You broke your neck. You have cancer. You were born with cerebral palsy or some
other degenerative disease and it is going to leave you like a vegetable. You
are useless, right? Maybe not. Stem cell research could save your life. Maybe
not your physical life but your normal human lifestyle can be reinstated.
All humans–all organisms for that matter–begin from one single cell that
divides and develops into a multi-cellular organism. All the cells in a mature
organism are different, vastly different in some cases, so how can they all
come from one type of cell? The answer is simple. Proteins embedded on the
outside of all cells are what give the cells an identity and a job to do. The
amount and type of proteins on the outside of your cells makes it a blood cell
or a liver cell or what have you. In the beginning stages of life–that single
cell that you start out as–has no proteins on it. As the cell divides and
develops, proteins are added and those proteins separate one cell from the next.
However, the cells with no proteins on them are referred to as ”blank” cells.
And these “blank” cells are stem cells.
Stem cells are found in the umbilical cord or possibly even in adult humans, but
the most common appearance of stem cells is in the embryonic or fetal stages of
development for obvious reasons. These cells when blank can form into any type
of cell they are surrounded by. Because the proteins surrounding them embed
themselves into the cell membrane and give that cell an identity as well as the
materials needed to perform a certain job. They are what we call body cells, or
somatic cells. An embryonic or fetal stem cell can become any type of body cell.
One example of this is shown here(Process). |
