safe, and there were no signs of rejection or abnormalities in cell growth; the patientÊs vision started to improve. Researchers told The Lancet, ÂThe ultimate therapeutic goal will be to treat patients earlier in the disease processes, potentially increasing the likelihood of photoreceptor and central visual rescue.Ê 4 Cardiovascular disease is a major problem in both developing and developed countries. In the United States, cardiovascular disease has been the number one cause of death every year since 1900, and one person dies due to it nearly every 34 seconds. 5 A team from the Macromolecular Biochemistry Research Centre in Montpellier, France undertook tests with embryonic stem cells to see whether they can develop into cardiac tissue and repair damage. The team induced heart attacks in 18 sheep, and two weeks later 9 of them received injections of embryonic stem cells from mice which had been cultured with growth factors, around the scarred areas on their hearts. A month later, the stem cells, having been tagged with fluorescent proteins, were shown to have colonized the scarred area of the heart and successfully change into heart tissue. As a result, the left ventricle increased its ejection rate by approximately 10%. In addition, there was no sign that the mouse cells were being rejected by the sheepÊs immune system. 6 Furthermore, Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are extremely useful in research and could provide a massive basis for future medical treatments. Human embryonic stem cells can improve our understanding of how our body develops from a fertilized egg, and thus can offer an insight into how our tissues are maintained and repaired. They can also help us comprehend how diseases arise and develop, for instance cancer and some birth defects, which are the consequence of complications in differentiation from stem cells to specialized cells. After being studied in a laboratory, the cells could potentially 4 Advanced Cell Technology: Stem Cell Retinal Implants Safe (2012) 5 Heart Failure (2012) 6 Embryonic Stem Cells Repair Broken Hearts (2005)
provide and test new drugs, and even therapies for diseases which havenÊt been treated yet. 7 However, to test for new drugs, the cells must have the correct properties of the type of cells to be tested, for example nerve cells would be produced to test a new drug for a nerve disease; the tests could then show if the new drug had an effect on the cells or if the cells were harmed. Although the array of diseases that can be treated is increased when embryonic stem cells are used, there is a great deal of controversy surrounding the current technique to produce these cells. This controversy includes ethical, religious and political reasons. First of all, the ethical controversy surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells in medicine arises because in order to harvest these cells, one has to destroy a blastocyst. This is controversial because a blastocyst has the potential to develop into something thatÊs living. Until recently, embryonic stem cells were acquired from embryos that were by- products of assisted fertilization, and could voluntarily be donated to be used in research. 8 However, the UK law now permits researchers to create human embryos so that embryonic stem cells can be obtained from them. Some have argued that this law challenges the principle that human life should not be created as a means to an end. These embryos however are only created for research purposes and cannot be placed in the womb, thus new individuals are technically not created. The issue comes down to the question of when life begins. The standard viewpoint of those who oppose embryonic stem cells is that human beings first exists as a one-cell zygote at fertilization, and thus believe that life begins at conception. They therefore consider that harvesting embryonic stem cells is likened to murder. 9 However there are also some who believe that life starts 7 What are Human Embryonic Stem Cells Used For? (2012) 8 The Ethics of Stem Cells (2007 ) 9 The Ethics of Embryonic Stem Cell Research (2005)
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