Stem Cells

What did President Obama do regarding stem cell research?

• Obama opens up stem cell work, science inquiries

• Obama lifts the ban on funding of stem cell research

• What are stem cells?

• Unspecialized cells that have the potential to differentiate into many different kinds of cells

• What is a Stem Cell? (animation)

• YouTube - Stem Cells (7:52 minutes)

• Stem Cell Gold Rush - KQED QUEST Television Story (1019 minutes)

Why stem cells?

• 1. unspecialized (can become just about any kind of cell)

• 2. can keep dividing and renewing themselves for a long time

• DnaTube.com - Scientific Video Site - Division of stem cell (couple minutes)

What are the types of stem cells?

• What are some different types of stem cells? (animation)

Human Embryonic Stem Cells

• Isolated from inner mass of blastocysts

• (early embryo 4-5 days old)

• 50-100 cells

Where do they come from?

• In vitro fertilization clinics

• Egg and sperm create an embryo (8 weeks and under)

Frozen ESC

VIDEO

• NOVA | scienceNOW | Stem Cells | PBS

• Using stem cells to make insulin-producing cells

Adult Stem Cells

• Taken from adult (or children) tissue:– Umbilical cord blood– Bone marrow

– The adult tissues reported to contain stem cells include brain, bone marrow, peripheral blood, blood vessels, skeletal muscle, skin and liver.

When you go to a blood drive…

Treatment Examples

• replacing the dopamine-producing cells in the brains of Parkinson's patients

• developing insulin-producing cells for type I diabetes

• repairing damaged heart muscle following a heart attack with cardiac muscle cells

Adult Stem Cell Differentiation

Adult Stem Cells Therapies

PROS

• generate healthy heart muscle cells in the laboratory and then transplant those cells into patients with chronic heart disease.

• to form insulin-producing cells that eventually could be used in transplantation therapy for diabetics.

• Treat Parkinson’s disease

• Treat spinal and brain injuries

Fetal Stem Cells

• Found in the primitive cells of organs of fetuses

Potency

• Must be able to produce certain types of cells over a long time

POTENCY

• Totipotent

• Pluripotent

• Multipotent

• Unipotent

• Can differentiate into any embryonic cell

• Can differentiate into almost any kind of cell

• Can differentiate into only closely related cells

• Can form only one type of cell

What’s the controversy?

• Using embryonic stem cells requires the destruction of a human embryo.

Politics Involvement

• Since the arrival of the first "test tube" baby in 1978, the federal government has avoided funding any experiment that either creates or destroys a human embryo.

What if you need it?

• After Michael J. Fox acquired Parkinson’s disease, he became a proponent for stem cell research.

• When Pres. Regan had Alzheimer’s Nancy

Regan fought for stem cell research.

• Should frozen embryos created through in vitro fertilization be used to create stem cells? Why or why not?

• Do embryonic stem cells represent a human life?

• Should there be laws to regulate stem cell research?

• Should the government provide funding for embryonic stem cell research?

• How far should researchers take stem cell technologies? Just because we can do something, should we? Why or why not?

• Would your views change if someone you were close to could be helped by stem cell research?