Stem Cells - Research Paper Example

Most other cells in our bodies are capable of either no replication at all, or only limited multiplication. Stem cells however can continue to replicate mitotically in an endless series of cell divisions in which a single progenitor call can give rise to populations of several million cells. 2. stem cells lack the functional characteristics of other cells in our bodies. For example the red blood cells can carry oxygen bound to the hemoglobin. The muscle cells can utilize ATP to contract and relax in response to nerve stimulation.

But stem cells cannot perform any of these specialized tasks. 3. when stem cells in our bodies are subjected to the appropriate stimuli, they undergo differentiation, a process by which stem cells give rise to different end-organs and tissues. These cells which arise from the stem cells are functional in the different body processes. Thus stem cells, by differentiation along different lines give rise to all the organs and tissues in our bodies. Research into stem cells has opened gateways in biological studies that would have been deemed unbreachable just a few decades ago.

The most astounding results that stem cell research have yielded are in the field of cell based therapies. The theory behind the use of stem cells in this field is that since stem cells are the progenitor calls that have given rise to all the tissues and organs in our body during our embryonic life, they can also be used to replenish the aforementioned organs and tissues should they become damaged or defective during our adult life. Theoretically, the stem cells can be used as a reservoir to supply any type of cells that become defective in our bodies.

For example, in diabetics, they can be used to create a new population of beta cells which can be transplanted to the patients pancreas. They can even be used to constitute entire organs, like kidneys, liver, cornea and even the heart for purposes of transplantation. In practical use, cell based therapies have only so far been applied on a limited scale in hematological malignancies, to reconstitute the cell population after intensive chemotherapy meant to eradicate the patients own bone marrow.

Their success and popularity as a mode of treatment in these illnesses is widely established.Stem cell research can also yield excessive information about the processes of cell division and differentiation that are involved in the development of the different organ systems of the embryo from the unicellular zygote. These mechanisms are of intense interest to scientists because they play key roles in diseases that are genetically inherited as well as in the development of cancers. If the defects in cell division and differentiation that give rise to certain genetically inherited traits can be identified, and the key growth or induction factors responsible for causing these defects elucidated, then perhaps these defects can be prevented or corrected in the very early stages of fetal life.

If the genetic changes