Is my understanding of stem cells correct?

Question

If they can make a stem cell into a glia cell, they could use them in people who need glia cells. They might be able to do this in the future, but they can't turn stem cells into glia cells yet.

Are my above two statements correct?
I know this isn't perfect, but I don't understand stem cell research very well, and I need the information for a university science project on schizophrenia. I came across an article that said the brains of schizophrenics have fewer glia cells.

Answer 1

That is a very basic understanding of stem cells. But it is more or less correct. Though when you are using "glia" as an adjective, it is "glial," so "glial cells."

Here is a brief statement on stem cells -
They are cells that can give rise to other cells. It is our hope as scientists that someday we will be able to take a stem cell, treat it with various growth factors, and convince it to grow and differentiate into the kind of cells we need. For diabetes we would want insulin producing cells, for people with Parkinson's Disease we would want dopamine producing cells, and if you are correct, for schizophrenics we would want astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. I hope this helps you! It sounds like a very interesting assignment.

Answer 2

Those statements are both true- depending on who you ask.

Embryonic stem cells have the capability to produce any cell in the body when exposed to the right conditions. Adult stem cells only produce the type of tissue from which they are taken from. There are no Adult Stem Cells in the brain and if there are, they take too long to develop into nerve cells to be of any use.

Now, to answer the question:

Yes, in the future they may be able to do this. There has not been enough time for this type of research to yield all of the answers that everyone is expecting. As of now, however, they cannot do this.

Answer 3

Scientists can differentiate stem cells into many other cell types. The main problem, though, is getting them to differentiate where and when they're needed. We could directly inject stem cells or glial cells, but it probably wouldn't do any good (on the contrary, it would probably do a lot of harm). There are a few reasons for this:

First, the new glial cells might not interact with neurons the way that they are supposed to. For example, they could simply sit there between neurons, rather than interact and support them.

Second, while schizophrenics may have fewer glial cells, this may not be the cause of the disorder, but rather a symptom. Whatever causes the disease could decrease the glial cell count as well as a secondary effect.

Third, addition of new glial cells could be too little too late. The brain is very finicky. Most of the important development in the brain takes place before you are born. After that, the brain doesn't change much structurally. If one of the causes of schizophrenia is insufficient glial cells, by the time it is diagnosed, it would be too late to fix the problem. Even if the glial cells could be repopulated, the brain would already be damaged.

On the other hand, some diseases, like Parkinson's Disease, would be relatively easy to treat with stem cells. PD is casued by degenration of neurons in the brain that produce certain neurotransmitters, leading to loss of muscle control. If stem cells could be programmed to differentiate into these cells, they could potentially replace the degenrated cells and restore neurotransmitter production.

Also, while stem cells are nearly totipotent (they can turn into nearly any cell type), it is a step-wise process. A stem cell must turn into a progenitor cell (a cell with multiple options for differentiation, but not as many as a stem cell) before its final differentiation. In other words, a stem cell would have to turn into a hematopoeitic cell prior to becoming a white blood cell. A hematopoeitic cell could turn into any type of blood or immune cell, but would be unable to turn into a muscle cell, for example. A lot of research is being done with progenitor cells rather than stem cells, since they are easier to obtain, grow, and differentiate, many kinds are present in adults (so you could use a person's own progenitor cells to treat them, eliminating rejection), they are much less likely to form tumors, and there is none of the ethical controversy that comes along with using embryonic stem cells.

So yes, your statements are correct. It is very easy to differentiate certain progenitor cells in the lab (I do it all the time). You're right about differentiating stem cells too. Stem cells can't just be injected into a patient, since they would likely not produce the correct cell type (and stem cells have a way of running out of control, resulting in tumors). The trick is getting stem cells to differentiate at the correct point and in the correct way, as well as getting the differentiated cells to behave in a way that benefits the patient.

Answer 4

I think you have a basic understanding, but you might want to try finding a college-level biology textbook, which will have a lot of understandable info about stem cells. The main thing to know is that stem cells have not yet differentiated into a specific cell type yet, so they can be manipulated to do so in vitro. In a normal developing organism, the stem cells differentiate into different types of cells (liver cells, epidermal cells, pancreatic cells, etc.) through their response to chemical signals from the extracellular matrix.

Answer 5

stem cells are manipulated to create other cells in the body, they are like the main mother cells that give birth to all the different cells in your body, they are still trying to create glial cells from stem cells in the test tubes; if they are successful then they can use these cells on numerous schizophrenic patients

Answer 6

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