Scientists Grow New Stem Cells in a Living Mouse

Summary: Scientists in Madrid, Spain have recently grown stem cells in a living mouse. Stem cells are cells in the bodies of multicellular organisms that have not yet specialized, and therefore can still specialize and reproduce using mitosis. The abilities of stem cells allow them to act as a repair system  for the body and the tissues of organs (often used in skin). The scientists involved in this experiment used the same methods used to grow stem cells in petri dishes, and although it wasn't fully successful, it gave lots of information to scientists about using these stem cells for regeneration. Regeneration is useful in the curing of diseases that currently have no cure, such as stroke and heart disease. The test was not totally successful because the cells implanted into the mouse caused tumors, which would be a big problem if this occurred in humans. For that reason, there are probably many more years of research before this discovery can be used in humans.

Relevance: This is relevant to this term's curriculum because we have learned about benign and malignant tumors from the textbook. The textbook talks about tumors and how they can be fatal. Cancer cells grow rapidly and uncontrollably. If the cancer cells were to get into blood vessels they could even spread much further than the original point of development, a process called metastasis.  If the methods used in this discovery were to be tested in humans, those test subjects would probably develop cancer and might even die. Therefore these methods have to be improved and refined before they can actually be used to cure certain diseases.

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/11/us-stemcells-idUSBRE98A0ZV20130911
Author Name: Kate Kelland
Date of Publication: 9/11/2013