Embryonic Stem Cells Essay

Improved Essays
Stem Cells

What are stem cells?

Stem cells are cells that have the potential of become any cell in the body. There are two types of stem cells used, Adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells.1 An adult stem cell is an undifferentiated found in certain tissues in our body such as, the brain, bone marrow, blood, blood vessels, skin and liver. Adult stem cells are used to repair tissue and to replace dying of cells. For example in the bone marrow there are stem cells that create new blood cells.2 Adult stem cells can be manipulated to become any cell but it has some restrictions. 3 Embryonic stem cells are from embryos that developed in eggs, which have been fertilized through virto fertilization (fertilizing the egg in a Petri dish). These
…show more content…
Scientist places the cells in a Petri dish with a culture medium and on top a feeder layer is placed. The feeder layer provides nutrients to the cell. Then the cells go through the process of subculturing. 4 Cell culturing is mainly done for embryonic stem cells as the divide easier than adult stem cells as adult stem cells cannot be multiplied in cell cultures. Also embryonic stem cells are pluripotent while adult stem cells are multipotent. 5 Since the embryonic stem cells are undifferentiated, they have the possibility to differentiate into any cell in the body. 6 In the cell cultures the embryonic stem cells are grown under certain conditions, which allows it to stay undifferentiated. When the stem cells are placed in other cultures that contain different bases and alter the chemical composition, allows the cell to differentiate. Different bases and chemical composition can turn the stem cells into specific cells. This could help cure many diseases such as, Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, lung disease and etc. 7 The only problem with using embryonic stem cells is that when implanted, the body may reject it. While adult stem cells have a lower chance of being rejected because it is from the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Since stem cells can produce new tissues they could help in treating terminal illnesses such as cancer. A new tissue could be grown to replace the cancerous tissue. Adult stem cells and umbilical cord stem cells deal with this problem because adult stem cells are found in adult organs and tissue mostly bone marrow and umbilical cord stem cells are stem cells collected from the umbilical cord of a baby after delivery. Stem cell research can cure diseases that were once incurable can be done using stem cells. Its safer to use organs grown using stem cells during organ transplants because there are no risks of the body rejecting it.…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stem cell research kills humans, violates the boundaries between generations, benefits off of other people's wrongdoing and there are other ways of getting cells than endanger the life of a baby. There are many ethical concerns that come along with embryonic stem cell research. There are three ways that the scientist get embryos for research, they get them frozen from reproduction senators, they make a sperm and ova, or they make cloned embryos. In order to conduct embryonic stem cell research you need an embryo.…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stem cells are cells that have the ability to differentiate into many different types of specialized cells. However, stem cells are not where the controversial and ethical debates come from (NIH). Embryonic stem cells are the potentially life saving, while life ending, solution that flares controversial debates from scientists, religious leaders, politicians, and everyone in between. Embryonic stem cells are stem cells derived from an human embryos that are around five days old and have the ability to reproduce through cell division as well as differentiate into any type of cell (NIH). Embryonic stem cell research has great rewards with the possibilities of cell based therapies and cures of more than ten life altering diseases, but also has great consequences of cell rejection and the destroying of human embryos (NIH).…

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Blood forming stem cells can treat some blood diseases, and some brain stem cells may be able to treat some neural diseases and so on. The benefit from embryonic stem cells is that every cell in the human body is derived from the first few stem cells formed in the early stages of embryological development. Therefore, embryonic stem cells can be used to any desired cell type. This is the most important factor for harvesting cells so…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To begin with, one reason why embryonic stem cell research should be viewed as a positive treatment option is because it can aid in curing diseases that have no cures. Diseases such as Parkinson’s disease are far too common nowadays. For example, up to one million people in the United States alone suffer from Parkinson’s disease, and the number is expected to increase, with sixty thousand new cases reported every year, according to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation (pdf.org). With the help and the…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Embryonic stem cells are stem cells taken from human embryos. Embryonic stem cells are even better than stem cells taken from adults; adult stem cells can only do so much, but embryonic stem cells are able to develop into any cell type and can multiply almost infinitely. Because of their abilities, they can be used to repair organs. There is even work on trying to use stem cells to make entire organs. If stem cells are continued to be research, many diseases, like alzheimer’s and diabetes, could be cured.…

    • 758 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The average person doesn't understand what a stem cell is. There's a lack of health literacy in our nation. So the public can't really get into this dialogue because they don't understand the complexity of stem cells, not the faith-based approach, not the ideological or political, but the science behind stem cells.” Richard Carmona Stem cells are an incredible type of cell that is able to develop into many different cell types in the body. When a stem cell divides, it has the possibility of being a stem cell or become a different type of cell that would undergo a certain function such as a muscle cell in the heart.…

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stem cell therapy is used to control the growth of adult stem cells in a laboratory and use them to replace any dysfunctional cells within the body to prevent disease. An example of treatment would be replacing brain cells in order to treat Parkinson’s disease. Another goal is to develop insulin-producing cells for people suffering from diabetes. Scientists also hope to repair damage to the heart due to heart attacks. The public generally accepts adult stem cells because embryonic cells are not required, since the cells are taken from the…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    They have the ability to form all adult cell types. Harnessing this may very well provide a source of cells to replace those that are lost or damaged as a result of disease (Cowan, et al). Embryonic stems cells are taken from the embryos at the blastocyst stage and the procedure for getting them is relatively efficient. Adult stem cells on the other hand are hard, if not impossible to harvest. Also embryonic stem cells have a much greater proliferation capacity than do adult stem cells (Devolder).…

    • 1830 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Embryonic stem cell research is popular in society today. Embryonic stem cells are able to turn into many different kind of cells. This allows researchers to use them in many ways for different purposes. These cells can give many people new hope for their future by using them to help cure or fix different aliments.…

    • 1795 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    There are several different types of stem cells in the human body, each with varying levels of utility. Stem cells are useful in research in not only the human body, but in how to treat many different kinds of medical conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, neurological disorders. Stem cells have even been used to repair tissue damage from disease or age. Pluripotent stem cells, or embryonic stem cells, come from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst, an embryo about 5 days into fertilization. Due to the high likelihood of the embryo being destroyed in the process of cell extraction, their production and use in research has been a controversial…

    • 111 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Why is stem cell research unnecessary? Why don’t people talk about it much? I honestly think that stem cell research is not needed because it could go the same way as an abortion if not treated right. I can give three reasons why I am against stem cell research. Adult stem cells have limited ability to differentiate from others and are extremely hard to grow for long period in culture, embryonic stem cells may not be accepted when used in transplants because there is no process to generate them, and the embryonic stem cells remain in controversy because the cells are taken from human embryos by disassembling them.…

    • 624 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Stem cell research is one of the most highly disputed topics today in terms of medical ethics. In a nutshell, stem cells are cells that have the ability to divide for indefinite periods in culture and to give rise to specialized cells. Because of this function, scientists and doctors are inspired to control them and grow them for a multitude of different causes. The main types of stem cell research that are focused on today are adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells, and induced pluripotent stem cells.…

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stem cells are cells that retained cellular renewal ability (Avasthi, Ms, & Ms, 2008). These cells can differentiate to a large spectrum of cell types including but not limited to various organ cells and other tissue cells. There are 2 main types of stem cells: embryonic stem cells (embryo) and somatic stem cells (adult). Depending on the cell’s potency, the ability to differentiate to different cells will vary. There are different potency of cells, which include: totipotency, pluripotency and multipotency (Pei, Xu, Zhuang, Tse, & Esteban, 2010).…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although stem cell research can lead to astounding medical advancements, it is constantly being challenged because of the gap of misunderstanding between researchers and pharmaceutical companies. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that are able to differentiate into different cell types, and aide the body in getting rid of harmful diseases. But the methods of using stem cells are usually not understood or accepted. In order to form an opinion on this controversial topic one must be knowledgeable on the different types of stem cells as well as their functions. The three types of stem cells that scientists focus on are embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells, and Induced pluripotent stem cells.…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays