ABOUT FACTS NET Science

Photo Source: Clipart.com

There is an awful lot of talk in scientific and medical circles about stem cells. As a matter of fact, you could say that they are being considered as a cure for everything hang nails to new livers. Maybe I am exaggerating a little about hang nails but the bit about using them to revitalize livers is true. Researchers in England claim that they can now take your own blood, extract stem cells, put the blood back into you and inject the stem cells into the ailing liver and negate the need for a liver replacement. Could it be that we were wrong in using replacement organs and all we had to do was use stem cells to rebuild our own sick organs?

Prior to the work in England, it was thought that stem cell research had to be conducted at the embryonic level. We all know that there was much controversy about this especially when it was proposed that aborted fetuses should be used for experimentation. This horrified many people and religious leaders the world over complained about the ethics of such research. This reminded some people about the Nazi and Japanese research that was conducted on living subjects. When the results of this research came into the hands of the Americans after World War II, most people felt that nothing learned from such barbaric research should ever be used. There were some however, that felt that the subjects shouldn't have died in vain and if the results of this research, no matter how misplaced, should be used to benefit mankind.

Right now a great disagreement rages over stem cell research in this country. This author is not expressing any opinion on the matter but I am reciting the opinions of others. Right now there are a couple of bills in the U.S. Congress to ease funding restrictions on stem cell research at the embryonic level. The House has passed a couple of these bills although one is for alternate research using umbilical cords and adults rather than embryos. President Bush is firmly against this and has promised to veto such a bill if it reaches his desk. If either or both of these bills are passed it would be quite unusual. This would be a challenge to the President from his own party since the Republicans control both Houses of Congress. Will we really need these bills now that a way has been found to utilize one's own stem cells? I don't think we know enough yet to be able to answer this question intelligently.

There has been a breakthrough in stem cell research in South Korea. The Korean scientists were able to grow 11 different batches of stem cells from the skin of patients. These cells are a perfect genetic match since they come from the skin of the patients themselves. The next step will have to be how to develop therapies to use these cells to cure or improve the conditions of the patients who were suffering from various diseases and disorders including, but not limited to, spinal injuries, diabetes and immune disorders of a genetic nature.

A new medical trial is about to be conducted at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Doctors will take stem cells from a patient's own bone marrow and inject these cells directly into the heart, which is a muscle. It is hoped that this will prevent congestive heart failure. Each of the patients in the test are waiting for transplantation. It would be much better for these patients if their own hearts could be repaired this way instead of having to replace them. The amazing part of all this is that we do not yet fully understand why stem cells work to cure or improve conditions. Scientists are torn on whether these cells take on the characteristics of heart cells or blood vessels. Maybe they do neither and influence other cells to regenerate heart tissue? What ever they do, it seems to help.

In the end, it may be stem cells that eventually prolong the human life by rejuvenating the tissue and organs in our bodies. Maybe the fountain of youth does exist and it is within every one of us.