Cystic Fibrosis is one of the UK’s most common life threatening diseases with it affecting over 9,000 people. Statistics show that one in twenty five people in the UK carry the faulty gene, each week five babies are born with the disease and another two young lives are lost. Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic disorder caused by a recessive allele. It affects the internal organs, especially the lungs and digestive system, by clogging them with thick sticky mucus resulting in inflammations and infections, making it hard to breathe and digest food.
As it is caused by a recessive allele, the gene must be homozygous for the offspring to have this disorder. However carriers rarely suffer from minor symptoms such as breathing difficulties. The most common symptoms of sufferers are Recurrent and severe chest infections, malabsorption and failure to thrive, passing of large foul-smelling motions, diabetes, liver failure and infertility. Sadly, there is no definite cure for cystic fibrosis, however there is treatment available. This treatment includes medication, physiotherapy, specialised nutrition and exercise.
However, recent research into stem cells has concluded that, one day, these cells could be the answer to new treatment of CF. Stem cells are special cells which have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body. Stem cells are distinguished from other cell types by two important characteristics. First, they are unspecialised cells capable of renewing themselves through cell division, sometimes after long periods of inactivity. Second, under certain physiologic or experimental conditions, they can be induced to become tissue, or organ-specific, cells with special functions.
In some organs, such as the gut and bone marrow, these cells regularly divide to repair and replace worn out, or damaged, tissues. However, in other organs, such as the pancreas and the heart, stem cells only divide under special conditions. Research shows that, by altering the patients own stem cells could mean that their own cells could be used for treatment. This was discovered by US scientists who first used a virus, to ferry into stem cells, the correct version of a gene which is faulty in cystic fibrosis.
They then coaxed the stem cells, derived from human bone marrow, into becoming epithelial cells which line the airways of the lungs. In the test tube, these corrected cells appeared to function better than the uncorrected ones. “Our results provide a proof of principle that a cell-based therapy using marrow stromal stem cells is both a feasible and promising clinical approach,” says Jay Kolls at the University of Pittsburgh, US, who led the study.
“We are hopeful that we can perform a small clinical trial within the next two to three years.” this is the first time that the two new technologies have been combined in attempt to tackle this disease and these scientists also believe that the results provided have given them great hope in that maybe they can intervene with this horrible disease. Further study into stem cells would hep us in gaining a better understanding of the cell development of other diseases such as cancer or birth defects and maybe correct the errors that cause these medical conditions. Scientists are currently testing the abilities of many different types of stem cells to treat certain diseases.
Although there is much support and promise for this method, some ethical issues are in tow with it. As it is a relatively newly thought of process, many people are reluctant to use this method as scientists are still unaware of all the dangers. Also, using Many questions arises of this concern. Julian Savulescu list several arguments: It is liable to abuse. It violates a persons right to individuality, autonomy, self-hood. It allows eugenic selection. His journal also goes into details of the advantages of using stem cell lines mainly for therapeutic reasons with great emphasis on control.
The main reason is that if this regeneration practice goes un-check, there will be someone out there that will be “playing God. ” my view is that there should be more research done into this method and although it may seem promising and trustworthy, it should not be promoted, only used when asked for directly and the patient should have full knowledge of this method.
Bibliography http://stemcells. nih. gov/info/ethics. asp http://stemcells. nih. gov/info/basics/basics1. asp http://stemcells. nih. gov/info/health. aspPrev Page http://stemcells. nih. gov/info/basics/ http://www. cfww. org/pub/english/cfwnl/13/288/Stem_Cell_Therapy_for_Cystic_Fibrosis http://www. cftrust. org. uk/aboutcf/whatiscf/ http://www. cftrust. org. uk/aboutcf/whatiscf/whatcausescf/ http://www. cftrust. org. uk/aboutcf/whatiscf/howdiagnosed/ http://www. cftrust. org. uk/aboutcf/whatiscf/symptoms/ http://www. cftrust. org. uk/aboutcf/whatiscf/treatment/ http://www. cftrust. org. uk/aboutcf/whatiscf/isthereacure/ http://www. cftrust. org. uk/aboutcf/cfcare/.