Couples who are having problems conceiving a child may sometimes resort to a procedure called in vitro fertilization. This is usually after they have been unsuccessful with artificial insemination. The woman's eggs are harvested and placed into a petri dish and then fertilized with her partner's sperm. The resulting embryos are then implanted into the woman's womb. Unused embryos are frozen and stored until the parents of the embryos decide what should be done with them.
Once the eggs are fertilized, spare embryos that are not implanted may be frozen and stored. With modern vitrification freezing techniques, these living embryos may remain viable for years. Parents may decide to store them for future use, donate them for pioneering stem cell research, donate them to other couples who are unable to create their own embryos, continue to store them year after year or they may choose to have them destroyed.
Stem cells are undifferentiated cells at an early stage of development. They have the potential to differentiate into other types o f mature cell. This is referred to as pluripotency. Stem cells are becoming increasingly useful as a medical treatment for all sorts of conditions. Because this procedure is open to serious abuse, it is tightly regulated.
Scientists at the University of Utah were the first to inject stem cells into the left ventricles of patients to treat heart failure. Cardiac repair cells were drawn from the patients' own bone marrow and placed into culture for around 12 days. The cells that survived in culture turned out to be stronger than the patient's original cells and were injected into the left ventricles of the patients' hearts.
Stem cells were first isolated from mice in 1981 and in humans in 1998. Some are derived from human embryos that were not used in IVF, although there are other sources. Stem cells may also be harvested from umbilical cords, bone marrow and peripheral blood. Stem cells have shown promise in treating many different medical conditions. These include cancer, neurological disorders and diabetes.
Bone marrow is the spongy tissue located deep in the center of some of the larger bones in the body, mostly from the pelvic bone. Harvesting stem cells from this location is extremely painful so the donors are placed under a general anesthetic. A large needle is then placed into the marrow via the hip bone and the cells are harvested.
Under normal physiological conditions, peripheral blood does not contain vast numbers of stem cells. Loading the donors with hormonal growth factors leads to a notable increase in the numbers of these cells. Neonatal blood is teeming with stem cells. Those remaining in the umbilical cord are removed and stored at extremely low temperatures, as low as -200 Kelvin and reserved for transplantation at a later date or until the parents decide what to do with them.
When couples who have stored embryos no longer want to have children, they may donate the spare embryos to scientific research or they may give them to other couples who are having trouble conceiving by other means.
Once the eggs are fertilized, spare embryos that are not implanted may be frozen and stored. With modern vitrification freezing techniques, these living embryos may remain viable for years. Parents may decide to store them for future use, donate them for pioneering stem cell research, donate them to other couples who are unable to create their own embryos, continue to store them year after year or they may choose to have them destroyed.
Stem cells are undifferentiated cells at an early stage of development. They have the potential to differentiate into other types o f mature cell. This is referred to as pluripotency. Stem cells are becoming increasingly useful as a medical treatment for all sorts of conditions. Because this procedure is open to serious abuse, it is tightly regulated.
Scientists at the University of Utah were the first to inject stem cells into the left ventricles of patients to treat heart failure. Cardiac repair cells were drawn from the patients' own bone marrow and placed into culture for around 12 days. The cells that survived in culture turned out to be stronger than the patient's original cells and were injected into the left ventricles of the patients' hearts.
Stem cells were first isolated from mice in 1981 and in humans in 1998. Some are derived from human embryos that were not used in IVF, although there are other sources. Stem cells may also be harvested from umbilical cords, bone marrow and peripheral blood. Stem cells have shown promise in treating many different medical conditions. These include cancer, neurological disorders and diabetes.
Bone marrow is the spongy tissue located deep in the center of some of the larger bones in the body, mostly from the pelvic bone. Harvesting stem cells from this location is extremely painful so the donors are placed under a general anesthetic. A large needle is then placed into the marrow via the hip bone and the cells are harvested.
Under normal physiological conditions, peripheral blood does not contain vast numbers of stem cells. Loading the donors with hormonal growth factors leads to a notable increase in the numbers of these cells. Neonatal blood is teeming with stem cells. Those remaining in the umbilical cord are removed and stored at extremely low temperatures, as low as -200 Kelvin and reserved for transplantation at a later date or until the parents decide what to do with them.
When couples who have stored embryos no longer want to have children, they may donate the spare embryos to scientific research or they may give them to other couples who are having trouble conceiving by other means.
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