Stem Cells:

Miracle Cure?

Avionna Baldwin
J. Onyi Oradiegwu

SAMS 2008
What is Tissue Engineering/
Regenerative Medicine?
Replacing diseased or injured
tissues with tissue constructs
designed and fabricated for the
specific needs of each individual
patient.
What are
Biomaterials?
A material intended to interface
with biological systems to
evaluate, treat, augment or
replace any tissue, organ or
function in the body.
 Still thousands die while waiting for a transplant, and
thousands more arent even on the list.

400 bil: of
national
health care
bill goes to
patients with
organ failure,
or tissue loss
Five hottest jobs for the
next millennium will be
bioengineering/biomedical
related.

Tissue
Engineering
Hottest job for 21st
Century
 No One Discipline Can Tackle
the Problem Alone

Lee Weiss, Carnegie Mellon

Normal Wound Repair The Basic Three Rs
Requires a Balance of of Tissue Engineering
Processes
Right Right
Hormones ECM

Matrices Cells
Healing

Right
Signaling Cells
Molecules
 Guided Tissue Repair

If needed, harvest cells

from patient.
Growth
f ac t or s Cells

Biomimetic Culture Implant

extracellular
matrix

Lee Weiss, Carnegie Mellon

 Principles of Tissue Engineering

Cells ECM

Defect Regeneration

Hormones Blood
Supply

Phil Campbell, Carnegie Mellon

What about the cells?
Adult stem cells
look promising
for some applications
Embryonic stem cells
great potential,
controversial
The right hormones can
induce
these cells to become
a variety of cell types
 A cell that is able to differentiate into
many cell types is known as pluripotent
Cant grow into a totally new indiv.
Because they dont make extraembryonic
structures like placenta
A cell that is able to differentiate into all
cell types is known as totipotent.
Can go full on into a new indiv. They can
make a placenta
Amazing: plants are way easier to find Beast boy can
totipotent cells in turn into any
animal
 adipocyte muscle cell
osteoblast

hematopoetic/endothelial
chondrocyte
cells

Adult Muscle-
Derived Stem Cells
(MDSCs)
nerve cells/neurons/glial cell

hepatocyte/urinary bladder cells

Pancreatic islets??
 Derivation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells
(hESCs)

http://stemcells.nih.gov/staticresources/info/scireport/PDFs/Chapter8_final.pdf
 Derivation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells
(hESCs)

http://stemcells.nih.gov/staticresources/info/scireport/PDFs/Chapter8_final.pdf
 Modified Cell Stem Cell Induction or
Derivation.

http://stemcells.nih.gov/staticresources/info/scireport/PDFs/Chapter8_final.pdf
http://stemcells.nih.gov/staticresources/info/scireport/PDFs/Chapter8_final.pdf
Adult Stem Cell Derivation
 Stem Cell Differentiation

Princeton University
 Stem Cell Cultivation

University of Wisconsin-Madison
Human Stem Cell Production
 Tissue origins
Embryonic cells
present molecules
on their
membranes that
aid in the early
organizing process
Ectoderm,
mesoderm,
endoderm
 Youve got stem cells in you right now
Note: Progenitor cells: a term like stem
cells, but less restrictive
Adults have stem cells in blood marrow.
Theyre multipotent, but not pluripotent
Might have suffered ravages of time,
sunlight, and toxins, that come with aging
There are also stem cells in umbilical
cords
Bo is like a
Embryonic stem cells = controversy pluripotent athlete.
 An Ultimate Vision for Regenerative
Medicine: Complete Tissue Regeneration
Spinal Cord

Upper and
Tail Retina and Lens Lower Jaw
Heart

Limb

The Newt
From Dr. Susan Bryant, Univ.
Adapted of Calif.,
from BrockesIrvine
Phil Campbell, Carnegie Mellon
And lots of tissue engineering research
looks very promising

For example,
tissue-engineered nerve guides
for treatment of spinal cord injuries
 After induced put in the video and see the clip
to implement the stem cell
 Medical Implants
Millions of People in the US
Have Medical Implants

Associated with
a $50 billion/year
Medical Device Industry
FDA approved products
Infuse Bone Graft
Bone morphogenetic protein-7,
Osteogenic peptide-1
Regranex
Carticel
Transcyte
Intergra Dermal Regeneration Template
Dermagraft
Apligraft
Ortec
 Short form: Know the argument
Proponents
Theyre from embryos that are slated for destruction
anyway
Great potential for good
Superman was for it
Only for embryoes that were
going to be discarded
Opponents
Destroys embryos
Devalues worth of human
Hot research area: harvest embryonic
stem cells without destroying the embryo.
Proponents Argument in depth
Embryonic stem cells are more useful
Utilitarian
The benefits of stem cell research outweigh the cost in
terms of embryonic "life
human potential vs humanity
The value of an embryo should not be placed on par
with the value of a child or adult
Life starts with a heartbeat
Ends justify the means
Efficiency
If an embryo is going to be destroyed anyway, isn't it
more efficient to make practical use of it?
In Vitro Fertilization makes thousands of unusable
embryos
 Opponents
arguments in
depth
Embryos are lives
Life starts at conception
Note Roe v. Wade said life = viability, ability to survive
outside of womb, medical advancements have pushed
this back to 22 weeks. Could trend continue?
Exploring alternative therapeutic options
Weve studied adult stem cells longer and have more
therapies with them that with embryonic
The potential is overstated
Legal
Sweden
Finland
Belgium
Greece
Illegal
the United Kingdom,
Germany
Denmark
Austria
Netherlands
Ireland
China
Italy
Japan
Portugal.
Korea
Most of middle east
Taiwan
Africa, except S. Africa
Israel
S. America, except Brazil
Iran