Stem Cells - Research Paper Example

Cell-based devices are among the most appropriate techniques that surgeons have proposed. These approaches may provide effective therapeutic opportunities for repairing damaged bones due to injury or disease. The source of cells for cell-based approaches includes xenogenic, allogenic, and autologous cells. Scientists have discovered the use of Embryonic Stem Cells (ESC), which have proved to be effective in the repair of damaged bones. The source of the ESCs includes the blastocysts’ inner cell mass, which undergo fast cell division to replace the lost bone tissues.

ESCs differentiate into osteogenic cells in selective culture environment. This property makes the ESCs to be effective in repairing or replacing the lost bone tissue (Kahle et al., 2010). Materials and Methods C57BL/6 mice acted as the source of the inner cell mass of blastocysts, which provided the embryonic stem cells. It was necessary to test the cells to ensure that they were positive for the experimentation. 1.5 x 106 cells were cultured in every Petri dish containing Dulbecco Eagle to enhance osteogenic differentiation.

Dulbecco Eagle was changed in a daily basis and the embryonic stems cells were split once after two days through detachment with trypsin (Kahle et al., 2010). . 2. Kitchen, S. G., Shimizu, S., & An, D. S. (2011). Stem cell-based anti-HIV gene therapy. Virology, 411, 260–272. Background There is a pressing need to develop an effective therapeutic strategy for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. It has been a deadly disease because scientists have not yet developed effective medication or vaccination strategy.

However, scientists have developed antiretroviral drug therapy, which has enabled the infected individuals to live for long before the virus takes full control of the immune system. There is a need for new techniques that can replace or complement existing antiretroviral drug therapy. It will be significant for scientists to develop new techniques that will fully control the virus and restore the damaged immune system. The recent technology of developing stem cell-based therapy as well as the technologies that make it possible for these cells to undergo genetic modification, has motivated scientists to work toward finding an appropriate medication for HIV infection (Kitchen, Shimizu, & An, 2011).

Scientists have used hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy technique to ensure that the immune system of the infected individuals develops a long-term resistance to HIV. Hematopoietic stem cells have the capability of differentiation and self-renewal that bring about hematopoietic lineages. New genes due to hematopoietic stem cells have the ability to continue producing the anti-HIV genes in the differentiated cells, which includes cells such as macrophages, CD4 and T-lymphocytes (Kitchen, Shimizu, & An, 2011).

Methods Because of the recent stem cell technology, scientists have a number of techniques that will possible cure HIV infection. They have employed a variety of methods to bring about an appropriate intervention such as