Embryonic Stem Cells Essay

Superior Essays
Stem cells are the body’s raw material; they have the ability to develop into various cell types in the body, during the early stages of life. They also provide internal repair for many tissues. Stem cells can divide to replenish other cells. As the stem cell divides, it has the potential to remain a stem cell or morph into another type of cell that has a more specialized function, like a muscle cell, red blood cell, or brain cell. Stem cells can be guided into specific cells in order to regenerate and repair diseased tissue. Researchers study the process of how stem cells develop into specific cells. This provides clues about what specific factors may be able to directly induce specific types of tissue to repair it. In addition, stem cells are useful in determining new information on disease, identifying new drugs, and drug screenings for toxic side effects. Stem cells hold the possibility to treat a wide range of diseases like diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, spinal cord injury, and heart disease. Researchers and doctors can better understand how diseases and …show more content…
This is obtained by forcibly making them express genes and factors of embryonic stem cells. The first human iPSCs were developed in 2007. Pluripotent stem cells have already been useful for drug development and to imitate diseases. Scientists hope to use them is transplantation medicine. Viruses are used initiate the reprogramming in adult cells. This technique is still under testing so that it can eventually be used in treatment for humans. In the animal studies, the viruses used have been known to cause cancers. Now, cells can be manipulated into roles other than their pre-determined developmental fates. Another advantage is that tissues derived from iPSCs will be an almost identical match to the cell donor, being less likely to be rejected by the immune

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    However, there are other ways a researcher could get the desired stem cells of which include bone marrow and the umbilical cord. ALS states that “stem cells occur naturally, such as within the bone marrow, umbilical cord, or they can be created from other kinds of cells and that iPS cells human embryos were the only source of human cells that were available for research.” “Although not as big in number, iPS cells are induced pluripotent stem cells which are less harmful and yet more…

    • 1294 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Stem Cell Assignment 1. Summary of “Your Inner Healers” New scientific discoveries have shown that adult mouse cells can be “rewound” to once again be pluripotent like they were in their former embryonic state by adding a mixture of genes to the cells (called induced Pluripotent Stem Cells, or iPSCs). This contradicts the natural progression of cells’ potency as they age: in their early formation, embryonic cells have the ability to mature into any one of the 220 types of human cells, and soon after that they begin to lose potency and are only multipotent — able to develop into just a few different types of cells, until finally they become terminally differentiated, and therefore unable to develop into any other types of cells.…

    • 1720 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Is3350 Unit 1 Assignment

    • 3794 Words
    • 16 Pages

    Task 1 – Purpose You must refine the general question/topic down into a specific question for you to research and answer. Task 2 – Sources of information Processing information: Selecting biological ideas relevant to the issue from a range of sources and organising the ideas for reporting. A range needs to involve at least three sources and the sources can be the same type e.g. all from the Internet. Your sources should be recorded and processed in your research document.…

    • 3794 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The cell is the building block of life. The earliest form of these organisms are called stem cells, which can give rise to potentially any kind of cell. The possibilities of these revolutionary cells are vast, and are currently being applied in many scientific fields, one being the medical field. Stem cell scientists study a four to five day old organism, a ball of one hundred and twenty cells, which has the potential to give rise to a human being. Many think that the protection of human life should be extended to these cells.…

    • 1762 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Do you know someone with a disease like Alzheimer’s or diabetes? These people are in pain and having to struggle everyday knowing that, at this moment, there is not a cure for their illness. Doctors and scientists have been trying to fight these stubborn illnesses for decades, and were successful in finding a lead in 1998; which led to the development of embryonic stem cell research. The use of these stem cells, which are cells that can conform to any use or function that they need to, have been leading the way to help make great advances in medicine. Embryonic stem cell research should be viewed as a positive treatment option for patients.…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Why Embryonic Stem Cells are Essential The question that many scientists who are involved in embryonic stem cell research are facing is, which is more valuable? The life of a human suffering from a potentially deadly disease, or the life of human at one week of growth? Let first define what an embryonic stem cell is. Embryonic stem cells, they are resulting from “blastocyst stage embryos that develop in culture and are capable to indefinite expansion in vitro”.…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Can you imagine a world without disease, a world where you can have any trait of your child, changed to what you want, or even reverse the aging process by years? Well, with your help it can all be possible by using Stem Cell Research and some genetics as needed. Stem Cell Research ,originally discovered in mice embryos in 1981 and later starting on human embryos and growing cells in labs in 1998, is a controversy having to do with research involving the development, use, and destruction of embryos. Although this may see m Ethically wrong, there are other methods of obtaining stem cells without the need for embryos. Stem Cell research can help us have a better understanding of human embryonic development as well as an even better understanding of almost all cell of the human body.…

    • 893 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stem Cell Reasearch Essay

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Stem Cell Research My assisnged reasearch is obtaining information on how to identify stem cells and how to extract them. The main reason for stem cell reasearch is to use cells to grow new cell tissue, and to place that tissue into a human being to replace damaged or missing cells. The first thing to know is what are stem cells? Stem cells could be called the “master copy” of all the cells in your body, and their job is to divide into more cells. These daughter cells can become more stem cells, or can become a specilized cell.…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stem cells have the ability to change to any cell in the body in the early life or growth of a stem cells which will help cells respond better to insulin. Many view the issue of stem cell research and stem cell therapy as morally wrong and a crime against humanity, others view the study of stem cells as the next…

    • 476 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After a sperm cell and egg cell are combined to fertilized egg, It becomes a blastocyst trough cell division. Inside the blastocyst, there is a mass of cells called intracellular cells which form embryos through cell division and differentiation. Embryos form one fetus through pregnancy. In this process, cells of inner cell mass are differentiated into cells of all tissues, such as blood, bones, skin, and liver. If you remove cells of inner cell mass from a blastocyst and incubate them in a particular environment, there would be no more possibility to differentiate, but could be a cell that still has ability to differentiate.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Renewability gives stem cells the power to heal as they can replace and repair many tissues in the human body. Due to the unique properties stem cells possess, they display great promise to help solve medical illnesses and diseases. However, for the stem cell to reach its potential, research must be done. Stem cell research is the process of deriving, growing, and studying these cells from embryonic tissues, and understanding the vital properties that these cells potentially hold. Without the research of these significant biological structures, the stem cell would hold no value…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Benefits Of Stem Cells

    • 1031 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Within the last decade modern science has made an incredible breakthrough on re-growing damaged parts of the human body. Being able to regrow damaged cells sounds whole heartedly good. Although many people are against it because of how they repair the loss or damaged cells. To be able to repair damaged cells scientist must first obtain stem cells. Stem cells can be obtained three ways.…

    • 1031 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    STEM CELLS Stem cells are very homogenous due to the fact that they are of the same family type or lineage characteristically speaking. They are differentiated from other cells by two features. The first feature is that they are able to divide by cell division and the second feature is that under specific experimental conditions they can be directed to become tissue cells with certain functions. Stem cells are able to transform or regenerate themselves growing into the body’s approximately 200 different cell types. Most of the time stem cells would regenerate into the specific cell of the tissue the stem cell is situated although they are still able to take the form of any type of cell.…

    • 1824 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stem Cells Essay

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Stem cells are cells that have the ability to self-renew and differentiate to become a myriad of different cell types. They serve as an internal repair system, with the purpose of replenishing or damaged cells. They can be found in various microenvironments within the tissues called stem cell niches cells, some examples of these include include the brain, bone marrow, blood vessels, skin, teeth, heart, amniotic fluid, umbilical cord, etc. Typically, there are only a small number of stem cells in each tissue, and once they are removed their ability to divide and regenerate are limited. Stem cells, biologically, can constantly generate unaltered daughters, as well as have the ability to generate daughter cells will different and more restricted…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stem cells are defined as “undifferentiated” cells, meaning their purpose is yet to be decided by the body. This is in contrary to the vast majority of cells in our bodies that are “differentiated” meaning their purpose is defined. These special cells are reserved cells that can take on any other form serving as the building blocks for cell construction and re-construction. The research of these…

    • 1001 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays