Seeing as how I found the article about stem cells from discover magazine so interesting I decided to look into some of their other articles. This one in particle sparked my intrest it discussed medicine. We constantly compare medicine with finding a cure. But as seen in the stem cell article with Hina treatments and mrdicines may not always have the best of affects this week i'll be discussing this according to what I've read in the article!
P.S. Jeanne Lenzer was also a writer o n this article too, she wrote the stem cell article.

Stem cells- finally

To end stem cell week I just want to say:
It's awesome that now we can get stem cell treatment without destroying an embryo. What's next?

the world of biotech is ever changing, one new discovery after another, but there is so much backlash  and controversy over these discoveries and topics. I think that while these things may need more research we're humans and its in our nature to want to change and better ourselves, so why not take the opportunities given to us!!

What drives these cells?

Stem cells are just undifferentiated cells( meaning they haven't been made into any one specific cell yet such as a hair skin or nerve cell. If they have th possibility of becoming any cell then doesn't it have the possibility of becoming a cancer cell and replicating and producing more cancer cells. The paragraph titled "the long road ahead" in the Super Cell article discusses the control of these cells. Like your brain tells your body what to do stem cells need instruction too.

Look at the potential for these cells

They need to receive signals telling them when to grow when to stop etc. Imagine being on a road trip and taking one false turn, there is always the possibility of finding another route. What if the stem cell receives a wrong direction? Then the cells can uncontrollably divide and grow. Making matters even worse if the stem cells are undifferentiated the will be clumps of different types of cells. This is called a teratoma, like a tumor of cell types.

Questions:
1.)Is there possible that in future research there could be a way for stem cells to automatically make right a wrong in the programming?
2.)could there possibly be an enzyme or something created to break up teratomas?
3.)How many if any times has this occurred in stem cell therapy patients?

Doesn't work?

So the article also discussed the potential of stem cell treatment not working. A girl named Hina also had sickle cell, and got stem cell treatment. However it didn't work for her. She also had a bone marrow transplant. Her body reacted differently to the treatment. Instead of the cells repairing the messed-up cells she got a reacted called, Grapht-versus-host disease, where the donated cells basically attack her body. Its a scary thought. And the article also goes on to say, " The inability to predict who will flourish and who will not raises enormous conundrums".  As it should!

Questions:
1.) What makes the difference in these reactions?
2.) Will researchers reach a point where they can predict the outcome based on tests run on the patients?
3.)What is the success rate of stem cell treated patients?

Stem Cells-Continued

So yesterday I discussed what exactly stem cells are. Today I will breifly explain the risks and outcomes. In the article I mentioned yesterday Lenzer disucusses the affect they had on a 15 year old named Paizley. Diagnosed with sickle cell anemia, stem cell treatment was one option that the family chose to take. Their first option involved regularly scheduled blood transfusion-the body became immuned and it stopped working. So a bone marrow donor donated her bone marrow which contained healthy, properly functioning blood cells.
" Paizley's recovery highlights just one miniscule part of the potential of stem cells..." (Lenzer 32- discover magazine). Seems all well and good but what if it doesn't work.


Sickle vs. Regular Bloob Cell



P.S.: Bone marrow obviously comes from bones and to access the blood you need a big bone(femur), so you'd have to have your leg cut open so that the surgeon could access your femur. - talk more about this next week maybe

Questions:

1.) If diseases are caused by viruses infecting cells, can't the stem cells get infected.

2.) Why aren't these stories being discussed more publically? Is it a fear of the public fearing the outcome?









What exactly are stem cells

Here's one definition of what stem cells are: ''They are characterized by the ability to renew themselves through mitotic cell division and differentiating into a diverse range of specialized cell types. ..". The idea behind stem cells is that they can be used to regenerate new cells and help treat some diseases. A lot of information is covered on this topic in an article titled, The Super Cell, by Jeanne Lenzer. These stem cells aren't specialized to a specific function (undifferentiated). Embryoinic stem cells created a big controversy due to the fact that it used to be you would have to sacrafice an embryo. My next question would've been, "if there are somatic stem cells why not store them for individuals in case they need them at a later date?" Well the article continues on to say, " Moreover because foreign stem cells would be rejected by the body, much like a foreign heart or kidneys, scientists had proposed literally cloning the patients..." ( Lenzer, DiscoverMagazine.com pg 32). It all seems well and good but what are the affects? (Next blog topic)

Questions:

Where would they store these stem cells? Could it be possible that scientists create a library stem cells to house them, and categorize them?

If somatic stem cells are used to repair old cells etc. why don't they automatically correct cell mutations?