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Stem Cells It would seem that most people would have heard the words 'stem cell' at some point over the last few years. Some of you might be aware of arguments surrounding their use, but most of you out there are probably just wondering what exactly is a stem cell and what’s all the hype about?
Adult stem cells come from within a person’s body. They have been found in the bone marrow, muscles, blood (in the arms and legs), skin and liver, where it’s thought they work to repair and maintain these areas.
Scientists may have found a way to make the use of stem cells less controversial. They have recently discovered that stem cells that have similar properties to embryonic stem cells in the testes. What can they be used for?
There is a lot of research going in to stem cells all over the world. There are also many debates too, because the topic of stem cells is quite complex and ethically charged. It seems a little crazy for so much publicity to surround a poor little cell that just hasn’t made up its mind about what it wants to do when it grows up - but that's the way it is!
Background Notes A brief synopsis of each of the stem cell items in our shows and links to our references.
A treatment for a ‘broken heart’ is in the works…….
After a heart attack, a small area of the heart dies and can’t be treated by current drugs or therapies. In the future, they are hoping to be able to use a 'patch' made out of stem cells. The stem cells are grown in the lab and then placed over the dead area of the heart; this stimulates them to beat with the heart cells around it.
References
Return to top. Stem cells and heart patients in Australia A Newcastle man has been the first Australian to be treated with stem cells for heart disease. After having several heart attacks as well as a quadruple bypass (a procedure where doctors add new arteries to bypass blockages) doctors didn’t think that any more surgery would help the patient. Instead they injected adult stem cells they had taken from his hip and then grown in a lab into his heart. They did this in March 2006, in the Hunter Medical Research Group in Newcastle, but won’t known if the stem cells are working until May 2006 when they perform some tests to see if the heart is getting better. Even though the final results won’t be known until then, the patient has said that he is feeling better already and scientists are hopeful that this kind of procedure will help thousands of Australians in the future. If you’re interested in this kind of stuff, check out what US researchers have been doing with heart patients and stem cells above. References
Return to top. New Stem Cell Line in Australia If human stem cells can be grown in the laboratory lots of diseases and conditions could be treated. This is because stem cells can become any other kind of cell in the human body – muscle cells, bone cells, even nerve cells to fix spinal injuries. References
Return to top. Stem Cells may provide us with all kinds of new ways to repair the human body in the future. It’s already providing us with some new ideas for treatments as well as something else: artwork. The images that researchers create by staining and photographing cells as part of their work often make stunning works of art. There is an exhibition currently showcasing stem cell images that is travelling to capital cities in Australia. All the images were entries made by Australian researchers and submitted to the Australian Stem Cell Centre’s Photographic Competition. The winning image was taken by a young researcher at Monash University, Lincon Stamp and his colleague Joan Clark. The image, titled ‘Up Close and Endodermal’ shows stem cells transforming into spiky endoderm cells that go on to form organs like lungs, liver and pancreas. This photograph shows the first stage of the goal Lincon is working towards: turning stem cells into insulin producing ‘beta’ cells to treat diabetes. References
Return to top. Can you believe that racehorses feel the force of a family car on their back legs when they’re racing? For this reason a common area for racehorses to injure is their leg tendons. Surgery may be a thing of the past for these horses. Australian vet Chris O’Sullivan has used stem cell therapy to treat injured racehorses. Stem cells are cells in our body that haven’t been assigned a special purpose but when needed they can transform into a different type of cell. Horses can be treated with stem cells found in their bone marrow. A sample of their bone marrow is taken and the small amount of stem cells within the bone marrow is separated. The stem cells are kept in a cosy environment where they grow before they’re injected into the horses’ tendon. The stem cells then create tendon tissue which strengthens the tendon and improves the horses’ chances of a full recovery. In March 2006 Roger Smith from the UK’s Royal Veterinary College published the results of his stem cell treatment of racehorses. Roger treated 82 horses and found that 80% of these horses went back to racing, that’s a lot more than the 30% that would have got back to racing using the usual treatment of surgery. Using stem cells to treat racehorses is going ahead in leaps and bounds and a treatment using stem cells from fat rather than bone marrow has now been developed. They also hope that in the future similar methods could be used to treat injuries in humans.
References
Return to top. There is lots of debate across the world about the use of stem cells, especially the type known as embryonic stem cells. Scientists want to use embryonic stem cells because they are able to become any type of cell found in the body, however some groups, including religious groups such as the catholic church, don’t want them used because they are taken from human embryos. Scientists may have found a way to make the use of stem cells less controversial. They have recently discovered that stem cells which have similar properties to embryonic stem cells in the testes. They are now calling these new stem cells multipotent adult germline stem cells and are hoping that they will be able to further research into this field. They have been found in mice, but if they can be found in humans as well it’s thought they could remove the need to use embryonic stem cells. There is still a lot to learn about all types of stem cells however it’s hoped that as we learn more about them we will be able to treat more diseases than ever before. References
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