It has been discovered that the pluripotent stem cells found in embryos can migrate from a fetus to the blood of the pregnant mother. Once there, these stem cells can integrate into the mother's organs and help any diseased or damaged organs. This provides evidence of the potential benefits of embryonic/pluripotent stem cells in medicine. Stem cells could be used to regenerate damaged organs and could even work to combat the effects of aging on the body. Stem cells' undifferentiated and regenerative nature makes them potentially useful in treating diseases including Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, diabetes and cirrhosis, all of which involve the degeneration of adult cells.
While embryonic stem cells are the most useful for treatments, there are issues with using them in medical applications. Since they are not derived from the patient him or herself, they have a distinct genotype and could be rejected by the immune system of the patient. Also, the use of embryonic stem cells presents an ethical dilemma. Scientists have attempted to solve both of these problems with induced pluripotent stem cells, somatic cells that are given pluripotency. It is possible to create these cells because the differentiated state of adult cells must be maintained by transcription factors; in the absence of these factors, a cell will return to an undifferentiated state. IPS cells can be created by adding activated genes including sox 2 and oct4, which inhibit differentiation and support pluripotency. The success of IPS cells was shown in an experiment done on mice in which the IPS cells helped treat sickle-cell anemia.
Sources: "Developmental Biology" Tenth Edition- Scott F Gilbert
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