Stem Cells Essay

Pluripotent stem cells are just like Totipotent cells, but they can only become cell derived from the three germ layers, which contain over 200 specialized cells. Multipotent stem cells can only become blood cells, such as red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets. Unipotent stem cells can only transform into one type of tissue or specialized cell, but it can divide over and over again (Wikipedia). These embryonic stem cells can divide again and again through mitosis (a type of cell division in all body parts except reproductive parts). Medical specialists and leading scientists conclude, that these cells could help cure as many as seventy-three diseases, which up to now were thought incurable (NIH).

Pluripotent stem cells are the stem cells that can only differentiate into a limited range of differentiated cells. (2) They have the ability to give rise to all somatic cells from ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm, as well as gametes. Naturally it can be found in embryos as Embryonic stem cells (ES cells). Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells or iPSC) are the pluripotent stem cells that are generated directly from adult cells, first discovered by Shinya Yamanaka in 2006 by using a set of reprogramming factors (Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc or LIN28 and Nanog) (3) to reprogram mature cells back to a pluripotent state (4).

Others develop into muscle cells that can contract and also into nerve cells. Because they have the potential to become such a wide variety of specialized cells, embryonic stem cells are described as pluripotent. Plurip.0otency is one of two key features of embryonic stem cells. The second key feature of embryonic stem cells is their ability to divide or self renew for an indefinite period while retaining their undifferentiated, pluripotent state. As the cell mass grows, the population can be further expanded by growing in larger tissue culture flasks. An unlimited number of undifferentiated, pluripotent stem cells can be produced (Sumanas Inc. 2007).

The creation of induced pluripotent stem cells by direct reprogramming has allowed for the circumvention of using embryonic stem cells while still leaving the cells with the ability to maintain pluripotency. Instead of ES cells which were originally derived from the epiblast of mouse embryos, IPS cells were generated from mouse embryonic fibroblasts. This eliminated both any ethical concerns for whether those cells were a living being or not and the need to destroy embryos at the blastocyst stage. An advantage of IPS cells is that they are derived from human somatic cells which makes them easy to acquire due to the possibility of using skin or blood cells. They can also be grown and differentiated individually for each person that the sample of somatic cells is taken from which eliminates the possibility of having any immune reaction and rejection to the differentiated cells during transplantation. These characteristics of IPS cells are important because they are what enables us to safely and accurately transform these affected cells from patients cells into neurons and confidently study them.

In humans adult stem cells, not embryonic stem cells, have been used in therapies for more than forty years. People with blood disorders have used stem cell therapy to take the opportunity to improve upon their life. On the other hand, embryonic stem cells have a very high potential to treat or even cure numerous diseases like diabetes and heart disease. They are much more versatile in their usage compared to adult stem cells. Another practical use for embryonic stem cells is to treat damaged nerves ("Testing The Use…”). These nerves could have been impaired in a spinal cord injury. As of today, scientists have already performed stem cell transplants in people whose cells were damaged through chemotherapy of disease.

Although embryonic stem cells contain abilities to enrich human health, a less controversial source of stem cells remains- adult stem cells. Collecting adult stem cells takes place in numerous locations of the body such as: bone marrow, muscle, the brain, umbilical cords, and adipose tissue (Guinan 308). Goldstein documents of experimental findings how human brain stem cells “can achieve ninety to ninety-five perfect purity in combination with several previous steps” (207). However, scientists remained uncertain about the functionality of adult stem cells because they “typically generate the cell types of the tissues in which they reside” (“Stem Cell Basics” 1), but in 2006 a Kyoto University team discovered the ability to engineer adult stem cells into pluripotent stem cells (“New Method” 4). Recent technology allows scientists to “directly covert somatic cells to pluripotent cells regardless of availability of embryonic cells” (Han 278). This technology may foster the growth of stem cell research because it removes the challenge of accessing to pluripotent cells. Induced pluripotent stem cells potential to “promote patient specific and disease specific drug development” (Manohar 1) makes them even more constructive than embryonic stem cells when considering rejection by the host. Induced pluripotent stem cells attain the same flexibility as embryonic

Embryonic stem cells (hESC) are pluripotent. They are obtained from the inner mass of a 5-6 day old human blastocyst that consists of approximately 100 cells (Bongso & Lee, 2005, p. 3).

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are pluripotent and are obtained from the inner mass of a 4-5 day old human blastocyst that consists of approximately 100 cells (“Stem cell research,” 2009).

In essence, pluripotent cells are a universal building block within the human body, capable of becoming an eye, an arm, or even a nervous system.

While embryonic stem cells can restore and repair tissue, there also can be a risk when inducing them into

Human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are pluripotent cells isolated from blastocysts, and are highly useful in studying human development (Itzkovitz-Eldor et al., 2000 p. 88). Although the National Institute of Health states that “it is not known if iPSCs and embryonic stem cells differ in clinically significant ways”, iPSCs are already being used to achieve the same results as ESCs in some applications without the use of embryos, removing the ethical concern associated with ESCs (National Institutes of Health, 2009). ESCs are capable of differentiating into all cell types, and can be used as a source of differentiated cells. In the report by Itskovitz-Eldor et al., they discuss the induced differentiation of ESCs in suspension into embryoid bodies, including the three embryonic germ layers. The authors state that “the ability to induce formation of human embryoid bodies that contain cells of neuronal, hematopoietic and cardiac origins will be useful in studying early human embryonic development” (Itzkovitz-Eldor et al., 2000 p. 88).

During the earliest stages of the development of the embryo, its cells are entirely undifferentiated. When a cell has not yet discovered its operation in an organism, it is classified as a stem cell. The two major varieties of stem cells have been distinguished as pluripotent and totipotent. An example of a totipotent cell is an egg that has been fertilized by a sperm cell, and is a single cell egg. This cell now has the ability to develop into any and every human cell. “The first few cell divisions in embryonic development produce more totipotent cells. After four days of embryonic cell division, the cells begin to specialize into pluripotent stem cells” (Biomed Brown Edu). Pluripotent cells however, are not as adaptable. Nicknamed the “master cell”, pluripotent cells have the ability to produce cells from the three basic body layers, enabling the possibility for them to create all cells or tissues that the body may need to heal (Children’s Hospital Organisation).

In this study, expression of the transcription factor reduced while that of the E-cadherin cell receptor was up-regulated. The events were commensurate with the mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) process, which is the converse of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) phase of embryonic development. Reprogramming embodies the transient expression of OSKM transcription factors linked to pluripotency in somatic cells. These factors include c-Myc or Myc, KLF4, SOX2, and Octa4 (Li et al. 2017, p.6). They are critical to clinical translation of cell reprogramming in vivo. Their colonies resemble ESCs phenotypically, molecularly, and morphologically when compacted and placed on a culture dish.

this research would be to identify the factors that are involved in the cell making process that determines cell specialization. A few of our extreme medical conditions, like birth defects and cancer, are a direct result of abnormal cell specialization. If researchers obtain a better understanding of the normal cellular process, they can isolate the causes of these deadly illnesses. The most exciting potential use for stem cells is the generation of tissues and cells. Many diseases are a direct result from complications of cellular functions or destruction of tissues in the body. Many people donate organs and tissues to replace failing or destroyed tissues. Unfortunately, there are many more people suffering from these disorders than there are organs to transplant. That is where stem cells step in. They will give humans a chance to have a renewable source of cells and tissues that will treat a slue of diseases, and disabilities such as, Parkinson’s, stroke, burns, Alzheimer’s, spinal cord injury, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and

Pluripotent cells are all types of somatic cells and germ cells of an adult organism. They appear for a short period of mammalian embryonic development (Nikolic et. al., 2015). Pluripotent stem cell lines were derived from mammalian embryos and adult tissues using different techniques and from different sources-inner cell mass of the blastocyst, primordial germ cells, parthenogenetic oocytes, and mature spermatogonia- as well as by transgenic modification of various adult somatic cells (Mullen and Rosales, 2010). The inner