PHI 325

From WolfWikis

Adult Stem Cells

HEADLINE: STEM CELL RESEARCH; A researcher isolates adult stem cells from blood that can develop five types of cells Adult stem cells were developed from the blood of an mature animal that were able to be directed into specific cell types such as neurons and blood vessel cells. Price extracted the adult stem cells from pigs' blood. These particular pig cells are unique because the pigs also contained a gene that makes their cells fluorescent. This allowed Price to track the cells as they developed into nerve or blood vessel cells or upon transplantation. In the study, Price was able to develop and sustain adult stem cell lines and then induce them to turn into specific cell types by exposing them to different chemical signals, depending on which type of cell he wanted to develop. For successful adult stem cell transplantation therapy, different diseases will require different cell types. Unlike embryonic stem cells, which are difficult to grow as pure cell populations and can develop into tumor-type tissue, Price's adult stem cells efficiently developed into specific cell types with no abnormal tissue. We have shown that if you can isolate adult stem cells, you can make them generate the appropriate type of cell with much more ease and specificity. "We think that these blood-derived adult stem cells are normally used by the body for regeneration and repair, and we have been able to isolate these cells, grow them in a lab, and direct them toward a specific cell type for eventual therapeutic use," Price said. "In humans, aging, chronic disease, and a lack of exercise may result in a lowered production of these cells, so it's important to lead a healthy lifestyle to maintain the body's own circulating population of stem cells."

HEADLINE: STEM CELL RESEARCH; Multipotent adult stem cells isolated from hair follicles Multipotent adult stem cells have been isolated from hair follicles under embryonic stem cell culture conditions. Embryonic stem cell medium can be used to isolate and expand human adult stem cells. Human hair follicles may provide an accessible, autologous source of adult stem cells for therapeutic application.

HEADLINE: The Great Stem Cell Coverup; Promising medical research you never hear about. Some adult/umbilical cord stem cell treatments are now deployed in routine clinical practice. But most remain experimental. For example, as reported in the March 2005 edition of the science journal Blood, Stage 2 trials are currently underway in human patients with "severe" multiple sclerosis using the patients' own blood stem cells. After three years, the study reported, adult stem cells were able to induce a prolonged clinical stabilization in severe progressive MS patients, meaning the disease stopped advancing, resulting in both sustained treatment-free periods and quality-of-life improvements. Another area of great hope for adult stem cell therapy comes from using a patient's olfactory tissues, found in the nasal cavity, to treat paralysis caused by spinal cord injury. Peer-reviewed animal studies previously highlighted great potential for this technique. For example, olfactory tissues have "promoted partial resto r ation of function" in paralyzed rats.

HEADLINE: New science leads to new questions Adult stem cells: Cells isolated from fetal tissue, umbilical cord blood, or tissues from children or adults. Unlike embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells can only become a limited number of cell types. For example: hematopoietic stem cells found in bone marrow produce billions of new blood cells, platelets and immune cells every day. But scientists are unable to culture them in the laboratory or reliably get them to make tissues other than blood components.

The only adult stem cells used to treat diseases come from bone marrow. They have been used to treat about a dozen blood disorders and cancers. Price and his colleagues reported in the August issue of the journal Stem Cells and Development that they have isolated cells from adult pigs that are capable of becoming five different types of cells. Price reversed their specialization and then cultured them into muscle, blood vessels, bone, and fat cells. Other researchers had already created those, but Price also created nerve cells. The cells resemble neurons, behave like neurons and bear proteins that mark them as neurons.

HEADLINE: STEM CELLS THE FACTS What are stem cells?

There are two main categories of stem cells - adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells.

Adult stem cells are present in all organs of the body, whereas embryonic stem cells come from an embryo.

Adult stem cells

Adult stem cells have the potential to reproduce themselves and to develop into any cell within the organ from which they came - for example, lungs, blood, liver, heart or brain cells. They've been used in medicine and research for many years. Adult stem cells are good at making cells of the tissue type they came from. For example, blood stem cells are goodat making more blood cells. The medical profession already uses adult stem cell technology. Bone marrow transplants to treat leukaemia have been around for about 40 years and involve blood stem cells from bone marrow being transplanted to a recipient. The donated blood stem cells multiply and create a new blood system in the recipient.

This is just some stuff I've found from a few articles so far...they still need to be edited and put in my own words:)

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PHI 325

From WolfWikis

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