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 highly primitive cells that have the ability to differentiate into all other cell types in the body. This is what is meant by the term, "pluripotent." Stem cells are turning out to be incredibly useful for medical purposes, although they are very tightly regulated because of their potential for abuse.
Researchers at the University of Utah pioneered the procedure whereby a patient's own stem cells are injected into their left ventricle in an attempt to treat heart failure. At this point, they are called cardiac repair cells. They are derived from the patient's bone marrow and then cultured for just under fortnight, after which they are implanted into the heart. It turns out these cells are much hardier than the original cells that were harvested from the bone marrow.
The very first stem cells to be isolated came from mice in 1981. They were consequently harvested from humans in 1998. There are other sources of this material other than human embryos. For one thing, they may come from the bone marrow. They may also be isolated from peripheral blood or from neonatal umbilical cords.
Bone marrow is located deep inside the large bones of the body; specifically, the pelvic bone. Getting to these cells is a highly painful procedure so it is commonly accomplished with the use of a general anesthetic. Then, a large-bore needle is used to draw the cells via the hip bone.
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 highly primitive cells that have the ability to differentiate into all other cell types in the body. This is what is meant by the term, "pluripotent." Stem cells are turning out to be incredibly useful for medical purposes, although they are very tightly regulated because of their potential for abuse.
Researchers at the University of Utah pioneered the procedure whereby a patient's own stem cells are injected into their left ventricle in an attempt to treat heart failure. At this point, they are called cardiac repair cells. They are derived from the patient's bone marrow and then cultured for just under fortnight, after which they are implanted into the heart. It turns out these cells are much hardier than the original cells that were harvested from the bone marrow.
The very first stem cells to be isolated came from mice in 1981. They were consequently harvested from humans in 1998. There are other sources of this material other than human embryos. For one thing, they may come from the bone marrow. They may also be isolated from peripheral blood or from neonatal umbilical cords.
Bone marrow is located deep inside the large bones of the body; specifically, the pelvic bone. Getting to these cells is a highly painful procedure so it is commonly accomplished with the use of a general anesthetic. Then, a large-bore needle is used to draw the cells via the hip bone.
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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