Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Human Parts Grown from Pigs?

I recently read an article at BBC News about a recent breakthrough in stem cell research; namely, scientists have transformed adult cells from pigs into stem cells. Stem cells are important because their only job is to replace dead or injured cells. Stem cells may be able to replace nerve cells in a paralyzed person or white blood cells in an AIDS patient. The medical applications are numerous. So far, scientists have experimented with stem cells from embryos, which is controversial because the embryos have to be destroyed in the process. Another source is the stem cells from adults, which have not been so successful. This breakthrough is important because it may potentially mean that we can close the debate about using embryonic stem cells.

In the study, the scientists took ear and bone marrow cells and "reprogrammed" them by using a virus to introduce a host of chemicals into the cells. The adult cells were successfully transformed into stem cells.

Maybe one day, we will be able to harvest human organs grown in pigs. If someone is born with a birth defect or someone develops a disease or someone gets into an accident, their organs can be replaced with these pig-grown human organs. This may be a little unsettling because we may start to view pigs as just organ donors, but I think this is much better than killing human embryos.

Pig Stem Cells





Acknowledgments
Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8078996.stm
Background: http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics
Image: http://www.zmescience.com/human-skin-cells-ordered-to-be-embryonic-stem-cells
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Posted by Maliek202501 at 6/03/2009 09:14:00 AM

4 comments:

  1. Hassan WilsonJune 3, 2009 at 12:48 PM

    Interesting piece! I think you understand the significance of the study. I also thought the format of the article was effective: nice picture and hyperlinks throughout the text. I thought you could have included a lot more background information; your explanation of stem cells was minimal and you did not even discuss AIDS and paralysis. More importantly, you vaguely described the study. You will have to conduct background research and give more information about how the scientists transformed the adult cells into stem cells. I read the original article and it did not explain the procedure so you will have to read other sources.

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  2. AnonymousJune 3, 2009 at 5:11 PM

    Nice article. I read a few other articles about this breakthrough. I think you should check out an article written at Michael White's blog at scientificblogging.com called "Time to Ditch Embryonic Stem Cells" which takes the opposite position than you seem to take. It's a good read and gives many responses in favor of embryonic stems.

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  3. Hassan WilsonSeptember 12, 2009 at 3:59 AM

    One more thing, I don't believe that the image you used is licensed. Unless you received permission, then you are potentially in violation of copyright laws.

    ReplyDelete
  4. abanxJanuary 6, 2010 at 5:09 PM

    this article makes it harder for me to weigh the pros and cons of stem cell research.

    ReplyDelete

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