Stem Cells From Adult Tissues example essay topic

Stem cell research is one of the most interesting areas of biology today. Stem cells have two important characteristics that distinguish them from other types of cells. First, they are unspecialized cells that renew themselves for long periods through cell division. The second is that under certain physiologic or experimental conditions, they can be induced to become cells with special functions, such as the beating cells of the heart muscle or the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas (National Institute of Health, September 2002). Imagine that you were told that your heart was failing due to a congenative disease that neither you nor your physician had any control of. Currently, your only option is to wait; wait for someone to have an accident who happens to be an organ donor and who is a good match for you.

Today, this is a reality for some 80,000 people in the U.S. alone. Now imagine that your physician gives you the same bad news; your heart is failing, but this time your physician has a different option. Your physician tells you that he can remove stem cells from your own bone marrow and encourage them to grow into a new heart that can be transplanted into you. They have a timeline and can guarantee that the organ will be complete before your current heart fails. For the 16 people who die every day waiting for a new organ, this would be an extraordinary alternative. The use of stem cells to create human organs is both a miraculous and controversial topic.

The focus of the medical field today is shifting from targeting infectious and acute disease to confronting an aging population facing degenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's (Personal MD, n. d. ). This shift is a target for stem cell research to produce human organs and tissue. Dramatic advances in the field of biotechnology have given rise to the remarkable new cross-disciplinary field of tissue engineering. Tissue engineering uses synthetic or naturally derived engineered biomaterials to replace damaged or defective tissues such as bone, skin, and even organs. Several technologies come together in tissue engineering.

Large-scale culturing of human or animal cells including skin, muscle cartilage, bone, marrow, endothelial, and stem cells may provide substitutes to replace damaged components in humans. Naturally derived or synthetic materials may be fashioned into "scaffolds" that when implanted in the body as temporary structures provide a template that allows the bodies' own cells to grow and form new tissue while the scaffold is gradually absorbed. Tissue engineering potentially offers dramatic improvements in medical care for hundreds of thousands of patients annually and equally dramatic reductions in medical costs. Organ transplants alone present many opportunities because of the significant shortage of donor organs (Standards of Technology, 2003). Although more than 80,000 people currently are waiting for a replacement organ, fewer than half of the population are organ donors. An estimated 10,000 to 12,000 people die each year who are considered medically suitable for organ donation, but only an estimated 6,000 of them donate.

More than 50,000 men, women, and children await a kidney transplant alone. The list is growing three times faster than the rate of donation (Core-It's a Fact, 2002). Once an organ is donated, however, there are no guarantees for the person receiving the organ. The rate of rejection varies from organ to organ with a 30 to 60% rate of rejection.

Conversely, the rejection does not always mean that the organ is lost. Over 90% of the rejections can be treated with medications (Punch, 1996). Infectious agents such as Hepatitis C and HIV further complicate an organ transplant, and recipients generally must remain on costly immunosuppressive drugs for the balance of their lives (Standards and Technology, 2003). If scientists could create an organ using ones own cells, the rejection factor would not exist. The medical costs associated with current organ transplant techniques are phenomenal.

For example, 4,166 liver transplants were performed in the United States between 1987 and 1989. At the end of five years, the total medical costs for the survivors and the 1,887 patients who died within five years of receiving the transplant came to $960 million dollars (Standards and Technology, 2003). The estimated cost of an engineered liver, plus the attendant surgical procedures, is only $50,000, with follow-up costs of $2,000 per year for five years. This would have reduced the costs for the same 4,166 liver patients to a total cost of $250 million, thus reducing medical costs by $710 million. That coupled with a higher survival rate and better quality of life constitutes a definite indicator that the need for stem cell research exists.

Today, a large portion of the nation's healthcare costs are attributable to tissue loss or organ failure, and approximately 8 million surgical procedures are performed annually in the United States to treat these disorders. Current procedures in the treatment of these disorders are limited and restricted by dated medical practices. This coupled with the scarce supply of human organs for transplantation result in a tremendous amount of deaths each year (Vacanti & Langer, 1999). Although an exact cost of creating an organ using stem cells is not known at this time, it is estimated that eventually the cost would be significantly less than organ donation. It is believed that with the capability to create an organ using one's own stem cells, immunosuppressive drugs would not be necessary and the transport of donated organs across the country would be eliminated, thus alleviating substantial costs and saving thousands of lives.

Although the scientific community is very excited about the potential that stem cell research has, there are those who are very much against this research, making stem cell research very controversial. Stem cell research is controversial because the best source of stem cells is human fetal tissue. The only sources of stem cells today are embryonic and adult stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are the non-specific stem cells in human embryos yet to be differentiated into specific cell types.

Harvesting embryonic stem cells destroys the embryo, which many see as morally problematic. Conversely, obtaining stem cells from an adult does not destroy an embryo. Adult stem cells can be found in the brain, bone marrow, peripheral blood, blood vessels, skeletal muscles, skin, and liver. Although adult stem cells were previously believed to be less pure than embryonic stem cells, current research shows that the limitations thought to exist with adult stem cells, does not exist.

Based on the most recent and ground-breaking research, it has become clear that adult stem cells have outstanding advantages in terms of immediate clinical application, safety, and feasibility over all other sources of stem cells and that the objections to the use of adult stem cells have now been overcome (Dixon, 2003). However, there are still those who oppose stem cell research. These opposition ists question where the power to engineer human cells may lead. The fear is, how far will we allow science to go and how can this knowledge be controlled? Additionally, current techniques to isolate stem cells from adult tissues can be complex and result in mixed populations of cells. There is also a possibility that more research will show a problem with using stem cells.

Stem cells that are introduced into a human body could ultimately be harmful. The cells could travel into other parts of the body and become tumorous. Testing done on mice has, in some cases, made the mice develop such diseases as cancer, high blood pressure and advanced stages of diabetes (Stanford Report, 2003). Stem cells are important for living organisms for many reasons. Scientists want to study stem cells in the laboratory so they can learn about their essential properties and what makes them different from specialized cell types.

As scientists learn more about stem cells, it may become possible to use the cells not just in cell-based therapies, but also for screening new drugs and toxins and understanding birth defects. Perhaps the most important potential application of human stem cells is the generation of cells and tissues that could be used for cell-based therapies. Today, donated organs and tissues are often used to replace ailing or destroyed tissue, but the need for transplant able tissues and organs far outweighs the available supply. Stem cells, directed to differentiate into specific cell types, offer the possibility of a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat diseases including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis (National Institute of Health, September 2002). Human embryonic stem cells have only been studied since 1998. Once scientists can determine what factors in living organisms normally regulate stem cell proliferation and self-renewal, it may be possible to understand how cell proliferation is regulated during normal embryonic development or during the abnormal cell division that leads to cancer.

Importantly, such information would enable scientists to grow embryonic and adult stem cells more efficiently in the laboratory (National Institute of Health, September 2002). The science of manipulating cells, which are the building blocks of life, holds a promising future and extraordinary possibilities for the medical community. There are many significant healthcare benefits unique to the use of stem cell biology. Stem cells are being used in clinical medicine to develop human tissue for transplant and in the treatment of a variety of other medical conditions (Dixon, 2003). Clinical trials have indicated that stem cell biology has vast possibilities for the development of artificial organs and transplantation. Potentially, the future may promise that organs will be more readily available while less time will be spent waiting for organs, and there will be less chance for rejection or complications.

Adult stem cells have already been used exclusively or in conjunction with other treatments to achieve significant benefits for patients suffering from brain tumors, breast cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis (Dixon, 2003). Stem cell biology is definitely an area of concentration for research. This technology seems almost inconceivable, but the reality is that there is more potential in the use of stem cell biology than ever before, however, it does not come without a price. Not only is there a financial burden that comes with the technology development, but an ethical one as well. Modern medicine is on the brink of a revolution in the use of stem cell biology. Who knows what the future may hold in the area of engineering body parts from stem cells in a laboratory.

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