Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research | Adult Cells

Now not only can they take the stem cells from your blood, or the cancer cells from your blood. Now they can do both. Sounds like pretty cool technology, check it out.
Professor Michael King of the University of Rochester has invented a device that filters the blood for cancer and stem cells. When he captures cancer cells, he kills them. When he captures stem cells, he harvests them for later use in tissue engineering, bone marrow transplants and other health applications.

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So a lot of us have either given or received blood from blood bank. The Red Cross and similar organizations literally gather thousands of pints of blood to give to those who have special needs. Many college students have even stayed alive by donating plasma. But, has anyone ever thought about a Public Umbilical Cord Bank?

Many new parents have heard about Umbilical Cord Blood Banking and Registries. But, it’s pretty expensive to do, so a lot of that blood just gets thrown away. The average cost right now is about $1500 with an annual fee of about $100. For those parents who don’t have as much money as they might want, they would probably rather put that in a college fund or the like. But, the government recently donated money for 6 banks to store public cord blood. The donor’s will wave their rights to using the blood and it will be used for a bank. This way, just like donating your blood, those who meet the given criteria can use your stem cells for their benefit. It is a really good idea. Preserving your cord blood costs a lot and you might never even use it. But this way when you need it, you should be able to get it, and every new child can donate without any real loss to themselves. A pretty cool idea if you ask me. This is a definite Pro in the Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research.

In an article in the Washington Post that I read today, (if you look at the date, it’s kind of old news, but new to me) I learned that they can actually use skin cells to make embryonic stem cells. The difference might be that they just classify them as Adult Stem Cells now (I do know that they can use skin to obtain adult stem cells), but back then they called them embryonic stem cells.

Either way, it is amazing to me how they are able to obtain adult stem cells from so many different sources. It truly is impressive that we no longer need embryo’s or need to use bone marrow or something difficult to get stem cells. Instead we can use skin, hair follicles, and lot’s of different things to obtain stem cells. This truly is amazing.

Just another amazing find in the Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research.

It seems that new techniques are being used to promote the study of stem cell research. Apparently researchers have successfully altered the offspring of a sow, to produce flourescent green pigs. By injecting fluorescent green proteins into embryonic pigs they successfully made it so that portions of the pigs glow green under ultra-violet light.

I’m honestly not sure what the reason, nor the consequence of this decision is, but it could raise awareness of stem cell research. It could also be in celebration of the year of the pig, which starts in China in February.

George W. Bush is painted as a bad guy on almost half of the sites/and blogs that I visit regarding the Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research. It seems that everyone in favor of embryonic stem cell research has decided that George W. Bush is the hater of science and has single handedly prevented any future breakthroughs in the scientific field.

While I would definately understand frustration on the part of those who support such research, I cannot completely understand their hatred. What annoys me the most is they always make the accusation that President Bush has “prevented the most promising of stem cell research.” Most promising? I agree that there is potential promise, but the only one that has yielded successful results is adult stem cells. They have had 72 successful treatments, compared to embryonic stem cells whopping 0. They have been used in so many things and many scientists say they are astonished at the new found capabalities of adult stem cells. They can be obtained from numerous parts of any one of us (which means obtaining them are cheaper). There are just so many things better about it. So I can see the frustration, but could one wonder “Did George W. Bush do Stem Cell Research a favor by diverting money to a more promising stem cell field?” The answer in my opinion is a resounding…..It would appear so.

I am always amazed at what stem cell research has done so far and the amazing potential it still seems to have. From cures to heart defects to taking anti-cancer drugs to cancer cells, it appears that stem cell research can do everything. Again, one of the Pros in the Pros and Cons of Adult Stem Cell Research.
It is widely hoped that neural stem cells will eventually be useful for replacing nerves damaged by degenerative diseases like Alzheimer disease and multiple sclerosis. But there may also be another use for such stem cells–delivering anti-cancer drugs to cancer cells.

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So you think your an expert on stem cell research? You think you know about all of the Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research? You must know everything, that we can get adult stem cells from hair follicles and umbilical cord blood. Well, for those of you who think that, and for those of you who don’t, try taking the stem cell research quiz. It’s a little over five minutes long, but I think it was pretty good. Leave a comment, let me know how you did.

Many of us didn’t know this, be sort of assume that a stem cell only shows exists in “animals.” We also believe that the only two kinds of stem cells are adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells because of the debate over the Pros and Cons of Stem Cells. But you would be surprised to know that there is a whole list of different kinds of stem cells. One of these kinds of stem cells are cancer stem cells.

The article that I read discusses notes that under 2 sweeps of a standard radiation regiment only 20% of normal breast cancer cells are still living. On the other hand, twice that number of stem cells live. Some scientists believe that these are the most important types of cells to destroy, because of their ability to become other types of cells.

Scientists suppose that because of the stem cells ability to alter it’s DNA, that the cells aren’t in as much danger of their DNA changing. Unfortunately there hasn’t been too much research on this. But this is an exciting find that should hopefully spur more of it.

Feel free to leave your comments and let us know what you think about the Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research Blog.

It appears that there is a compromise in stem cell research. I was made aware of this via the scientific activist. He definitely would label himself in the pros of adult stem cell category. But, he is getting a graduate degree at Oxford in molecular biology, so he definately knows what he is talking about. Anyway, I quote from him, but this definitely has some implications for the Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research Debate. He says:

“The technique involves removing a single cell from an eight-cell blastula and using this cell to derive a line of stem cells while allowing the remaining cells to grow and develop normally, without any apparent damage to the embryo. This was an interesting advance….”. He is not sure that he believes it works completely yet, but could it be a potential compromise to the stem cell debate? It definitely could be. The potential downside is that the new embryonic cell could theoretically become a human as well. So is using that for research killing a human (even if the other embryo develops into a human). So some I’m sure would still find this appealing, but it is indefinables an interesting idea, that could lead in part to a compromise in stem cell research.

I realized that I have just been blogging about stem cells in general. While I don’t think that is bad, even important at times, the purpose of this blog is to list the different sides of the debate. Many of us know that the center of the debate of the Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research revolves around embryonic stem cells and if they are just as good. But, there is another side that isn’t on the forefront, but has a lot of implications in the debate. That is whether or not Adult Stem Cells have as many capabilities as Embryonic Stem Cells. For many years the debate was fueled by the embryonic advocates saying that Adult Stem Cells weren’t really capable of turning into other types of cells and were therefore limited in what they could become. Well, allow me to list the reasons why many in the scientific world are changing their mind.

It should be noted that more money is given to Adult Stem Cell Research (the NIH gave $190 Million last year compared to the $24.8 million given for Embryonic Stem Cells). But, what many of the Adult Stem Cell critics are missing is that they have been used in many treatments. 72 adult stem cell treatments have been performed at last count, while a whopping 0 have been performed from Embryonic Stem Cells. Adult stem cells are used in bone-marrow transplants and even treat certain cases of leukemia and other blood disorders. There are also treatments being made for heart attacks, liver, bone and brain diseases and disorders.

“Osiris, which grew out of research by scientists at Case Western University in Cleveland, is using stem cells from bone-marrow donors to target, among other maladies, heart disease, specifically heart attacks. It is in early-stage human testing of a therapy in which heart-attack patients are intravenously injected with stem cells that are said to migrate to the heart and replace damaged cells.” - The Washington Post

John Hopkins University Professor, Saul J. Sharkis, who has mad advances in Adult Stem Cell Research, was very surprised at what has been accomplished in Adult Stem Cell Research. He says, “It is mind-blowing stuff,” and “I never would have thought this would be possible … Preposterous. Not Possible. No Way.”

Obviously many in the scientific community are excited and surprised by these findings. If this really is the answer, it could be the end to the debate over the Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research as we know it. It is definitely an exciting possibility that has already yielded some great successes.