How are Human Embryonic Stem Cells derived from oocytes?
With regard to the OHSU report only: "It involves transplanting the nucleus of one cell, containing an individual’s DNA, into an egg cell that has had its genetic material removed. The unfertilized egg cell then develops and eventually produces stem cells.“A thorough examination of the stem cells derived through this technique demonstrated their ability to convert just like normal embryonic stem cells, into several different cell types, including nerve cells, liver cells and heart cells. Furthermore, because these reprogrammed cells can be generated with nuclear genetic material from a patient, there is no concern of transplant rejection,” explained Dr. Mitalipov. “While there is much work to be done in developing safe and effective stem cell treatments, we believe this is a significant step forward in developing the cells that could be used in regenerative medicine.”Source:http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/about/new...Otherwise: "an embryonic stem cell (ES cell) is defined by its origin. It is derived from the blastocyst stage of the embryo. The blastocyst is the stage of embryonic development prior to implantation in the uterine wall. At this stage, the preimplantation embryo of the mouse is made up of 150 cells and consists of a sphere made up of an outer layer of cells (the trophectoderm), a fluid-filled cavity (the blastocoel), and a cluster of cells on the interior (the inner cell mass).Studies of ES cells derived from mouse blastocysts became possible 20 years ago with the discovery of techniques that allowed the cells to be grown in the laboratory. Embryonic–like stem cells, called embryonic germ (EG) cells, can also be derived from primordial germ (PG) cells (the cells of the developing fetus from which eggs and sperm are formed) of the mouse [20] and human fetus 30]".2. The Embryonic Stem Cell
Can embryonic stem cells repair brain damages?
My friend got in a car accident and now is in a nursing home, his right or left side of the brain is damage, can embryonic stem cells repair brain damages? i really want my friend to get well. He's only 21 years old.
When embryo's are created in the laboratory who owns them?
The people whose sperm and ova are donated are the parents, and unless they approve otherwise, embryos are theirs. They would pay a storage fee to keep the embryos frozen until they are used (by them or another set of infertile adults) or donated to stem cell research. Octomom's embryos were hers, and she had all 6 remaining implanted all at once (2 of the eggs divided and produced two sets of twins).
How are induced pluripotent stem cells produced?
Naturally or in the laboratory? (and I'll assume you are asking about vertebrates here, because it is different in other organisms). Naturally, they are part of the inner cell mass of the blastocyst stage of embryonic development. These are the cells which actually form your body during embryonic development (the rest form the placenta and amniotic sac). Experimentally, you can either isolate these inner cell mass cells, and then expand them in culture (with carefully-controlled growth conditions) to get a population of pluripotent sem cells), or you can attempt to make Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (IPSCs). IPSCs are made from normal somatic cells (which have undergone terminal differentiation) which are then exposed to a cocktail of factors. most important is transfection of the cell, using viral vectors, with a variety of transcription factors known to be important in maintaining the undifferentiated state in embryonic stem cells (including Oct-3/4, SOX2, c-Myc, Klf4, NANOG, LIN28, p53, and others). Work is ongoing to find the minimum combination of such factors which can induce pluripotency, and also to find a non-viral and non-oncogenic method of transformation.
What are the potential uses of human embryonic stem cells?
Insight into human development Most knowledge about human development has been obtained through studying model organisms, such as fruit flies, worms, frogs and mice. Human embryonic stem cell lines, which can be cultured and differentiated into a variety of cells and tissues paralleling the earliest events in the development of the embryo offer a unique window into human development.B. Study of diseases and how they developExperimental animal models are typically used to study human diseases in the lab. However, they do not exactly model the disease as it occurs in people. Human pluripotent stem cells, particularly patient or disease-specific lines, offer the possibility to model human disease more accurately in the lab. Read more about disease-specific or patient-specific pluripotent stem cells (see FAQ 11)C. Regenerative medicineReplacing diseased cells with healthy cells, an approach called regenerative medicine, is a promising application of stem cells. Currently, researchers are investigating the use of adult, fetal and embryonic stem cells as a resource for various, specialized cell types, such as nerve cells, muscle cells, blood cells and skin cells that can be used to treat various diseases. In theory, any condition in which there is tissue degeneration can be a potential candidate for stem cell therapies, including Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury, heart disease, Type 1 diabetes, muscular dystrophies, retinal degeneration and liver diseases. However, an important consideration here is that in some cases the immune system causes the disease by destroying critical cells, such as insulin-producing cells in type I diabetes. It is therefore possible that stem cell-derived insulin-producing cells will be attacked by the immune system as well.Additionally, some types of stem cells have been shown to migrate toward tumors or sites of injury, or to secrete various factors that influence the behavior of other cells, such as those of the immune system.These represent possible alternative approaches for the future development of stem cell-based therapies.More info available about stem cell therapy at Amniotic Stem Cell Therapy for Joints
Human stem cells from embryos contribute to scientific and medical research, why object to consuming lab-grown meat harvested from calves?
This is a non-sequitor — a does-not-follow logic. The 2 phrases are not connected at all.I presume the question is referring to this subject Lab-grown meat may save a lot more than farm animals’ livesFirst, the 2 types of stem cells are not the same. Embryonic stem cells come from a 5–7 day old blastocyst. The stem cells used in growing meat comes from the skeletal muscle of an animal. Young animals are preferred, since the adult stem cells will be able to divide longer. Those adult stem cells are called “satellite cells”.Here is one objection: Why Do We Use Blood Extracted From Cow Fetuses to Make Fake Meat?Basically, cell culture requires fetal bovine serum. This comes from late term cow fetuses.“If a cow coming for slaughter happens to be pregnant, the cow is slaughtered and bled, and then the fetus is removed from its mother and brought into a blood collection room. The fetus, which remains alive during the following process to ensure blood quality, has a needle inserted into its heart. Its blood is then drained until the fetus dies, a death that usually takes about five minutes. This blood is then refined, and the resulting extract is FBS.”In fact, entire herds of cows are kept solely for the purpose of producing FBS. There are companies who do so and then sell the FBS to scientists doing cell culture, like me. So it’s not a cow “happens” to be pregnant. The cows are deliberately bred to be pregnant so that FBS can be obtained.Also, the “refined” is having the blood clot. When the clot is removed, the remaining liquid is the serum.If artificial meat ramps up to commercial scale, the demand for FBS will be enormous. We could end up killing more pregnant cows to get the FBS to grow the cells than we would kill adult cows to get the meat (muscle).Besides, have you seen the estimates for the cost of this artificial meat? The first burger produced cost over $350,000! It is now said that the cost is “only” $11. Price of Lab-Grown Burger Falls from $325K to $11.36 Do you really want to pay $15-$20 for your Big Mac?Notice the “ethical argument” is that the meat does not come from a “slaughtered cow”. But that ignores the slaughtered cow and fetus necessary to get the FBS! So the ethical argument goes out the window.
Which are the top stem cell research labs in the world?
In addition to those listed, there are two NIH Center of Excellence in Translational Human Stem Cell Research* nation-wide. These centers are located at UC Davis and headed by Dr. Alice Tarantal**, and Northwestern headed and lead by Dr. John Kessler***. *http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/oct20...**http://www.coe.ucdavis.edu/index...***http://www.northwestern.edu/news...