Kyle Anders
5/14/18
(Carra B, Ashleigh B, Alajha J)
How Stem Cells are used in a Planarian
Introduction:
In order to understand and comprehend the experiment being performed there were some words that are needed to be understood about planarians. Nuymber one is obviously what is a plnarian. Planarian: a free-living flatworm that has a three-branched intestine and a tubular pharynx, typically located halfway down the body. Stem Cell: an undifferentiated cell of a multicellular organism that can give rise to indefinitely more cells of the same type, and from which certain other kinds of cell arise by differentiation. Potency: The ability for stem cells to differentiate into specialized cells Multipotent: A type of stem cell that has the ability to become some but not all specialized cells
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The common planarian lives in freshwater streams and ponds, and feed upon small live or freshly dead animals. Of all creatures, it is planarians that have the best capacity to recover their damaged body parts/cells and regenerate them back. These once traditional classroom living beings have now turned into the subject of cutting edge hereditary examinations that can possibly illuminate us about our own science. These collectively large pluripotent undifferentiated stem cells organisms support the regenerative limit of planarians. (Aboukhatwa and Aboobaker; 2015). The purpose of this lab was to determine the planarians stem cell potency and their ability to regenerate. The stated hypothesis made by the group was, "If the planarians contain totipotent stem cells then it is guaranteed that the cut planarian will grow and reproduce body parts fully and effectively." Through a very
Are stem cells ethical to use in medical research? The most basic cells in the human body are stem cells. Because doctors use stem cells for medical treatment of chronic ailments, stem cells play an important role in human medical research. However, despite the benefits of stem cells in medical treatment, controversy surrounds the methods employed to obtain them. Should researchers continue to use stem cells?
The cells unique nature has scientists intrigued to do research with the focus of finding a way that these cells can be used to replace patients’ injured or diseased tissues. Advancement is made to all the three types of stem cells namely embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells in addition to induced pluripotent cells. Embryonic cells are the building blocks of an embryo that is developing, and can develop into almost all body cell types. Somatic cells are found in the body tissues. They renew and regenerate in healthy bodies. The third type which is induced pluripotent is genetically modified embryo cells from skin cells.2 Research on these cells are geared towards saving humanity; a noble course.
...er with the plasma membrane all over the edges of the cell, thereby completing the division of both daughter cells. In the middle of both plasma membranes stretch out on the central lamella that bisects the daughter cells. Every daughter cell then leaves a primary wall just next to the central lamella. Additionally, each of the two daughter cells deposits another primary wall layer all over the whole protoplast. The new wall formed combines with the cell plate’s wall to form one complete wall. The original cell wall enlarges until it ruptures because of the growth and expansion of the two daughter cells (Starr et al, 2012).
Could you imagine being able to create new organs, tissues, muscles, and even food? With embryonic stem cell technology, believe it or not, these things are possible. Stem cells are the body's raw materials. Specifically, they are cells from which all other cells with specialized functions are generated. Under the right conditions in the body or in a laboratory, stem cells can divide to form more cells called daughter cells. These daughter cells either become new stem cells or turn into specialized cells with a more specific function, such as blood cells, brain cells, muscle cells or bone cells. The possibilities are almost endless. The debate and main issue with this technology is that the actual stem cells come from embryos. Embryos are an unborn or unhatched offspring in the process of development. Although there is controversy surrounding these cells, embryonic stem cells should continue to be researched and used, because they have so much potential.
The scientists were hoping for the cells to divide into 100 or so cells called blastocysts. They wanted to take these blastocysts and have them grow to replace nerve, muscle and other tissues. But only one of them came to the Six-cell stage and by then it stopped dividing. They had done a similar procedure they had eggs grow without sperm to fertilize, to develop parthenogenetically into blastocysts they think that using these to procedures together they could achieve human cloning.
... many organs that would prove vital for scientists to explore regeneration in stem cells in humans (Rink, 2013). The importance of regeneration in planaria is giving scientists insight into how stem cells can be used for human purposes. The regeneration of advanced organs could not only impact planarian livelihood but may revolutionize modern medicine.
This report does a fairly comprehensive job on educating the public to the definition of stem cells, describing them as “a diverse group of remarkable multipotent cells that are relatively undifferentiated and unspecialized cells of the body.” Stem cells have the capacity for unlimited self-renewal and the possibility to produce differentiated descendant cell types. The main in...
Stem cells help us to maintain and heal our bodies, as they are undifferentiated cells, their roles are not yet determined. They have the ability to become anything during early life and growth. Stem cells come from two sources, namely: embryonic stem cells (embryo’s formed during the blastocyst phase of embryological development) and adult stem cells (see figure 3).
Have you ever seen a movie or read a book where they can tell what your child will look like or if they have a disease or birth defect. Or have you ever wondered how the world would be shaped if we could have clones or even erase genetic diseases. All of these things are theoretically possible with stem cell research. If we are able to reach this point what would we have to sacrifice in the process. To understand humanity would we have to sacrifice the values that truly make us human? What would the fail rate be if we are able to genetically enhance the human body?
For this lab students were instructed to pair off into partners, receive a planarian from one of the TAs, place the planarian in a dish, measure it to the closest millimeter, and then carefully cut it into two pieces at one of the three possible locations; behind the head, about the middle, or near the tail. The partners were then to pick one piece to keep and one to dispose of to observe over the next several weeks. (Planarian Project:
Every year countless people are diagnosed with cell based diseases, 7.6 million a year alone receive the petrifying news that they have cancer. But what if we could eliminate the idea that a cancerous diagnosis is the equivalent of a death sentence? The use of embryonic stem cells could, for the first time, make diseases like cancer or parkinson a non-issue. This is why the use of embryonic stem cells should not be viewed as unethical but rather a huge step towards unthinkable medical breakthroughs and the eradication of life threatening diseases.
This paper focuses on the benefits of stem cell research in the medical and nursing field. New technology is always being created to help us understand the way the human body works, as well as ways to help us improve diseased states in the body. Our bodies have the ability to proliferate or regrow cells when damage is done to the cells. Take for example the skin, when an abrasion or puncture to the skin causes loss of our skin cells, the body has its own way of causing those cells to regrow. The liver, bone marrow, heart, brain, and muscle all have cells that are capable of differentiating into cells of that same type. These are called stem cells, and are a new medical tool that is helping regrow vital organs in our body to help us survive. Stem cells can come from adult cells, or the blastocyst of the embryo. The cells that come from these are undifferentiated, and can be specialized into certain cell types, making them available for many damaged tissues in the body. While using stem cells in the body is a main use, they are also being used to help doctors understand how disease processes start. By culturing these cells in the lab and watching them develop into muscles, nerve cells, or other tissues, researchers are able to see how diseases affect these cells and possibly discover ways to correct these diseases. While researchers have come very far in using stem cells, there are still many controversies to overcome when using these cells.
Those who favour stem cell research are optimistic about the continued developments in stem cell research will open doors to many breakthrough discoveries in biomedical science. The scientific and ethical questions arise as rapidly as the reaching of milestones in stem cell research. There are two main types of stem cells, namely embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. Adult stem cells are undifferentiated cells in our body. But they have restricted-range of cells that they can further differentiate. On the contrary, embryonic stem cells have the ability to differentiate into nearly two hundred cell types in the human body, called pluripotency. The process of harvesting embryonic stem cells involves destruction of embryos (Mooney, 2009).
c solution and sucked up some of the water in the cells. When we observed the cheek cells we found they were very different from the plant cells. The nucleus was in the middle of the cheek cells and there were a few cell organelles. The Planaria cell was all red and had lines running down it.
Because cells are the ‘basic unit of life’, the study of cells, cytology, can be considered one of the most important areas of biological research. Almost every day on the evening news, we are told about new discoveries in cell biology, such as cancer research, cloning, and embryology. (https://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0073031216/student_view0/exercise3/the_importance_of_cell_biology.html)