Alpha-1 Advocacy Alliance - Stem Cell Research Report Part One

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Stem Cell Research Report

NCER_X Special Report: Stem Cells, Part 1, May 2003 31st May 2003

Everyone's heard by now of the furor that surrounds stem cell research. But do you have to be a scientist to understand the issues? In this first of three articles about stem cell research, you will learn the basics about stem cells: what they are, and why they're important.

Stem Cells Research: Why All the Excitement?

The human body is made up of about 200 different types of cells. Anyone who's picked up a paper or newsmagazine in the last few years has noticed that one type of cells, the stem cells has been getting most of the attention.

Research on the behavior of stem cells has opened the door to the most exciting possibilities the medical field has ever seen. Stem cells have been used for some time, and they've even been used in repair jobs for diseased tissue. But it took scientists about 20 years to find human stem cells and observe the behaviors that they had formerly been able to test only in mice and other lab animals.

First things first: What are stem cells? In general, they're simply unspecialized cells just waiting for a signal to change themselves into any type of cell, from a brain cell (neuron) to a cardiac muscle cell or a blood cell. This ability is called pluripotency .

The specific stem cells that have generated all the excitement are embryonic stem cells; cells that come from an embryo that's only four or five days old. Embryonic stem cells are the stars of the research world because scientists have found that they can become almost any of the other 200 cell types. And that's not all. They appear capable of reproducing indefinitely, so they can be grown in the lab.

While Supplies Last

If stem cells can grow into almost any other type of cell under the right conditions, then they could probably be used to repair damaged tissue and organs, replace tissue that's gone amok (such as cancerous tissue) and substitute for missing parts. The possibilities are truly mind-boggling.

What's happened in the last few years to generate excitement is that scientists have succeeded in identifying them, isolating them and growing them in the lab. But there are obvious barriers to harvesting cells from live embryos; we'll discuss those issues in the next article.

Adult Stem Cells

In the meantime, scientists have figured out that adults have stem cells, too. We don't yet know where they come from: they may be leftovers from our embryonic days. In any case, although we know they're there, they are incredibly difficult to identify and isolate from all the other cells around them.

You'd expect an adult stem cell to have all the same features as embryonic cells; after all, they are also undifferentiated and waiting to become specialized. But that isn't the case. In fact, they're difficult to grow in the lab. So far, they can grow well only when transplanted into another animal.

What we do know is that some adult stem cells that have been found in the bone marrow and blood can be transformed into brain cells or muscle cells. Adult stem cells from the brain can also become muscle cells. This ability to transform is called plasticity , and scientists have to learn a great deal more about these behaviors before they're ready to apply the findings to human medicine.

A large number of questions remain unanswered. The potential of all types of stem cells is exciting, but we're just starting to sort through the data to see what's really going on. For instance, even if we can use stem cells to generate any type of tissue, how do we know the organism's immune system won't attack the transplanted cells? And even if they're not rejected, will the cells behave well or will they proliferate and form tumors?

We have many issues to resolve before the questions are answered. We'll be back next month with a discussion of the ethical, moral and political issues that arise from stem cell research.

This Special Report is brought to you courtesy of NCER_X LLC, an independent information publisher dedicated to providing useful, timely, relevant, and easily understood information on a wide range of healthcare topics.

Stem Cell Research: The Controversy (part two)
Stem Cell Research: The Good News! (part three)

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