Stem Cell Research Background

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Stem Cell Research Background

Stem cell research; What is it? How can it help society? How is bad? These are questions that many people have regarding a very controversial topic. First lets gather some background on the topic of stem cells. According to MedicinNet.com, a stem cell is one of the human body’s master cells, with the ability to grow into any one of the body’s more than 200 cell types. Now the use of stem cells in modern medicine is very, very useful. Since these cells can basically grow into any kind of cell they offer great hope for a multitude of disabilities in medicine. For example, damage neural cells in the brain and/or spinal cord can be replaced by stem cells and will function the way they are supposed to. Basically any cell that has been damaged or dead can be replaced by stem cells. Now you might be thinking to yourself; how is this topic controversial? It is all about how scientists obtain the stem cells.

            When a sperm fertilizes an egg, it creates a single cell called a zygote. This zygote then proceeds to divide and create more cells. About five days later, the cells within the zygote begin to specialize into an outer layer of cells and an inner layer of cells. The inner cells are called the inner cell mass and the roughly thirty inner cells begin to develop into different cells, which will then produce bone, muscle, cartilage, and fat. With this background of what stem cells we can now discuss how scientist obtain stem cells.

            There is three different ways scientists can extract stem cells: adult cells, cord blood cells, and embryonic cells. Adult cells are stem cells that are undifferentiated cells found among differentiated cells that can renew it and generate growth. These stem cells are normally taken from bone marrow but it can commonly be know to damage the human’s bones. Another type of stem cells is a cord blood cell. These cells are taken from the human’s umbilical cord upon birth and stored in a bank for future use by the newborn. This type of stem cell can be used to treat a multitude of cancers, blood disorders, immune disorders, and metabolic disorders. These stem cells can be used for the newborn’s siblings and immediate relations. The farther away the relation, the more likely they won’t work. The last type of stem cells is called embryonic cells. As their name suggests, these stem cells are taken from human embryos. At the point when scientists take these stem cells, the embryo only has around 100 cells and the majority of them are stem cells so upon extraction the embryo will die. This is most controversial type of stem cell extraction and what most people think of when they hear stem cell research. The other types of stem research are perfectly safe during extraction and could only damage the subject receiving the stem cells.

            Stem cells are a great breakthrough in modern day medicine and are a huge way to treat a multitude of diseases and disorders.

            

For more information on stem cells, go to http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/basics1.asp