My Current Affairs Journal is about stem cells. I will mainly focus on adult pluripotent stem cells and the ethics of embryonic stem cell use.
What are stem cells?
Stem cells are unspecialized human cells that have the ability to transform into any specialized cell, e.g. a blood cell or a muscle cell. Scientists hope to use stem cells to treat diseases like Alzheimer's disease, repair damaged organs, or even grow organs from them.
Until recently, the most common way to derive stem cells was from human embryos. To gain stem cells, scientists use embryos that were created for in vitro fertilization but not implanted in the womb. Since the embryos are destroyed in the process, the use of embryonic stem cells sparked many ethical debates. While stem cells can also be derived from adults, this process is much more challenging, because adult stem cells are rare and cannot be cultivated as easily as embryonic cells.
However, in 2006 scientists discovered a way to "reprogram" specialized adult cells so they would assume a stem cell-like state. These cells are called "induced pluripotent stem cells" or adult pluripotent stem cells (pluripotent = ability to differentiate into almost any cell type).
Sources:
http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/pages/basics1.aspx
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/stemcells/scissues/
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/stem_cell/
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