Cord Blood Stem Cells Information

Stem cells?

A few months ago I read an article about a less controvercial way to retrieve stem cells but I can't recall where they retrieve them from. Does anyone know where?

Public Comments

1. they can retrieve stem cells from the umbilical cord or adult bone marrow
2. Scientists have turned an ordinary skin cell into what appears to be an embryonic stem cell. The process may eventually eliminate the controversial step of destroying human embryos for stem cell research. Embryo Stem cells (ESC) are unspecialized cells. They can grow into any type of cell found in our body. Scientists hope embryonic stem cells can eventually be used to grow new tissue and replacement organs & to cure a range of ailments ranging from spinal cord injuries to Alzheimer’s disease. The new technique involves fusing a skin cell with an existing lab grown embryonic stem cell. The fused or hybrid cell is ‘reprogrammed’ to its embryonic state Harvard University scientists report in the Journal Science. A stem cell created by the new method would have DNA identical to the skin cell donor. This would ensure low rates of rejection. But a team member said that the technology is still in early stages and is not a replacement for methods currently used to derive embryonic stem cells. Although ESC that we made may contain patients’ genes they also contain the ESC genes that we started with & that for the time being is going to interfere with the usefulness of this. ESC were initially harvested from fertilized human eggs such as those left over from in-vitro fertilization. This practice drew the Ire of religious conservatives who regard destroying embryos as a form of murder. It can also be taken from the dead fetus, placenta.
3. http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=4252&Section=DISEASE The original article is in The New York Times, instead of using the blastocyt and killing the zygote (day 5-7) they extract one cell from the blastomere (day 2-3) and release the zygote, it continues to grow without any damage. The cell they retrieve they put it in a petri dish with other stem cells and it continues to grow creating stem cells , then they take it out and continue the process . But they still arent satisfied with this procedure because "Any use of human embryos for research purposes raises serious ethical questions. This technique does not resolve those concerns." I really dont understand why if it doesnt harm the zygote. Read the article , its very interesting and has pics showing the new process... Hope this helps..
4. The less controversial and more moral way to harvest stem cells is by keeping the umbilical cord when you child is born.