Stem Cell Research.... what do you think?

Question

I just heard on the news that they are now finding they can produce stem cells from skin cells. If the government had just said "Yes, use embryos for your stem cell research" do you think that scientists would be researching more now to find alternatives, like umbilical cords, and now skin?

OK, rude answers? I KNOW they said it was on mice, but that's a start isn't it? Is it not a thing they may have not even considered testing for if they had been given the embryo stem cells they asked for?

For goodness sakes!!! Did I SAY HUMAN skin? NO!! I said SKIN

Answer 1

Practically speaking, there are stem cells all over your body. It's not hard to find them... just about every tissue has some clump of cells that replaces all the stuff you lose. And since you lose a lot of skin cells, it's not surprising if there's a lot of stem cells there.

The PROBLEM is that skin stem cells (rather obviously) don't usually turn into anything but skin. Which is fine if all you want to make is skin (and actually, being able to make a lot of skin would be GREAT). But if you want to make something else from it, you're going to have to find a way to overcome the system that prevents it from turning into something else.

But it is harder. It is an extra step which we can't do for certain, and perhaps not at all completely. Embryonic stem cells don't have this limitation, which is why researchers want to use them. And keep in mind that researchers aren't monsters either... there are many, many embryoes that are destroyed right now. Stopping research isn't really saving anything.

Ultimately, I think that researchers will find ways to circumvent some of those blocking systems in skin and other non-embryonic cells no matter what happens simply because researchers like to find out stuff. They want to know how to turn on and off genes in a semi-permanent manner. And that, too, has a lot of applications.

And while largely banning embryonic stem cell research might create a bunch of researchers who can't study what they want to (or it might just get them to leave the country), what it doesn't even vaguely do is create money to study alternatives. Certainly corporate sponsors are only going to fund things they think are going to pay out, and I would be surprised if anyone would want to find an alternative when other people don't even need the alternative. Perhaps the goverment has been dumping a ton of money into the issue... but somehow I doubt it.

Answer 2

First of all, they found a way to mimic stem cells in the mice model, not in human. Current research does not show human skin can (1) mimic human stem cells or (2) behave like human stem cells. In addition, current research only show that those modified (ie, introduce additional 4~6 genes) mouse skin cells can behave like mouse stem cells, but NOT an actual stem cells.

In another word, there is still a long way to go.

Alternative will never be as accurate as the real ones.

Answer 3

yes, i believe scientists would have still continued to research ways into turning adult stem cells into pluripotent (undifferentiated) stem cells. For one, even when we figure out how to differentiate embryonic stem cells into whatever cell we want, we can't simply transplant someone else's cells into another person because the transplanted cells might still be rejected. It would be a lot better if we can take one's own adult stem cells and turn it into whatever tissue or organ one needs and transplant it back into the person. In this way, there's no risk of rejection. So that area of study would have continued even without the government stopping funding on new ES cell lines.

Answer 4

i think that they can wait a few months till theres an umbilical cord not being used rather than embryos from there they can knock themselves out