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Stem cells –
the most dangerous and unpredictable cells around. One shot
of stem cells, and presto! You start to grow tree-like limbs!
Green, stem-like shoots start sprouting from your arms and
legs!!! Yes, the dreaded “stem cell” is the scourge
of humanity, as it seeks to turn all of human kind into a
kind of horrible hybrid: a terrifying half-tree, half-monkey!
Ha ha. Of course
I’m joking. Simply put, stem cells are cells that don’t
have an assigned job yet. They’re kind of like baby
cells that haven’t decided what they want to be when
they grow up. They can also grow for a longer time than ‘finished’
cells. In other words, a skin cell knows its job, does it
well, and retires on time. But a cell that doesn’t yet
know what it is going to be, can stick around a little longer.
Stem cells are full of potential. Which makes them pretty
valuable.
Do they come from
babies? Well, there are different kinds of stem cells: adult
and embryonic. We’ve been doing adult stem cell transplants
for years now (like bone marrow transplants in cancer patients).
But mouse studies suggest that embryonic stem cells may be
better for transplantation. These embryonic stem cells are
taken from an early stage embryo (so not really a baby, technically,
as a “baby” is a “fetus” first, and
an “embryo” before that – but of course
it depends on how much you want to include in your definition
of “baby”!).
Ultimately, it
is hoped that stem cells may be used to replace cells or regenerate
organs that are diseased or failing in our body, such as regenerating
neurons in the brain of Parkinson’s patients or replacing
destroyed heart tissue in people with heart disease. In fact,
stem cells may be the key to all kinds of so-called “incurable”
diseases. You could say that hope stems from them…but
then you would have made a bad pun, and we can’t have
that, now, can we?
Wanna learn more?
Glossary
term:
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