Throughout our history, scientists continue to experiment and make discoveries that expand our knowledge of the world and the full potential of the matter around us. As the medical research of scientists improves, new treatments are found that enable people to have a longer lifespan and live healthier. Medical researchers continue to discover new medicines that help people overcome fatal diseases and allow them to achieve a more sustainable life. As scientists research the potential of treatment for diseases, there is a promising future in stem cells that offer a possible treatment for a wide variety of diseases. Scientists discover the capabilities of stem cells through their ability to repair, their opportunity of treatment, and their potential in future research.
Stem cell research is the gateway to opportunities of treatments for diseases and possible cure for cancer, as scientists test the capabilities of stem cells. Stem cells are unspecialized that develop into other cell types and they replicate to repair any damaged cells when needed (Kochar). These cells serve as an “internal repair system, dividing essentially without limit to replenish other cells” (“Stem Cell Basics” 1). The cell receives a signal from the brain in order to differentiate and become a specific cell, such as: a bone cell, skin cell, red-blood cell, or nerve cell. It produces new proteins to create the characteristics that are needed by the specific cell type (“Learn Genetics”). There are two different types of stem cells, embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. After seven days of fertilization, the embryo develops a circular structure known as the blastocyst, and in the inner cell mass there are blastocyst embryonic stem cells, which have the capabilities to transform into nearly any type of cell in the body. As the embryo develops, it becomes a fetus, and there are stem cells in the fetus that contribute to the development of all the tissues. Once the child is born, adult stem cells in the tissues carry-out the necessary growth throughout their life (“What are Some Different Types of Stem Cells?”). Embryonic stem cells can be acquired from an abortion or fertilized eggs left over from in vitro fertilization, which is a process that joins a woman’s egg and a man’s sperm in a laboratory and once it is fertilized, the embryo is injected back into the woman’s womb. Adult stem cells are cells that are for specific cell types, like blood, skin, and muscle, and despite the name, adult cells are in children as well as adults (“Stem Cells Research”). They are limited to the possible cell types that they can become due to their tissue of origin, where as the embryonic stem cells are unlimited to any cell type in the body. There are restraints to the possible uses of adult stem cells due to the fact that they are limited to the number of cell types that they can form and they are difficult to extract from the tissue because they are not abundant (“Stem...
