Cord Blood Stem Cells Information

Stem cells?

Can someone plz tell me why scientists are interested in stem cells and can you give me an example of how a stem cell can be used??

Public Comments

1. I believe stem cells can be used to grow body tissue. They are taken from the umbilical cord.
2. they are taken out of the body or something and are used to heal people - they can grow tissue or bone marrow i think
3. To replace things like nerve cells, grow new body parts that are 100% ccompatible with the recipient, cure Alzheimer's, and much more.
4. Stem cells are cells in the body that can become anything you want them to. They are not yet "set on its path" or specialized, if you will, and can become any cell type. Because of this doctors think that they can use these cells to heal people with just about any type of problem. It could potentially grow a full limb for someone who has had an amputation. It could potentially create a new immune system for someone who has a disease that makes it so the body can not fight infection. It could potentially become any part of your body. All this is speculation and that is why people want to do research on these because this could potentially cure just about anything. But again it is just speculation.
5. Stem cells are cells that are so early in their development that they can potentially be "persuaded" to differentiate (mature) into a cell of choice. An example would be type I diabetics are diabetic because the cells in their pancreas are defunct in some way that they can't produce insulin. The hope is that by placing a stem cell in pancreatic tissue, the stem cell would be persuaded to become a functional insulin-producing cell. Repairs to spinal cord injuries and brain cells producing proper signals/chemicals (cures for Parkinsons or Alzheimers) are other examples. Because stem cells are in such an immature state, they haven't produced proteins yet that would induce tissue rejection by the host and the thinking is that when induced to a mature cell, they will take on the characteristics of the host and, therefore, not suseptable to rejection. Stem cells are controversial in that in order to find these immature cells, you have to look in immature tissue where they are in the most abundance (albeit not the only place) and one of those places is a fertilized egg (embryo). It's also controversial as it's possible these stem cells will not be the miracle cure everyone thinks they can be.
6. Most organisms are made up of lots of different specialised cells, which have different structures to help them perform their particluar jobs. In the initial stage of development, the cells in an embryo are not yet specialised; they are all the same. These are the stem cells and they have the potential to develop into virtually any type of body cell. Stem cells could potentially be used to replace tissues that are damaged, e.g. they can be inserted into the brain of a patient with Parkinson's disease to replace the cells affected by the disease and alleviate the symptoms. Scientists are interested in stem cells because they could be the way forward to help people with uncurable diseases.