1. What types of diseases have the potential to be cured by stem cell technology

Question

1. What types of diseases have the potential to be cured by stem cell technology? Are any stem cell treatment currently approved or in clinical trials?

2. What is the difference between an embryonic stem cell and an adult stem cell? What are the changes that occur in a cell as it differentiates?

3. How are stem cells and cancer cells similar?

4. What are the ethical issues surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells? Can any of these issues be avoided using technology such as somatic cell transfer or induced pluripotent stem cells, explain why or why not?

5. What are the potential dangers of stem cell technology?

Explanation / Answer

1). The characteristic of stem cells is self renewal. Stem cells can differentiate into different cell types and tissues, but controlling their differentiation pathway is the major obstacle in stem cell therapy. Stem cells therapy is more useful for diseases, which needs organ transplant such as liver transfer, heart transfer, pancreas transfer (diabetes), bone marrow transfer, blood and related diseases etc. However, treatment of microbial infections cannot be done by stem cells; they must be treated with antibiotics.

Yes, there are certain stem cell therapies that are being practiced such as blood stem cell therapies. Blood stem cells are used to treat diseases of immunity and blood in many patients in Europe (more than 26, 000 per year).

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