Stem Cells Research

Stem cell research has gained a lot of momentum in the past few years-due to the potential and controversies surrounding it! A lot of scientists and researchers claim that stem cells can help in curing grave diseases like type 1 diabetes, Alzheimer?s disease, multiple sclerosis, as well as spinal cord injuries where as other argue about the ethics of producing them. The debate is still continues but we have to reach a standpoint somewhere, and look at the positive side than harp about the negatives!

What are stem cells?

Stem cells are the undifferentiated cells present in an organism which have the potential to develop into specialized organs or tissues. The stem cells divide through mitotic division and after division, they can either remain as a stem cell or grow into another type of cell, having specialized functions such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell.

Stem Cells are of two types- embryonic stem cells or adult stem cells. The embryonic stem cells are derived from human embryos or the inner mass of the blastocyst and are pluripotent- meaning that they are able to divide into any type of specialized cell whereas the adult stem cells are found among the differentiated tissues or organs and have the potential to yield the same type of cells of a specialized tissue or organ. They also have the capacity to renew or repair any damage to the tissue or organ.

There has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the stem cells. The stem cells have the ability to grow into specialized types of organs- which means that they can be used for organ transplants because they can be grown to yield specific types of organs. Moreover it has been found out that stem cells can be used for curing diseases like cancer, Alzheimer?s disease, Parkinson?s disease, multiple sclerosis, and so on. So, one can see the tremendous potential which these cells have!

However, the advocators of human life despise or do not support this research because the extraction of embryonic stem cell requires the destruction of embryos- which means the end of a human life! Hence, the opposers of stem cell research do not regard it as ethical. President Bush has also strongly rejected the research on embryonic stem cells because he feels that this research in fact, destroys a human embryo! Funds devoted to stem cell research are being taken away due to strong oppositions by various ethical communities.

Even though stem cell research holds a lot of potential, yet it is being criticized on moral and ethical grounds. In the mean while we can just sit back and hope that people realize the immense value of this research and start advocating it!

Embryonic cells as the name suggest are derived from the embryos. Specifically the embryonic cells are derived from the embryos that develop from egg that have been fertilized in vitro in a vitro fertilization clinic which is then donated for the research purpose of the informed consent of the donor. The embryos from which the human embryonic stem cells are derived are typically four to five days old and are hollow microscopic balls of cells called the blastocyst.

The blastocysts include the three structures. They are as follows:

1. The first one is the trophoblast which is the layer of the cells that surrounds the blastocysts.
2. The blastocoels which is the hollow cavity inside the blastocysts.
3. The third one is the inner cell mass which is generally a group of thirty cells at one end of the blastocoels.

The another question which is really very important in the field of stem cells and related to this type of cell is that how are the embryonic cells grown in the laboratory.

How are the embryonic stem cells grown?
The growing cells in the laboratory are called the cell cultures. The human embryonic cells are isolated by the transferring the inner cell mass into a plastic laboratory cultural dish that contains a nutrient broth known as the culture medium. The cells divide and spread over the surface of the dish. This coating layer of the cell is called the feeder layer.

The reason for having the mouse cells in the bottom of the culture dish is to give the inner cell mass cells a sticky surface to which they can attach. Also, the feeder cells release nutrients into the culture medium. Recently, scientists have begun to devise ways of growing embryonic stem cells without the mouse feeder cells. This is a significant scientific advancement because of the risk that viruses or other macromolecules in the mouse cells may be transmitted to the human cells.

What laboratory tests are used to identify the embryonic stem cells?
The most important process related to the tests related to the embryonic cells is the characterization. I must tell you what actually the characterization is? The scientists test the cells to exhibit the fundamental properties that make then embryonic stem cells. This process is also called the characterization.

I would like to describe one test for you. It is as follows:

• The test is the growing and sub culturing of the stem cells for many months. This ensures that the cells are capable of long-term self-renewal. Scientists inspect the cultures through a microscope to see that the cells look healthy and remain undifferentiated.
• It is not only me, in fact all the scientists believe that the study of stem cell is really going to throw light on many unsolved theories of biology.