This has come up in many disscussions. Adult Stem cells are pretty much cells in your body doing nothing, just blank slates floating around. This is taken from adults not newborns!. This is awesome because they take out the cells, activate them and then put them back in and it can fix a ton of problems (IE whatever programmed to do) This can solve problems such as pulmonary hyper tension.
This is still in testing but no one has died from it, but their lives got better.
Adult Stem Cell research has been around for 40 years. Bone marrow transplants are one example of Adult Stem Cell proceedures in place. The big issue people have with stem cell research is funding.
Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research has been a hot topic of debate for the past few years. There are many promises for embryonic stem cell research, but none that pose as a positive alternative to the current adult stem cell research. Many people do not understand the different between adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells, which makes a huge different in the debate over federal funding of research.
There is a huge difference between embryonic stem cell research and adult stem cell research. Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, which means they are able to become any type of cell in the human body. Adult stem cells can only maintain or repair tissue from where they originated. Adult stem cells cannot grow to become any type of cells like embryonic stem cells. Because embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, many scientists believe that research could lead to cures for many genetic disorders; however, this is an empty promise to say the least.
Evidently, the benefits of adult stem cell research could be far more important than embryonic stem cell research in the future. Embryonic stem cells are harvested from human embryos and are matured into specific organ cells. Those cells are then implanted into the patient. In these stem cell replacement therapies, embryonic stem cells might be rejected by the patient's immune system. The stem cells are donor cells and patients will probably have to take immunosuppressant drugs to maintain the rejection. On the other side, the patient's immune system will not reject its own adult stem cells.
Americans are currently receiving the benefits from adult stem cell research. New breakthroughs in the research has allowed for new chemotherapy treatments and other treatments for autoimmune diseases, strokes, immunodeficiencies, anemias, and so on and so forth. Adult stem cell research is proven to work for more than thirty years.
The federal government needs to place more money in adult stem cell research and not in embryonic stem cell research. If private companies want to fund embryonic stem cell research, that is their own prerogative. However, the federal government needs to be using money to fund projects that already show promise and will lead to immediate benefits. Breakthroughs in embryonic stem cell research is years away. Only a single company has actually developed something useful out of embryonic stem cells. While embryonic stem cell research shows promise, we must focus on expanding on what we already know works and can be used by more people.
