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Showing posts with the label adult stem cell

STEM CELLS: HAS SCIENCE GONE TOO FAR?

                            STEM CELLS: HAS SCIENCE GONE TOO FAR? Advances in stem cell research have led some to predict cures for a host of illnesses. But not everyone shares the excitement. Why is there so much controversy surrounding stem cells? “The stem cell debate has led scientists and nonscientists alike to contemplate profound issues, such as who we are and makes us human beings”                                  MEDICAL MARVEL, ETHICAL MINEFIELD   Kris has Type 1 diabetes. Her diseased pancreas no longer produces insulin. Now imagine if Kris could go to a doctor and have new cells, specially cultured in a laboratory, transplanted into her body to replace damaged pancreatic cells. As these new cells became functional, Kris could gradually discontinue insulin therapy and return to normal health. Until recent times potential cures would have sounded like science fiction, but now some researchers believe that they are a possibility. Why so? Because in

MYSTERIOUS FACTS ABOUT CLONING

                                                    In the hands of a trained craftsman, a lump of soft clay can be formed into practical any shape. Embryonic stem cells are the living equivalent of that piece of moist clay; they have the prospective to give rise to virtually all of the over 200 cell types making up the human body. How do they do this? Consider what happens to a newly fertilized egg cell.             Soon after fertilization an egg cell begins to divide. In humans about five days of cell division results in a minute ball of cells called a BLASTOCYST . It is essentially a hollow sphere that is composed of a shell-like outer cell layer and a small cluster of about 30 cells called the inner cell mass, which is attached to the inside wall of the sphere. The outer cell layer becomes the PLACENTA ; the inner cell mass, the human embryo.          At the blastocyst stage, though, the cells of the inner cell mass have not yet begun to specialize into specific cell

MYSTERIES SURROUNDING CLONING

                                    In the hands of a trained craftsman, a lump of soft clay can be formed into practical any shape. Embryonic stem cells are the living equivalent of that piece of moist clay; they have the prospective to give rise to virtually all of the over 200 cell types making up the human body. How do they do this? Consider what happens to a newly fertilized egg cell.           Soon after fertilization an egg cell begins to divide. In humans about five days of cell division results in a minute ball of cells called a BLASTOCYST . It is essentially a hollow sphere that is composed of a shell-like outer cell layer and a small cluster of about 30 cells called the inner cell mass, which is attached to the inside wall of the sphere. The outer cell layer becomes the PLACENTA ; the inner cell mass, the human embryo.          At the blastocyst stage, though, the cells of the inner cell mass have not yet begun to specialize into specific cell types, such as nerve