has been debated over the years and some people fully support the use of stem cells, whereas others are completely against the use of stem cells. This has been an ongoing battle for scientists over the span of two decades prior to the 1998 finding.

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.

Stem cells are cells that are found throughout the human body. They reproduce over a long period of time without changing. Stem cells can produce specialized cells, such as brain, muscle or lung cells. Stem cells in the last few years have recently made a big debut because medical professionals have discovered so many unique qualities to stem cells. They are on the cutting edge of medicine because of all their uses and the qualities that make them so unique from any other cell in the body. Stem cells have the power to make so many breakthroughs in the medical world. Medical researchers have all ready found so many ways that stem cells can be used for the better of so many people. Genes play an important role in determining what genetic traits or mutations we receive. Researching stem cells can help determine this. Stem cell research is useful for learning many things about human development and about how the body has the power to repair itself. Researchers are finding new ways each day that stem cells can be used and the possibilities that they find for stem cells could be endless. A few ways they can be used to treat diseases, be used as graphs for burn victims or surgical use, and even to correct birth defects. The pros of stem cells are limitless.

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.

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)

Stem cells get their name from the fact that they are basic cells that other cells develop from. They are capable of developing into a wide range of cells. Stem cells could potentially be used to grow new cells to replace the cells that were destroyed or damaged by

Stem cells were first discovered during an experiment with mice in 1981 ("Stem Cell Information"). Scientists extracted stem cells from embryonic mice, which led to the discovery of vitro-fertilization in 1998. Virto fertilization is used to conceive a child in a laboratory, for parents who cannot conceive naturally. The fertilized egg is then implanted inside a mother's uterus and a child begins to form. Without the discovery of stem cells, this process might not have been able to give parents the children they have always wanted ("Stem cells: What they are and what they do"). However, this is causing some controversy in today's society. Embryonic stem cells are obtained from embryos not placed inside a female. Researchers felt it could harm or even kill the undeveloped child, so they felt the only solution was to grow the fertilized eggs in laboratories. The embryos are grown in labs with consent from their donors. The stem cell obtained from these embryos are being used to benefit burn victims so they could grow healthy skin, people with spinal cord injuries so they could have the chance to walk again and even people with type I diabetes to help produce their own insulin. If these cells are able to be manipulated enough, there might even be a cure for cancer or any other heart breaking diseases wrecking havoc today (Mayo Clinic Staff). Stem cells are also

and plenty of other degenerative diseases while the cure lies in our hands? After James Thompson, a developmental biologist, reported that he had derived the first human embryonic stem cell line (Thomson), the potential of curing degenerative diseases was revealed. Ph.D. holder and deputy director of FDA’s office of Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies, Stephanie Simek, explains that stem cells are unspecialized cells (qtd. in “FDA Warns About Stem Cell Claims”). In other words, since they are unspecialized cells, they can “…generate lots of cells and, under the right conditions, become one of the many cell types

Stem cell research is changing the medical field and changing lives in the process. Many people don't even know waht stem cell research is or how it has changed peoples lives all around the world. Stem cells are a cell that can develop into many other types of cell during the growth or life of a organism. Almost all of the advance medical institue are researching stem cells and trying to advance it. Stem cells have helped many people one of the most recent stories is of a women who lost the ability to use her legs after a stroke. A team of a Stanford injected stem cells into her brain that allowed her to walk again. Stem cells have yet to reach their full potential but people are working hard to get them there.

Scientists are attempting to conduct stem cell research for numerous reasons. Stem cells are unspecialized and can renew themselves through cell division for longer duration of time. Cells can be manipulated under certain conditions to become any cell that the scientist encodes them with. Examples of these are liver cells or heart cells. Scientists have performed studies which suggest that stem cells can grow into two-hundred ten types of cells in the human body. (Sakaki-Yumoto, 2013) Scientists also believe that these cells can be used to cure many diseases that they have tried to find a cure for things such as spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, and hundreds of rare immune system and genetic disorders. (Watt,

Stem cells are unspecialized pluripotent cells capable of renewing themselves through cell division and can be influenced to become specific cells with special functions. (Source F). It is no exaggeration to say that harnessing the amazing regenerative properties of stem cells will greatly aid the medical field in finding cures for debilitating chronic diseases. On February 1, 1961, Dr. James Till and Ernest McCulloch established The Foundation for Stem Cell Science and incredible advances have continued. The most recent happened on February 20, 2016 when stem cells were used to replace part of a human brain. (Source E). Their regenerative properties can be utilized to repair organs such as eyes for the blind, or hearts for those suffering with cardiovascular disease. Stem cell therapy can

Stem cells is quiet impressive that most scientists used it to develop new drug or to study its normal growth including cure for birth defects. Stem cell research alone can cure patients without using an

Stem cells are important for living organism in many ways. In a blastocyst the inner cells give the entire body of the organism, including cell types and organs such as the heart, lungs, and skin. In adult tissues such as brain, muscle, and bone marrow separated populations of stem cells generate and create replacements for cells that are lost or died through a tear, injury, and disease. Stem cell transplantation allows doctors to give large doses of chemotherapy or radiation therapy to increase the chance of eliminating blood cancer in the marrow and then restoring normal blood cell production (Gknation

Stem cell research is the key to profound advances in medicine that were previously unthinkable. Cure and treatment for serious diseases and major injuries are being created. New organ and tissue can be created. New drug testing will lead to safer medicine and more side effects will be spotted before the reach the market. Stem cell research is an important step to further medical

For starters stem cells are able to self-renew infinitely, allowing them to be harvested in the future with correct methods not yet available in these times, this processes known as proliferation. They have two more key unique traits one being their ability to differentiate into other cells that are specialised with functions and characteristics another trait is stem cells being so unspecialized which gives them the ability to emerge as highly specialised cells. Under circumstances involving physiologic or experimental conditions stem cells have the ability to become tissue or even cells specific to certain organs around the body. Stem cells have a very high potential to diminish many diseases or conditions that haunt many places and many people around the world. Studies have shown that stem cells could hold the key to understanding cancer and hopefully a way to target it and kill the cancer cells or prevent them from occurring in the first place. Cancer occurs when stem cell division does not occur as it is supposed to. Certain cancer types can already be eradicated by the use of stem cell treatments, even some diseases can be fought with them. If stem cell treatments are improved they could very much be the future of medical technology.