Stem Cell Research: Advances Open New Frontiers in Medicine

Advances Open New Frontiers In Medicine

As the public gains aw`reness of the benefits of stem cell research to extend and improve human life and combat diseases, more people are realizing that, rather than a technology to be feared, this research may offer solutions to our most pressing health problems. Heart disease, Alzheimer's, diabetes, debilitating congenital diseases, and accident-cased spinal injuries are just a few of the many conditions that may be treated with stem cell technology in the future. Studies into the use of stem cells are ongoing and new discoveries are pushing the envelope of medicine's capacity to treat disease and improve human life.

Both types of stem cell research currently being pursued, adult and embryonic research, hold the potential to cure or improve severe diseases. Adult stem cell technology, in which the progenitor cells within an adult's body are reproduced and turned into needed cells of different types, is already being used clinically to help replace malfunctioning tissues and cells in patients. Embryonic stem cell technology, which relies on stem cells of early-stage embryos to create needed human cells, shows potential particularly in the field of therapeutic cloning.

Stem cell research is experiencing great advances, allowing humans to see a future where diseases of today will not be of such concern tomorrow. Once not well understood and even feared by the majority of the public, the use of stem cell

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hnology is favored because cells from a patient can be used on that same individual, ruling out the typical occurrence of immune reaction, in which the patient's body rejects cells that are not his or her own. For example, patients receiving organ transplants often must take immunosuppressive drugs to ward off their body's immune reaction to the foreign tissue. However, when using one's own stem cells to generate cells or organs to replace damaged tissues, this immune response does not occur. This is a major benefit of stem cell therapy. Embryonic stem cell therapy involves using cells from an embryo to create new types of cells or new organs that can be used to replace defective or damaged cells in a patient. Cells from an early-stage embryo are harvested and treated with chemicals until they become the needed cell type. As with adult stem cell therapy, these cells are cultured and then inserted into the patient. Cells used for this purpose are typically derived from early-stage embryos, masses of cells that have not yet differentiated that are left over from in vitro fertilization procedures performed by fertility clinics (Shuklenk and Ashcroft). Once cultured in a lab, early-stage embryo cells are immortal, meaning they can c

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