Carrillo1

Andres Carrillo

Mrs. Knighten-Miller Period 6

English 11

11 October 2016

Stem Cell Research

Stem cells were first thought of in the 1800s, scientists knew that there were cells that

created other cells. There were trials to fertilize a mammalian egg outside of a human body at the

start of the 1900s. Throughout the 1900s there were many discoveries of stem cells being found

in the human body and numerous other animals. However, the discovery that had the most

impact was in 1997 when a scientist by the name Keith Campbell cloned a sheep from stem cells.

From then on stem cell research was tainted with debate and controversy. Scientists

experimented with adult mouse tissues because they can produce different cell types. This

allowed them to believe that cells from bone marrow could do the same as adult mouse tissues.

In 1968 the first successful bone marrow transplant happened to a child patient that was suffering

from an immune deficiency. The doctors name was Robert A. Good from the University of

Minnesota. In 1998, Thompson, from the University of Wisconsin, isolated cells from the inner

cell mass of early embryos and developed the first embryonic stem cell lines. During that exact

same year, Gearhart, from Johns Hopkins University, derived germ cells from cells in fetal gonad

tissue; pluripotent stem cell lines were developed from both sources. Then, in 1999 and 2000,

scientists discovered that manipulating adult mouse tissues could produce different cell types.

This meant that cells from bone marrow could produce nerve or liver cells and cells in the brain

could also yield other cell types. These discoveries were exciting for the field of stem cell
 Carrillo2

research, with the promise of greater scientific control over stem cell differentiation and

proliferation.

In recent years new scientific methods and understandings have led to an explosion of

interest in stem-cell research. This is so because stem cells can generate a huge variety of cells

vitally important for the blood, brain, various organs, and neurological system. These

potentialities raise the possibility of intervention or cure in the treatment of cancer, Parkinsons

Disease, Alzheimers, ALS, other neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular disease, diabetes,

auto-immune syndromes, spinal-cord injury, burns, arthritis and other medical problems.

There are two kinds of stem cells. Adult stem cells are multi-potent. They travel from the

bone marrow to a variety of sites where they can replace damaged tissue. A recent experiment in

Japan, for example, showed that stem cells sprayed into damaged heart chambers had the

capacity to lead to the heart tissues repairing themselves in a way that no other treatment has

been able to accomplish. These adult stem cells are somewhat differentiated, with at least three

kinds of stem cells to be found in bone marrow. When they are separated from the rest of the

marrow, they can be used more effectively and safely in bone marrow replacement as part of

cancer treatment. The research done on adult stem cells has been relatively free of serious ethical

issues. The adult stem cells can be harvested with patient consent and more commonly can be

taken from bodies donated for medical research. Because of the absence of ethical problems,

most of the current research is being done on adult stem cells. When an adults stem cells are

used as an aid to healing for that persons own body, this avoids the issues of tissue rejection that

may still need to be overcome in the use of stem cells in the treatment of other people.

The second category of stem cells is embryonic cells. They are plural-potent (many-

potentiated) in that they can become any cell in the body. If embryonic cells were used in the
 Carrillo3

treatment of another human being, the issue of fusion and tissue match with the host would need

to be overcome, but embryonic cells are very attractive as a basis for research because of their

capacity to produce any kind of tissue that a body needs.

There are several sources of embryonic cells. They can be taken from umbilical cords and

uterine baby water. The advantage of this method is that there are no moral issues regarding the

source of the cells. Because the cells can provide a tissue match for the infant with which they

are associated, some people are actually freezing the cords in order to make it possible to obtain

genetically matching embryonic cells later if research should become sufficiently sophisticated to

make that useful and the child or adult should ever need those cells.

A second source of embryonic cells is fetuses. When a fetus is aborted, stem cells can be

harvested without difficulty. The only ethical danger here is the somewhat hard to imagine

possibility that a woman might become convinced to become pregnant so that her fetus could be

aborted for the sake of harvesting stem cells. While this would raise serious moral problems, it is

rather difficult to imagine that this would become a common problem.

By far the most common source of embryonic stem cells is embryos that have been created as

part of an assisted reproduction program. Currently when couples are attempting to become

pregnant through assisted implantation of an embryo, eggs are harvested and fertilized, a group

of embryos is created, and only a few of them are implanted. The rest are frozen and retained by

the clinic for use at a later time in order to avoid having to do unnecessary additional harvesting.

Once it is certain that these embryos will not be needed, they are usually unceremoniously

discarded. That being the case, there is no moral reason why they cannot be used for research.
 Carrillo4

The hope is that one day stem cells can be used to cure many types of cancers. It

impossible to predict what scientific and political developments will occur in the future,

however, this is the goal of many researchers. To answer your question--YES. Stem cells can,

and in fact do right now, cure cancer. Currently, stem cell transplants are a widely used therapy

for a few types of cancers. A stem cell cancer is a possible treatment for types of leukemia and

lymphomas (both are blood cancers). The procedure is fraught with difficulties but works.

Essentially what happens--the patient is given high dose chemotherapy and / or radiation therapy

to kill as many of the cancer cells as possible. The chemotherapy also clears out the bone marrow

to make room for new stem cells, which are then injected into the patient. The stem cells are

collected from healthy donors or even umbilical cords from healthy baby donors. The new stem

cells then find a home in the marrow. These cells then attack the cancer cells that they see as

foreign--thereby "curing" the patient of the cancer. There are many complications that can occur-

-but it is currently a successful process that is used. As for it this will ever work for solid cancers,

like stomach cancer--this is the hope. Research is actively being done in this area. I encourage

you to discuss your questions with your father's oncologist. This answer is for general

informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. If you think

you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or (in the United States) 911 immediately.

Always seek the advice of your doctor before starting or changing treatment.

Stem cells are expected to dramatically improve the ability of drug companies to screen

new drugs for side effects much earlier in the development process significantly lowering

costs and shortening the time it takes to develop a new drug. Right now, all drugs go through

extensive animal trials before they are ever given to people. This can take years and cost millions
 Carrillo5

of dollars. And even if the drugs appear perfectly safe in animalsthere is no guarantee that the

same will be true for humans

The ideal solution to the problem of drug side effects would be to test the drugs on human

cells before the drugs enter human clinical trials. The most common drug side effects are on the

liver, kidney and heart. For that reason, those are the tissues people are trying to create from

pluripotent stem cells to use for screening drug toxicity.

With toxicity screening, drug companies would have banks of stem cells from a wide

variety of genetic backgrounds. They could then test how heart, liver, or kidney cells created

from those stem cells react to a drugthus weeding out those drug candidates that lead to

toxicity in human cells.

This work also could reveal groups of people with similar genetic backgrounds that

collectively do or dont respond well to a given drug. This type of personalized medicine would

allow drug companies to develop drugs that are safe and effective in targeted groups of people.