Stem Cells ( Biology )

• Stem cells can be used to treat conditions like diabetes and paralysis.
• The use of stem cells in medicine involves replacing faulty cells with properly working cells.
• The most common technique for replacing faulty cells involves extracting embryonic stem cells from early embryos, growing them in a laboratory, and then stimulating them to differentiate into the desired type of specialized cell.
• Embryonic stem cells can differentiate into any type of specialized cell, which is why they are used in medicine.
• Conditions like diabetes, paralysis, and sickle cell anemia are caused by faulty cells, which can be replaced with properly working cells using stem cells.
• Embryonic stem cells are the only type of stem cells that can divide by meiosis to produce more cells and differentiate into any type of specialized cell.
• Embryonic stem cells are found in the early embryo and can differentiate into any type of specialized cell.
• Adult stem cells are found in the bone marrow of people of all ages and can only differentiate into different types of blood cells.
• The downside of adult stem cells is that they can only differentiate into different types of blood cells, so they can be used to treat blood cell disorders like sickle cell anemia, but not other conditions like diabetes or paralysis.
• The embryos used for research are usually the unwanted ones from fertility clinics that would otherwise have been destroyed, so they probably wouldn't have developed into humans anyway.
• The ethical objection to using embryonic stem cells is that the human embryos used have the potential for human life and on religious or moral grounds some people object to their use in research.
• An alternative to using embryonic stem cells is to use adult stem cells, which are easy to get hold of and won't cause rejection because they can be taken from the patient themselves.
• The risk of rejection can be reduced by giving the patient medications to suppress their immune system, but this often has side effects.
• Governments normally heavily regulate the area of research involving embryonic stem cells, with some countries banning it completely and in the UK, embryonic research is legal but tightly controlled and scientists have to follow strict rules.
• The patient's immune system may reject the stem cells, which means it tries to destroy them because they are identified as foreign.
• Two potential risks involved with using stem cells: virus transmission and tumor development.
• Embryonic stem cells can be extracted from early embryos and grown in a laboratory