Title: 9.3 Medical Applications
Course: ATEP - Biotechnology Module B > Section: Extended Learning Applications

9.3.1 Medical

The number of biotechnology medical applications is increasing exponentially as technology rapidly improves in numerous areas such as genomic sequencing (check it out, the cost of doing a person’s genome is going down!) and biological knowledge increases just or even faster. One of the most important areas is regenerative medicine including the use of stem cells.

Stem cells are unspecialized cells in the body that have the ability to become different cells based on the chemical signals they receive such as red blood cells, pancreas cells, or bone cells. in a cut or a burn. Stem cell treatment is even being used in animals such like dogs for the treatment of arthritis!

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What Exactly Is a Stem Cell?

As you view The Stem Cell Story, record your answers to the following questions:

1. What are stem cells?
2. Where are stem cells obtained from?
3. Embryonic stem cells can differentiate into which types of cells?
4. Natural stem cells from the brain can differentiate into which types of cells?
5. In the treatment of burns, scientist can use stem cells to help them replace ____________.
6. What are cells “fed” when grown in lab?
7. When are blastocysts created in a laboratory?
8. What are the roles of stem cells in our bodies?
9. What are stem cell scientist investigating in today’s laboratories?

9.3.2 Types of Stem Cells

There are several types of stem cells based on scientific research:

1. Adult stem cells are found in many organs including the brain, heart, liver, bone marrow, and skill but have limited self-renewal capacity; they can only become the same cell type. They are multipotent (can give rise to one or a few types of cells) but not pluripoten (can give rise to a wide variety of cells). For instance, a liver cell can become a liver cell. They have been successfully used for therapy in the organs from which they were originally derived such as creating skin for burn victims or creating a whole new bladder.
2. Embryonic stem cells are derived from pre-implantation embryos that were created through in-vitro fertilization and can differentiate into many cell types in the body, or pluripotent. This means they can be become a liver, or bone marrow, or a skill cell. Because of the controversy surrounding their use, scientists and the medical community are figuring out how to make other cell types pluripotent.
3. Nuclear transfer-embryonic stem cells were developed using human cells. These are stems cells created by taking the DNA from an adult cell and using it to replace the genetic material in an egg cell.
4. Induced pluripotent stem cells are adult cells that have been genetically reprogrammed to an embryonic stem cell-like state.
5. Amniotic fluid cell can also be converted into pluripotent stem cells, which are similar to embryonic stem cells. This is great because many parents have the cord blood of their children preserved just in case they need a source of stem cells later in life.

Visit this webpage to learn more about the different types of stem cells.