Study Guide |
Explore This Topic |
Meet the Scientist
Links & Resources |
Teacher Resources | Overview
Study Guide
A stem cell has two key properties: it can renew itself, and it can give rise to another cell with a specific function. You may have already heard that scientists propagate and study stem cells in the laboratory with the goal of using these cells to treat disease.
In fact, we all have stem cells. Even in adults, these cells are necessary for our survival. For example, skin stem cells repair and renew our skin. Stem cells in our bone marrow give rise to the different cell types in our blood. There are even stem cells in the adult brain that can give rise to new nerve cells.
Scientists long believed that no new nerve cells were born in the brain after childhood. Then in the 1990s professor Fred Gage and colleagues showed that new nerve cells do develop in the adult brain. It is a process that goes on in our brains everyday.
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Quicktime Movie: View an animation of a stem cell dividing and giving rise a functioning nerve cell in a part of the brain known as the hippocampus.
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Stem cells, like the ones in the adult brain, that can give rise to all of the cell types in one particular organ, but not all the cell types in the body, are called multipotent. Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent. They can give rise to any of the cells constituting the body, such as nerve cells, muscle cells and liver cells.
Research is on-going to determine how to coax stem cells to generate specific cell types that could be used to replace cells damaged by injury or disease. For example, functioning pancreatic cells that produce insulin could be created and transplanted into diabetic patients whose pancreases have stopped functioning.
There are a number of technical challenges that must be addressed before stem cells live up to their promise as potential treatments.
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RealPlayer Movie: Learn what steps are involved in developing therapies with embryonic stem cells, and what hurdles must be overcome to do so.
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The possibility of using stem cell treatments to repair damaged tissues has already captured the public imagination. But scientists are also excited about using embryonic stem cells to investigate the mechanisms of human disease and to test the effectiveness of drugs for these diseases. Developing embryonic stem cell lines using a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer can make it possible to study any human disease.
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RealPlayer Movie: Learn how it is possible to use stem cells to test drug therapies, and what are the advantages of somatic cell nuclear transfer.
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To learn more about embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells, you can watch the full length video of professor Gage's talk Stem Cells: The Brain's Beginnings, and/or delve into some of the materials under Links and Resources. First, check your understanding in the next section, Explore This Topic. There are also some thought problems designed to stimulate the growth of new nerve cells in your brain.
