Why is human embryonic stem cell research important yet very controversial? As specific type unspecialized cells that can be isolated from virtually all multicellular organisms, embryonic stem cells present medicine and biomedical science with important and unique properties of self renewal and pluripotency. These properties are influential in the treatment of a host of otherwise incurable genetic regenerative diseases, gene cloning, tissue and organ transplants as well as other chronic diseases and disorders.
However, the controversy arises from the source of these stem cells (http://www. buzzle. com/) Human embryonic stem cells are undifferentiated cells with the capacity of self renewal and differentiation into virtually every single cell type in the human body. Through differentiation, these unspecialized cell types acquire specialized features that distinct each tissue or organ from the other while also conferring these tissues the functional capacity. Usually after fertilization, the fusion of sperm and oocyte yields a one cell zygote.
Subsequent division and increase in size of the zygote yields the morula: a compact mass of 16-32 cells. The morula develops into a blastocyst which has three specific layers. A layer of cells, usually called the trophectoderm lines makes up the outer anatomical composition of the blastocyst. A fluid filled cavity called the blastocoels separates the trophectoderm from the inner cell mass. After the implantation of the inner blastocyst into the uterus wall, differentiation begins and the inner cell mass commence the developmental process towards the formation of the uterus.
Usually embryonic stem cells are derivatives of the undifferentiated inner cell mass. These are the cells that possess the ability to develop into any given cell type in the human body. It is for this reason that these cells are termed pluripotent. Pluripotency gives embryonic stem cells the unique potentiality of being able to replace any damaged cell in adult human beings hence the possibility of using cell based therapies in regenerative medicine (U. S NRC 30; Monroe et al 3).