Starter Toolkit Series: Stem Cells

Part of my series demystifying basic concepts of new-age technologies to help spark curiosity in other young minds

Stem cells are talked about a lot and most people say they know what they are but how well do they understand the specifics of the subject? Today, I’m going to help you understand the basics of stem cells and by the end of this article, the next time you hear the term stem cells you’ll know exactly what it means.

What are stem cells?

Stem cells are a type of cell from which all other specialized cells are generated. In certain conditions, these stem cells will divide and create new daughter cells. Now, these daughter cells will become one of two things: another stem cell, or a specialized cell (blood cells, bone cells, brain cells, heart muscle cells, etc.).

Types of stem cells

Stem cells are divided into 2 main forms. These types are called embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells.

Embryonic Stem Cells

These are the very first cells to form after an embryo has been fertilized. They are undifferentiated, meaning they haven’t matured or become specialized. These cells typically are taken from unused embryos that are donated to science. Embryonic cells were first isolated in 1998. These stem cells are known as pluripotent, meaning they can turn into multiple different types of cells. These cells also can multiply and divide endlessly. When in the embryo, these cells divide and then form organs, bones and muscles.

Thanks to their versatility, embryonic stem cells were thought to have the most potential for medical usage. If we were able to control what cells they were to turn into, we could replace any part of the body that got damaged.

However, many people object to the use of embryonic stem cells on moral grounds. The primary objection is that obtaining the cells from the embryos would destroy the embryos themselves which many believe is tantamount to ending a life. In fact, in the United States, this was a huge presedential campaign topic which gives you an indication of how close to people’s heart this topic is.

Adult Stem Cells

This type of stem cell comes from tissues that have already been developed. There are very few stem cells in these tissues and pockets of these stem cells are found in our organs. These cells are mature stem cells that replenish blood, skin, and some other cells.

There are many different types of adult stem cells and some examples are:

Mesenchymal: Typically found in the fat tissue, organs and bone marrow. This type of stem cell turns into connective tissue when it matures.

Hematopoietic: Primarily located in blood from the umbilical cord and in bone marrow and they become blood and immune cells once they mature. Are used for blood cancer treatment and the only type of stem cells that the FDA has currently approved for therapy.

Fetal: While stem cells from fetuses are more mature than embryonic cells, they still are more versatile than most other adult stem cells.

As most adult stem cells are very limited in how many cells they can turn into, they have less medical potential than other types of stem cells. However, they are easier to use as we have our own supply of them in our bodies.

Induced Pluripotent Stem (IPS) Cells

These are adult stem cells that have been reprogrammed to have many characteristics of embryonic stem cells. These types of cells are typically made from blood or skin cells. These cells can be made from adult stem cells. What this means is that a cell like a skin cell could be turned into an induced pluripotent stem cell and then be turned into a heart cell. Since they are similar to embryonic stem cells, they can turn into any other type of cell.

The main difference between IPS cells and embryonic cells is that IPS cells are made in a laboratory. Researchers are still trying to determine if IPS cells and embryonic cells could be used interchangeably.

IPS cells seem to have similar medical potential to embryonic cells as they both can be used to replace damaged or diseased cells.

The only drawback of these cells is that making induced pluripotent cells is a very time and resource-consuming process.

Current and future applications

Now you might be wondering why there’s such hype surrounding stem cells. Stem cells show us a new future based on these unique cells. Some of the things stem cells may be able to help us do are:

Improved understanding of causal factors: By watching the specialized cells being formed, we may be able to obtain a better understanding of how some diseases occur.

Regenerative Medicine: We can guide stem cells into becoming specific types of cells that we can use to repair dead or diseased tissue. Some diseases and/or injuries that might be affected by stem cell therapies include spinal cord injuries, Parkinson’s disease, type 1 diabetes and many more.

Safety test for experimental drugs: Using some types of stem cells, researchers can monitor the effects a drug will have on certain types of cells before using the drugs on people. This way we can ensure the drug is both safe and effective.

Some challenges in stem cell research

At the moment, stem cell research hasn’t developed enough for stem cell use to become common practice. We still need a better understanding of how embryonic stem cells develop so that we can learn how to better control the type of cells they turn into. Another issue is that the stem cells we have access to today have a good chance of being rejected by a patient’s body.

There are also issues with using adult pluripotent cells as these are difficult in a lab setting so we are looking for ways to improve the process. Also, these cells are at greater risk of DNA problems as they are found in very small quantities.

Final Thoughts

Despite early objections to the utilization of this technology, there is a widespread surge in research dollars spent on applications of stem cell based technologies. As this field develops, stem cells are proving that they are to be the future of medicine.