Ruther Harvey I.

Cabral

Pluripotent, embryonic stem cells originate as inner mass cells within a blastocyst. The stem cells can become any tissue in the body, excluding a placenta. Only the morula's cells are totipotent, able to become all tissues and a placenta.

type of cell that can make any kind of cell required to build an organism. biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide through mitosis and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self renew to produce more stem cells

 The

classical definition of a stem cell requires that it possess two properties:

Self-renewal - the ability to go through numerous cycles of cell division while maintaining the undifferentiated state. Potency - the capacity to differentiate into specialized cell types. In the strictest sense, this requires stem cells to be either totipotent or pluripotent - to be able to give rise to any mature cell type, although multipotent or unipotent progenitor cells are sometimes referred to as stem cells.

 Embryonic

cells derived from the epiblast tissue of the inner cell mass (ICM) of a blastocyst or earlier morula stage embryos. A blastocyst is an early stage embryoapproximately four to five days old in humans and consisting of 50150 cells. These cells are pluripotent and give rise during development to all derivatives of the three primary germ layers: ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm. In other words, they can develop into each of the more than 200 cell types of the adult body when given sufficient and necessary stimulation for a specific cell type.

 Fetal

primitive stem cells located in the organs of fetuses also known as somatic stem cells and germline stem cells rare and generally small in number but can be found in a number of tissues including umbilical cord blood lineage-restricted (multipotent) and generally referred to by their tissue origin

Adult

 Amniotic

found in amniotic fluid very active, expand extensively without feeders and are not tumorigenic multipotent and can differentiate in cells of adipogenic, osteogenic, myogenic, endothelial, hepatic and also neuronal lines

Induced

pluripotent

not adult stem cells, but rather reprogrammed cells given pluripotent capabilities uses genetic reprogramming with protein transcription factors

Stem cells, from which all human tissues develop, may provide powerful tools in the treatment of disease. To explore their potential uses, scientists can theoretically grow stem cells from leftover eggs fertilized by sperm during laboratory fertility treatments. After several days, the fertilized egg forms a mass called a blastocyst with stem cells inside. The cells are removed from the blastocyst and grown in laboratory dishes into specialized body cells. Scientists have reported success in growing nerve, bone, muscle, blood, and skin cells.

For over 30 years, bone marrow, and more recently, umbilical cord blood stem cells, have been used to treat cancer patients with conditions such as leukemia and lymphoma. During chemotherapy, most growing cells are killed by the cytotoxic agents. These agents, however, cannot discriminate between the leukemia or neoplastic cells, and the hematopoietic stem cells within the bone marrow. It is this side effect of conventional chemotherapy strategies that the stem cell transplant attempts to reverse; a donor's healthy bone marrow reintroduces functional stem cells to replace the cells lost in the host's body during treatment.

 Brain

Damage

Healthy adult brains contain neural stem cells which divide to maintain general stem cell numbers, or become progenitor cells. In healthy adult animals, progenitor cells migrate within the brain and function primarily to maintain neuron populations for olfaction (the sense of smell). Stem cells may also be used to treat brain degeneration, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease

Spinal Cord Injury

A team of Korean researchers reported on November 25, 2003, that they had transplanted multipotent adult stem cells from umbilical cord blood to a patient suffering from a spinal cord injury and that following the procedure, she could walk on her own, without difficulty In January 2005, researchers at the University of WisconsinMadison differentiated human blastocyst stem cells into neural stem cells, then into premature motor neurons, and finally into spinal motor neurons, the cell type that, in the human body, transmits messages from the brain to the spinal cord and subsequently mediates motor function in the periphery.

 Heart

Damage

Several clinical trials targeting heart disease have shown that adult stem cell therapy is safe, effective, and equally efficient in treating old and recent infarcts. Adult stem cell therapy for treating heart disease was commercially available in at least five continents at the last count (2007). It may be possible to have adult bone marrow cells differentiate into heart muscle cells

 Blindness/Vision

Impairment

Since 2003, researchers have successfully transplanted corneal stem cells into damaged eyes to restore vision. In April 2005, doctors in the UK transplanted corneal stem cells from an organ donor to the cornea of Deborah Catlyn, a woman who was blinded in one eye when acid was thrown in her eye at a nightclub. Human embryonic stem cells may be grown in cell culture and stimulated to form insulinproducing cells that can be transplanted into the patient.

Diabetes

Wound Healing

A possible method for tissue regeneration in adults is to place adult stem cell "seeds" inside a tissue bed "soil" in a wound bed and allow the stem cells to stimulate differentiation in the tissue bed cells. This method elicits a regenerative response more similar to fetal wound-healing than adult scar tissue formation.

Infertility
Culture of human embryonic stem cells in mitotically inactivated porcine ovarian fibroblasts (POF) causes differentiation into germ cells (precursor cells of oocytes and spermatozoa), as evidenced by gene expression analysis. Human embryonic stem cells have been stimulated to form Spermatozoon-like cells, yet still slightly damaged or malformed.

 Stem

cell research and treatment is currently allowed in China and Mexico. Clinical trials are currently undergoing in South Korea and Ukraine.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health's Guidelines stated: "...research involving human pluripotent stem cells...promises new treatments and possible cures for many debilitating diseases and injuries, including Parkinson's disease, diabetes, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, burns and spinal cord injuries. The NIH believes the potential medical benefits of human pluripotent stem cell technology are compelling and worthy of pursuit in accordance with appropriate ethical standards."

 An

ethical debate centered only on research involving the creation, usage, and destruction of human embryos Most commonly, this controversy focuses on embryonic stem cells Not all stem cell research involves the creation, usage and destruction of human embryos

For example, adult stem cells, amniotic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells do not involve creating, using or destroying human embryos and thus are minimally, if at all, controversial.

 The

status of the human embryo and human embryonic stem cell research is a controversial issue as, with the present state of technology, the creation of a human embryonic stem cell line requires the destruction of a human embryo. Stem cell debates have motivated and reinvigorated the pro-life movement, whose members are concerned with the rights and status of the embryo as an early-aged human life.

 They

believe that embryonic stem cell research instrumentalizes and violates the sanctity of life and is tantamount to murder. The fundamental assertion of those who oppose embryonic stem cell research is the belief that human life is inviolable, combined with the fact that human life begins when a sperm cell fertilizes an egg cell to form a single cell, though an embryo is only human once it has developed cells that perform human functions

 This

argument often goes hand-in-hand with the utilitarian argument, and can be presented in several forms:

Embryos are not equivalent to human life while they are still incapable of surviving outside the womb (i.e. they only have the potential for life). More than a third of zygotes do not implant after conception. Thus, far more embryos are lost due to chance than are proposed to be used for embryonic stem cell research or treatments.

Blastocysts are a cluster of human cells that have not differentiated into distinct organ tissue; making cells of the inner cell mass no more "human" than a skin cell. Some parties contend that embryos are not humans, believing that the life of Homo sapiens only begins when the heartbeat develops, which is during the 5th week of pregnancy, or when the brain begins developing activity, which has been detected at 54 days after conception.

 In

vitro fertilization (IVF) generates large numbers of unused embryos (e.g. 70,000 in Australia alone).Many of these thousands of IVF embryos are slated for destruction. Using them for scientific research uses a resource that would otherwise be wasted. While the destruction of human embryos is required to establish a stem cell line, no new embryos have to be destroyed to work with existing stem cell lines. It would be wasteful not to continue to make use of these cell lines as a resource.

 Abortions

are legal in many countries and jurisdictions. The argument then follows that if these embryos are being destroyed anyway, why not use them for stem cell research or treatments?

 This

is usually presented as a counterargument to using adult stem cells as an alternative that doesn't involve embryonic destruction. Embryonic stem cells make up a significant proportion of a developing embryo, while adult stem cells exist as minor populations within a mature individual (e.g. in every 1,000 cells of the bone marrow, only 1 will be a usable stem cell). Thus, embryonic stem cells are likely to be easier to isolate and grow ex vivo than adult stem cells.

Embryonic stem cells divide more rapidly than adult stem cells, potentially making it easier to generate large numbers of cells for therapeutic means. In contrast, adult stem cell might not divide fast enough to offer immediate treatment. Embryonic stem cells have greater plasticity, potentially allowing them to treat a wider range of diseases. Adult stem cells from the patient's own body might not be effective in treatment of genetic disorders. Allogeneic embryonic stem cell transplantation (i.e. from a healthy donor) may be more practical in these cases than gene therapy of a patient's own cell.

 DNA

abnormalities found in adult stem cells that are caused by toxins and sunlight may make them poorly suited for treatment. Embryonic stem cells have been shown to be effective in treating heart damage in mice. Embryonic stem cells have the potential to cure chronic and degenerative diseases which current medicine has been unable to effectively treat.

 Before

the primitive streak is formed when the embryo attaches to the uterus at approximately 14 days after fertilization, a single fertilized egg can split in two to form identical twins, or a pair of embryos that would have resulted in fraternal twins can fuse together and develop into one person. Since a fertilized egg has the potential to be two individuals or half of one, some believe it can only be considered a potential person, not an actual one. Those who subscribe to this belief then hold that destroying a blastocyst for embryonic stem cells is ethical.

Harold E. Varmus, former director of the National Institutes of Health, a U.S. government agency, testifies before a Senate subcommittee in 1998 on the potential benefits of stem cell research for the treatment of human disease. Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and heart disease are among the illnesses that researchers hope stem cells may some day alleviate.

Europe

Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, and Ireland do not allow the production of embryonic stem cell lines, but the creation of embryonic stem cell lines is permitted in Finland, Greece, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Asia

China has one of the most permissive human embryonic stem cell policies in the world. In the absence of a public controversy, human embryo stem cell research is supported by policies that allow the use of human embryos and therapeutic cloning.

 Baptists

The Southern Baptist Convention opposes human embryonic stem cell research on the grounds that "Bible teaches that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:27; 9:6) and protectable human life begins at fertilization." However, it supports adult stem cell research as it does "not require the destruction of embryos."

Catholicism

In regards, to embryonic stem cell research, the Catholic Church affirms that "the killing of innocent human creatures, even if carried out to help others, constitutes an absolutely unacceptable act." The deliberate destruction of a human embryo is incompatible with Roman Catholic doctrine, according to which, Pontifical Academy for Life has stated that human blastocysts are inherently valuable and should not be voluntarily destroyed as they are "from the moment of the union of the gametes" human subjects with well defined identities. The Church supports research that involves stem cells from adult tissues and the umbilical cord, as it "involves no harm to human beings at any state of development."

 Methodism

In regards, to embryonic stem cell research, the United Methodist Church stands in "opposition to the creation of embryos for the sake of research" as "a human embryo, even at its earliest stages, commands our reverence." However, it supports adult stem cell research, stating that there are "few moral questions" raised by this issue.

Pentecostalism

The Assemblies of God opposes "the practice of cultivating stem cells from the tissue of aborted fetuses" because it "perpetuates the evil of abortion and should be prohibited."

 Jewish

view

According to Rabbi Levi Yitschak Halperin of the Institute for Science and Jewish Law in Jerusalem, embryonic stem cell research is permitted so long as it has not been implanted in the womb. Not only is it permitted, but research is encouraged, rather than wasting it.