How can stem cells be important?

Answer 1

Stem cells have many significant things about them. In the medical world they do carry a high importance in research and development. Here are a few things that stem cells do that make them significant:

• Birth Defects; stem cells allow us to find out the point where the birth defects occur. We are able to take stem cells and go in so fine and find out when things went wrong at an early early age, and possibly go back and prevent or even reverse some things in the future. Stem cell research is one of the best medical advances in today's society.
• Human Development; the first and foremost reason that stem cells have to help with human development is through cancer research. We are able to take a fine tooth comb through the cells and find out where cell division went "wrong" and try to fix it, or even link it to other diseases as well. Through the link of the cells to other diseases we can prevent dysfunctional changes that may occur and/ employ effective ways to treat the diseases with use of other drugs at an earlier state, minimizing the long term effects.
• Adult Tissue Growth; stem cells can also repair and maintain broken tissue. They can also renew and differentiate themselves to be any type of specialized cell therefore allowing them to form to any type of tissue or part of vital organs.
• Embryonic Stem Cells; embryonic stem cells can also help out in major ways. They can help to form nerve, muscle, blood, and other types of cells. But in order for them to be specialized like that they need to be isolated by a doctor and carried through.
• Heart disease; most recently doctors have linked stem cells to new types of treatments for heart disease and stroke. The way this is carried out is through the making of new heart/cardiac muscle and valves.

• Parkinson's Disease; Michael J. Fox has been one of the biggest advocates for the use of stem cells to cure Parkinson's Disease. The proposed idea is that stem cells can be transplanted to replace the missing nerve cells in the brain that occur within Parkinson's.

Answer 2

Stem cells are cells that found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells. This is why stem cells are so important and controversial. Due to their plasticity, they can be taken from one portion of an organism and grow in another, adapting to their new surroundings and multiplying. However, they often can be dangerous to obtain.

Answer 3

Stem cells are the precursor to functional cells in an organism. That means that they are the unspecialized cell that becomes specialized for a certain function. For example, blood is made of plasma and formed elements. The formed elements all start out as pluripotent stem cells, and then they differentiate into three different types of cells. They can become either white blood cells, red blood cells, or platelets. All of them originate from one type of stem cell.

Answer 4

Stem Cells are important because they are the cells from which all of our other cells originate. Thus, they can be used to repair damaged cellular areas in the body.