From Skin Cell to Stem Cell
Researches of stem cells are nowadays one of the most interesting, the most promising and contradictive area of discussions and actually medical researches. Stem cells are known to be cells that are able to become “to become any type of cell in the body”. Simply saying, stem cells are able to grow in brain, liver, kidney cell. A new method of creating stem cells has been developed. The new method prefers not to involve human embryos, but using adult skin cells to be fused. In the result skin cells would be converted into stem cells. Nevertheless, the method is far away from being implemented, though modern technique will provide in the near future alternative to the methods. However, such method remains controversial.
Many research agree that development of the new method would open new doors before medicine and is able to re-shape scientific approaches and theories, though severe limitation are provided and funding for stem cell researches is stringently limited. Earlier the only way to create stem cell was to create “cloned blastocyst by fusing the patient’s cell with a denucleated egg cell”. It means that stem cell could be generated from the blastocyst and then would be used in medical researches. It is seen that new method of creating stem cell would solve many problems.
Nevertheless, there are opposite viewpoints regarding the problem of stem cell generation. Some scientists say that creating of new human embryo must be prohibited, because it morally unacceptable and religiously unethical, whereas others claim that stem cell researches are able to save many lives, because stem cells are able to convert into cells of any kind. Furthermore, George Bush, the President of USA, announced that federal funding of researches had to be limited. Thus he has blocked the development of one of the most promising areas of medical researches. Scientists are advised to concentrate more on the proven methods of stem cell creation.
References
Taber, Sarah. (2005, October). From Skin Cell to Stem Cell. Today’s Science. Available at http://www.facts.com