Stem Cell Research

Thesis Statement

Medicine today is improving rapidly toward the development of more efficient cures for people with diseases. In the past, doctors could usually only treat the symptoms of illness, treatments rarely addressed the causes of disease. Today, many of the cures being developed by scientists are based on highly developed techniques that are able to target the causes of disease rather than simply treating the symptoms. One of those techniques is called stem cell therapy.

Introduction

Stem cell therapy can be defined as a part of a group of new techniques, or technologies that rely on replacing diseased or nonworking cells with healthy, working ones. These new techniques are being applied experimentally to a wide range of human disorders, including many types of cancer, neurological diseases such as Parkinson's Disease and ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), spinal cord injuries, and diabetes. (Monroe 85)

Discussion

Stem cells have two important characteristics that distinguish them from other types of cells. (Humber, Robert 40) First, they are unspecialized cells that renew themselves for long periods through cell division. The second is that under certain 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. Stem cells differ from other kinds of cells in the body. All stem cells regardless of their source have three general properties: they are capable of dividing and renewing themselves for long periods; (Marzilli 41) they are unspecialized; and they can give rise to specialized cell types.

Adult stem cells have been identified in many organs and tissues. One important point to understand about adult stem cells is that there are a very small number of stem cells in each tissue. Stem cells are thought to reside in a specific area of each tissue where they may remain quiescent (non-dividing) for many years until they are activated by disease or tissue injury. (Bellomo 21) The adult tissues reported to contain stem cells include brain, bone marrow, peripheral blood, blood vessels, skeletal muscle, skin and liver. Scientists in many laboratories are trying to find ways to grow adult stem cells in cell culture and manipulate them to generate specific cell types so they can be used to treat injury or disease. Some examples of potential treatments include replacing the dopamine-producing cells in the brains of Parkinson's patients, developing insulin-producing cells for type I diabetes and repairing damaged heart muscle following a heart attack with cardiac muscle cell (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) .

Interview

Meet Barbara Hanson - COPD patient and pioneer in the grassroots effort to legalize all types of stem cell therapy for the treatment of COPD in the United Stages. Several years ago, out of sheer desperation, she left the country to undergo stem cell therapy for COPD. This is her story.

When were you first diagnosed with COPD?

I got the official diagnosis of COPD in 2006, but was misdiagnosed for several years. I was told I had severe allergies, then asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis and finally COPD. At the ...