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Human stem cells consist of cellular formations without a determined body function; they are present in embryonic tissues when the body is developing, and new groups of specialized cells are necessary, but they have also been identified in mature adult tissues. It seems that the recovery from disease, injury or decay is only possible thanks to the human stem cells that remain inactive until the time comes to regenerate tissues. Human stem cells can surely prove a medical hope for treating irrecoverable diseases such as heart attacks, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, strokes, Parkinson’s disease and lots of others. And if science makes enough progress such achievements will be possible.

Most of the research conducted on human stem cells has used biological material taken from human embryos that would get killed in the process. For such reasons, human embryo stem cell research was given an eight-year ban during the Bush administration of the US. Presently, efforts are being made to develop a technique that would allow skin cells to transform into induced pluripotent stem cells thus eliminating the use of embryonic material. At the moment, views and opinions remain biased, as many people tend to see a real human person in the fertilized encounter between an ovum and a spermatozoon.

Adult human stem cells are not subject to controversy but they somehow limit research because they don’t have the same almost infinite potential of embryonic cells. In the mature form, stem cells can only specialize as certain types of cells with specific functions, and therefore, they cannot be part of the same unlimited number of options provided by embryo research. The choice could be pretty difficult if we consider the ethical point of view: how moral is it to stop the physiological evolution into a human being for the sake of science? And on the other hand, human stem cells could help to the creation of a panacea.

Although in tests, human stem cells seem to be efficient treatments, the clinical programs are far from being over. There are still lots of mysteries to unravel and things to understand. For example, the origin of the adult human stem cells is not known at the moment, and, while things appear to be clear with embryonic research while adult stem cell studies are far from being over. Such an example is not at all singular, as many questions need answers before we can claim to have the cure for all diseases.

As it is easy to understand from their name, embryonic stem cells come from embryos. They are extracted from microscopic balls of cells that represent the initial stage of embryo formation. Such embryonic stem cells come from eggs fertilized in vitro and don’t get transferred to a woman’s womb. Such biological material can be disposed of for research purposes only with the consent of the rightful owner. It is also possible to grow embryonic stem cells in the laboratory in what is known as cell culture. All sorts of difficulties and challenges appear in the artificial creation of embryonic stem cells, and the inefficiency of embryonic cell lines is often brought into discussion.

Passing through all sorts of stages of cultures and subcultures, embryonic stem cells proliferate over more than six months while preserving their undifferentiated status. An embryonic stem cell line is created when all the cells in a culture are genetically normal while remaining unspecialized. Stem cell batches are afterwards frozen and stored before being transferred to other research units. How are embryonic stem cells identified? Even if tests are conducted both on animal and human embryonic stem cells, the characterization procedure cannot be limited to a standard group of tests for the measuring of the fundamental features of human cell groups.

Normal microscopic analysis is usually sufficient to determine whether the embryonic stem cells preserve the long term growth and self-renewal properties. Further investigations concern the presence of specific proteins that are normally produced by unspecialized or undifferentiated cells. The analysis of the chromosomes is equally important to reveal the genetic health of the embryonic stem cells. Scientists have no other ways of detecting genetic mutations or establishing whether the cells evolution is normal. Thus, precision and care in the performance of the laboratory routine is a rule of professional conduct strictly followed.

The possibility to use embryonic stem cells for the regeneration of organs or body tissues comes from the scientific possibility to manipulate the biological material and make the cells differentiate according to the needs. The specialization of the cells is controlled by the insertion of special genes, the change of the growing environment, the modification of the cultures and so on. At present, research is still in progress and results are still not conclusive enough to allow the transplant of artificially grown cells into the human body for the treatment of various diseases but the future seems to be bright in this direction.

Embryonic stem cell research has revealed the different potential in embryonic and adult stem cells. The number of limitations in terms of curative therapeutic applications is higher in the case of adult stem cells that cannot develop into a too large number of tissues. Moreover, the rarity, the collection difficulty and the challenge of growing them in cultures make the biggest impediments for adult stem cells. Therefore, the highest emphasis falls on embryonic stem cell research, most medical hopes come from this direction. The difficulty that scientists face is that of the transplant rejection, and this is in fact the reason why for many years the first phase of clinical testing has been postponed.

Embryonic stem cell research was banned in American during the Bush administration. The new American president, Barrack Obama, has raised the ban in March 2009, giving a new push forward to medical tests. Scientists are unsure about what to expect from embryonic stem cell research because great benefits as well as serious dangers are revealed by lab work. Apparently, it is in such futuristic remedies that the cure for the most devastating diseases may be found. If a person immobilized in a wheel chair because of spinal cord injury can walk again, then, hopes can be high for a number of other diseases.

Embryonic stem cell research still causes lots of heated international controversies and debates. How moral is the use of human embryos in research? The biological material usually comes from in-vitro fertilization clinics, where the remaining embryos are donated for scientific purposes. Pro-lifers argument their opposition against embryonic stem cell research by supporting the right of human life to develop. There is life involved, and scientists are playing God with it, ending or allowing it to continue as it suits their observational purposes.

For the moment, embryonic stem cell research lacks in many respects. Progress is being made in the attempt to discover new remedies for irrecoverable diseases, yet, the path is very sinuous. Question marks do remain in relation to the morality of the process, to the safety of the innovative treatments and to the extent or efficiency of the results. The issue can be carried on along these debate tones, as no relevant common conclusion can be reached for the time being.

From the many experimental studies conducted at present, embryo stem cell research is definitely one of the most controversial. The use of human embryos as the biological material necessary to the extraction of stem cells has caused a wave of protests and actions from pro-lifers who consider such procedures a form of homicide. Yet, the benefit of such research is that scientists seem to have discovered the answer to curing many diseases formally diagnosed as irrecoverable. There are other sources for stem cells besides embryos, such as adult tissues or regular somatic cells, but the possibilities they bring are limited.

Any embryo stem cell existent in a blastocyst (the fertilization product of an ovum by a sperm cell) is infinite in terms of evolutionary potential since it contains all the incipient cells for the future body tissues and organs. It is from the early days of the blastocyst that the entire complexity of the human body results. The benefits and successes of science in this domain of research seem to be incredibly valuable, but many people wonder about the right to life inherent to any result of conception. From this point of view any embryo stem cell research represents a violation of the sacred of the living.

If analyzed from a different angle, embryo stem cell research could bring cures and alleviation to the incredible pain specific to irrecoverable diseases. Scientists are also making efforts to come up with some substitutes for any embryo stem cell necessity by identifying other sources of stem cells. For instance, the amniotic liquid could be a solution thanks to its richness in stem cells and the total inoffensiveness for the fetus. Then, another recent discovery has been the possibility for the reversed function of normal somatic cells that can be reprogrammed into becoming stem cells once again.

By far the most reputable scientific conquest of the last twenty years, the collection of stem cells without harming the embryos has finally been put into practice. This achievement is relatively new but it brings a solution for the ethical concerns that made the foundation for so many objections. Nevertheless, there are lots of other things to be understood or put into practice by modern medicine, before embryo stem cell research may solve the problem of the chronic diseases decimating humanity.

Few people know that almost all the body tissues contain undifferentiated cells or adult stem cell formations necessary for the tissue and organ regeneration in case of injury or disease damage. While an embryonic stem cell originates in the blastocyst, the initial cellular organization out of which the embryo evolves, scientists still don’t know anything about the origin of an adult stem cell as part of mature tissues. The capacity of the adult stem cells to generate new tissues has caused a revolution in the medical world: this is in fact the explanation for the success of bone marrow transplants.

The great discovery is that a single adult stem cell can evolve in different specialized categories, according to individual conditions. Presently, it is a generally recognized fact that adult stem cells are present in the heart as well as in the brain, which was previously unbelievable. The study that put the basis of the research on the adult stem cell was conducted fifty years ago when two types of cells were discovered in the structure of the bone marrow. One kind of cells is responsible for the formation of all the blood cells necessary to the body, while a second one includes cells that allow the formation of fat, bone, cartilage and connective tissues.

Discoveries are undoubtedly amazing, but adult stem cell research has had difficulties in creating laboratory cultures on the basis of samples taken from adult tissues. This laboratory difficulty appears from the fact that any adult stem cell has a limited range of division, proliferation and transformation into specialized cell groups. An adult stem cell is believed to remain inactive in tissues, and it becomes active in years when tissue regeneration is necessary or when injury and disease occur. The major issue at the moment is the creation of adult stem cell cultures and their manipulation for disease treatment.

If control became possible over adult stem cell categories, medicine would be able to replace the dopamine-producing cells in the brains of Parkinson’s disease sufferers, or grow the insulin generating cells that would cure diabetes. The same goes true for the prevention of heart attacks by the regeneration of the cardiac muscle tissues. Various genetic experiments are further conducted to identify and separate adult stem cell groups as a means of creating more powerful and effective disease treatment.