Stem cell function
Over the course of human history, medicine has come along way. Centuries ago, we thought that he body was composed of different liquids called humors and if you were unlucky to get sick during this time, your blood would have been withdrawn in a process known as "blood-letting". In modern time, we can give antibiotics, perform open-heart surgery and even operate on the brain. However, one of the newest advances in medicine is stem cell research, which is a promising new field.
Normal cells in the body are specialized, like the neurons in the brain, red-blood cells in our blood and cells that make up our muscles and bones. All of these cells carry a DNA, which is unique to the person, except for the case of twins. But, what makes the cells different, is that some of these cells have certain genes that are either turned on or turned off. The genes are encoded in the DNA, which is all the same, but the gene expression is different. This means that the genes in our red-blood cells are expressed differently than the genes expressed in our lung cell, for example. And that lung cell will always stay a lung cell, it …show more content…
These include, red-blood cells for oxygen transport, various types of white-blood cells that fight infection, as well as platelets, which are involved in blood clotting. These cells have relatively short life spans, and because of this hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow are needed to ensure the continual replacements of these blood cells. Blood-forming stem cells are used in bone marrow transplantations for diseases that involve the blood, such as Leukemia. While transplantation of this bone marrow is usually quite successful, it is mailed the graft versus the host disease that usually proves to be fatal, where the donor's immune cells, which are produced by the transplanted bone marrow, start to attack the recipients
Over the course of human history, medicine has come along way. Centuries ago, we thought that he body was composed of different liquids called humors and if you were unlucky to get sick during this time, your blood would have been withdrawn in a process known as "blood-letting". In modern time, we can give antibiotics, perform open-heart surgery and even operate on the brain. However, one of the newest advances in medicine is stem cell research, which is a promising new field.
Normal cells in the body are specialized, like the neurons in the brain, red-blood cells in our blood and cells that make up our muscles and bones. All of these cells carry a DNA, which is unique to the person, except for the case of twins. But, what makes the cells different, is that some of these cells have certain genes that are either turned on or turned off. The genes are encoded in the DNA, which is all the same, but the gene expression is different. This means that the genes in our red-blood cells are expressed differently than the genes expressed in our lung cell, for example. And that lung cell will always stay a lung cell, it …show more content…
These include, red-blood cells for oxygen transport, various types of white-blood cells that fight infection, as well as platelets, which are involved in blood clotting. These cells have relatively short life spans, and because of this hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow are needed to ensure the continual replacements of these blood cells. Blood-forming stem cells are used in bone marrow transplantations for diseases that involve the blood, such as Leukemia. While transplantation of this bone marrow is usually quite successful, it is mailed the graft versus the host disease that usually proves to be fatal, where the donor's immune cells, which are produced by the transplanted bone marrow, start to attack the recipients