CREATING STEM CELLS WITH ACID BATHS

CREATING STEM CELLS WITH ACID BATHS

Scientists have found a way to create embryonic stem cells without introducing genetic material. The discovery could revolutionize medicine by giving doctors a way to repair diseased and damaged tissue. Just think about the situation , heart disease, blindness, skin burns-with organs and tissues grown from patient’s own cells.

Researchers have developed a way to create embryonic  stem cells by subjecting white blood cells to stress. This is negating the need for an embryo or introduction  of genetic material and bringing us a step closer to personalized medicine.As we all know cloning creates human embryonic stem cells. Recently researches has been done  by Haeuko  Obokata from the Riken center for developmental biology in Kobe,Japan.  They found that when  we  apply  various  stresses like bathing them in acid or putting  them in a low oxygen environment,nearly bring them to the brink of death, some of those cells lost their “blood identity” and reverted to a state equivalent to an embryonic  stem cell. They called those cells  Stap for Stimulus- Triggered Acqusition of Pluripotency

 When the scientists transferred the stap cells to a special growth facilitating solution,they began to multiply and look like stem cells,which can grow into any type of cell – skin,bone organ- depending on the environment into which they are placed. When the cells were injected to the mice embryo, they contributed the over all tissue of baby mice, which was found amusing to the researchers,

Not only this approach is more faster and far cheaper than the existing methods,but  it eliminates the controversy surrounding embryonic stem cell research, which  requires the destruction of an embryo, raising ethical concerns. The new approach also avoids the genetic risks of the alternative embryonic method called induced pluripotent stem cells.

Shamna sheriff

Second Pharm.D