Embryonic stem cell - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Embryonic stem cells (ES cells) are pluripotent stem cell

Stem cell

This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...

s derived from the inner cell mass

Inner cell mass

In early embryogenesis of most eutherian mammals, the inner cell mass is the mass of cells inside the primordial embryo that will eventually give rise to the definitive structures of the fetus...

of the blastocyst

Blastocyst

The blastocyst is a structure formed in the early embryogenesis of mammals, after the formation of the morula. It is a specifically mammalian example of a blastula. It possesses an inner cell mass , or embryoblast, which subsequently forms the embryo, and an outer layer of cells, or trophoblast,...

, an early-stage embryo

Embryo

An embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...

. Human embryo

Embryo

An embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...

s reach the blastocyst

Blastocyst

stage 4–5 days post fertilization

Human fertilization

Human fertilization is the union of a humanoid egg and sperm, usually occurring in the ampulla of the uterine tube. The result of this union is the production of a zygote, or fertilized egg, initiating prenatal development...

, at which time they consist of 50–150 cells. Isolating the embryoblast or inner cell mass

Inner cell mass

In early embryogenesis of most eutherian mammals, the inner cell mass is the mass of cells inside the primordial embryo that will eventually give rise to the definitive structures of the fetus...

(ICM) results in destruction of the fertilized human embryo, which raises ethical issues

Stem cell controversy

The stem cell controversy is the ethical debate primarily concerning the creation, treatment, and destruction of human embryos incident to research involving embryonic stem cells. Not all stem cell research involves the creation, use, or destruction of human embryos...

Types

Embryonic stem cells are distinguished by two distinctive properties:

their pluripotency, and
their ability to replicate indefinitely.

ES cells are pluripotent, that is, they are able to differentiate

Cellular differentiation

In developmental biology, cellular differentiation is the process by which a less specialized cell becomes a more specialized cell type. Differentiation occurs numerous times during the development of a multicellular organism as the organism changes from a simple zygote to a complex system of...

into all derivatives of the three primary germ layer

Germ layer

A germ layer, occasionally referred to as a germinal epithelium, is a group of cells, formed during animal embryogenesis. Germ layers are particularly pronounced in the vertebrates; however, all animals more complex than sponges produce two or three primary tissue layers...

s: ectoderm

Ectoderm

The "ectoderm" is one of the three primary germ cell layers in the very early embryo. The other two layers are the mesoderm and endoderm , with the ectoderm as the most exterior layer...

, endoderm

Endoderm

Endoderm is one of the three primary germ cell layers in the very early embryo. The other two layers are the ectoderm and mesoderm , with the endoderm as the intermost layer...

, and mesoderm

Mesoderm

In all bilaterian animals, the mesoderm is one of the three primary germ cell layers in the very early embryo. The other two layers are the ectoderm and endoderm , with the mesoderm as the middle layer between them.The mesoderm forms mesenchyme , mesothelium, non-epithelial blood corpuscles and...

. These include each of the more than 220 cell types in the adult body

Human body

The human body is the entire structure of a human organism, and consists of a head, neck, torso, two arms and two legs.By the time the human reaches adulthood, the body consists of close to 100 trillion cells, the basic unit of life...

. Pluripotency distinguishes embryonic stem cells from adult stem cell

Adult stem cell

Adult stem cells are undifferentiated cells, found throughout the body after embryonic development, that multiply by cell division to replenish dying cells and regenerate damaged tissues...

s found in adult

Adult

An adult is a human being or living organism that is of relatively mature age, typically associated with sexual maturity and the attainment of reproductive age....

s; while embryonic stem cells can generate all cell types in the body, adult stem cells are multipotent and can only produce a limited number of cell types. Human ES cells measure approximately 14μm while mouse ES cells are closer to 8μm.

Additionally, under defined conditions, embryonic stem cells are capable of propagating themselves indefinitely. This allows embryonic stem cells to be employed as useful tools for both research and regenerative medicine, because they can produce limitless numbers of themselves for continued research or clinical use.

Because of their plasticity and potentially unlimited capacity for self-renewal, ES cell therapies have been proposed for regenerative medicine and tissue replacement after injury or disease. Diseases that could potentially be treated by pluripotent stem cells include a number of blood and immune-system related genetic diseases, cancers, and disorders; juvenile diabetes; Parkinson's; blindness and spinal cord injuries. Besides the ethical concerns of stem cell therapy (see stem cell controversy
Stem cell controversy
The stem cell controversy is the ethical debate primarily concerning the creation, treatment, and destruction of human embryos incident to research involving embryonic stem cells. Not all stem cell research involves the creation, use, or destruction of human embryos...

), there is a technical problem of graft-versus-host disease

Graft-versus-host disease

Graft-versus-host disease is a common complication after a stem cell transplant or bone marrow transplant from another person . Immune cells in the donated marrow or stem cells recognize the recipient as "foreign". The transplanted immune cells then attack the host's body cells...

associated with allogeneic stem cell transplantation. However, these problems associated with histocompatibility

Histocompatibility

Histocompatibility is the property of having the same, or mostly the same, alleles of a set of genes called the major histocompatibility complex. These genes are expressed in most tissues as antigens, to which the immune system makes antibodies...

may be solved using autologous donor adult stem cells, therapeutic cloning, stem cell banks or more recently by reprogramming of somatic cells with defined factors (e.g. induced pluripotent stem cells). Other potential uses of embryonic stem cells include investigation of early human development, study of genetic disease and as in vitro systems for toxicology

Toxicology

Toxicology is a branch of biology, chemistry, and medicine concerned with the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms...

testing.

Research history and developments

In 1964, researchers isolated a single type of cell from a teratocarcinoma, a tumor now known to be derived from a germ cell

Germ cell

A germ cell is any biological cell that gives rise to the gametes of an organism that reproduces sexually. In many animals, the germ cells originate near the gut of an embryo and migrate to the developing gonads. There, they undergo cell division of two types, mitosis and meiosis, followed by...

. These cells isolated from the teratocarcinoma replicated and grew in cell culture as a stem cell and are now known as embryonic carcinoma (EC) cells. Although similarities in morphology and differentiating potential (pluripotency) led to the use of EC cells as the in vitro model for early mouse development, EC cells harbor genetic mutations and often abnormal karyotypes that accumulated during the development of the teratocarcinoma. These genetic aberrations further emphasized the need to be able to culture pluripotent cells directly from the inner cell mass

Inner cell mass

In early embryogenesis of most eutherian mammals, the inner cell mass is the mass of cells inside the primordial embryo that will eventually give rise to the definitive structures of the fetus...

.

In 1981, embryonic stem cells (ES cells) were independently first derived from mouse embryos by two groups. Martin Evans

Martin Evans

Sir Martin John Evans FRS is a British scientist who, with Matthew Kaufman, was the first to culture mice embryonic stem cells and cultivate them in a laboratory in 1981...

and Matthew Kaufman

Matthew Kaufman

Matthew H. Kaufman is Professor Emeritus at University of Edinburgh having been Professor of Anatomy there from 1985–2007. He has taught anatomy and embryology for more than 30 years, initially at the University of Cambridge, when he was a Fellow of King’s College, and more recently in...

from the Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

published first in July, revealing a new technique for culturing the mouse embryos in the uterus to allow for an increase in cell number, allowing for the derivation of ES cells from these embryos. Gail R. Martin

Gail R. Martin

Professor Gail R. Martin, is in charge of the developmental biology program at the University of California, San Francisco. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a member of the National Academy of Sciences , and is the President of the Society for Developmental Biology.In...

, from the Department of Anatomy, University of California, San Francisco

University of California, San Francisco

The University of California, San Francisco is one of the world's leading centers of health sciences research, patient care, and education. UCSF's medical, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, and graduate schools are among the top health science professional schools in the world...

, published her paper in December and coined the term “Embryonic Stem Cell”. She showed that embryos could be cultured in vitro and that ES cells could be derived from these embryos. In 1998, a breakthrough occurred when researchers, led by James Thomson

James Thomson (cell biologist)

James Alexander Thomson is an American developmental biologist best known for deriving the first human embryonic stem cell line in 1998 and for deriving human induced pluripotent stem cells in 2007.-Thomson's research:...

at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, first developed a technique to isolate and grow human embryonic stem cells in cell culture.

Techniques and Conditions for Embryonic Stem Cell Derivation and Culture

Derivation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells:

In vitro fertilization generates multiple embryos. The surplus of embryos is not clinically used or is unsuitable for implantation into the patient, and therefore may be donated by the donor with consent. Human embryonic stem cells are derived from these donated embryos that would otherwise be discarded . The inner cell mass (cells of interest), from the blastocyst stage of the embryo, is separated from the trophectoderm, the cells that would differentiate into extra-embryonic tissue. Immunosurgery, the process in which antibodies are bound to the trophectoderm and removed by another solution, and mechanical dissection are performed to achieve separation. The resulting inner cell mass cells are plated onto cells that will supply support. The inner cell mass cells attach and expand further to form a human embryonic cell line, which are undifferentiated. These cells are fed daily and are enzymatically or mechanically separated every four to seven days. For differentiation to occur, the human embryonic stem cell line is removed from the supporting cells to form embryoid bodies, is co-cultured with a serum containing necessary signals, or is grafted in a three-dimensional scaffold to result.

Derivation of Embryonic Stem Cells from other animals:

Embryonic stem cells are derived from the inner cell mass

Inner cell mass

In early embryogenesis of most eutherian mammals, the inner cell mass is the mass of cells inside the primordial embryo that will eventually give rise to the definitive structures of the fetus...

of the early embryo

Embryo

An embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...

, which are harvested from the donor mother animal. Martin Evans

Martin Evans

Sir Martin John Evans FRS is a British scientist who, with Matthew Kaufman, was the first to culture mice embryonic stem cells and cultivate them in a laboratory in 1981...

and Matthew Kaufman

Matthew Kaufman

reported a technique that delays embryo implantation, allowing the inner cell mass to increase. This process includes removing the donor mother’s ovaries and dosing her with progesterone

Progesterone

Progesterone also known as P4 is a C-21 steroid hormone involved in the female menstrual cycle, pregnancy and embryogenesis of humans and other species...

, changing the hormone environment, which causes the embryos to remain free in the uterus. After 4–6 days of this intrauterine culture, the embryos are harvested and grown in in vitro culture until the inner cell mass forms “egg cylinder-like structures,” which are dissociated into single cells, and plated on fibroblasts treated with mitomycin-c

Mitomycin

The mitomycins are a family of aziridine-containing natural products isolated from Streptomyces caespitosus or Streptomyces lavendulae. One of these compounds, mitomycin C, finds use as a chemotherapeutic agent by virtue of its antitumour antibiotic activity. It is given intravenously to treat...

(to prevent fibroblast mitosis

Mitosis

Mitosis is the process by which a eukaryotic cell separates the chromosomes in its cell nucleus into two identical sets, in two separate nuclei. It is generally followed immediately by cytokinesis, which divides the nuclei, cytoplasm, organelles and cell membrane into two cells containing roughly...

). Clonal cell lines are created by growing up a single cell. Evans and Kaufman showed that the cells grown out from these cultures could form teratoma

Teratoma

A teratoma is an encapsulated tumor with tissue or organ components resembling normal derivatives of all three germ layers. There are rare occasions when not all three germ layers are identifiable...

s and embryoid bodies

Embryoid body

Embryoid bodies are aggregates of cells derived from embryonic stem cells, and have been studied for years with mouse embryonic stem cells. Cell aggregation is imposed by hanging drop, plating upon non-tissue culture treated plates or spinner flasks; either method prevents cells from adhering to a...

, and differentiate in vitro, which all indicate the cells are pluripotent.

Gail Martin

Gail R. Martin

derived and cultured her ES cells differently. She removed the embryos from the donor mother at approximately 76 hours after copulation and cultured them overnight in media containing serum. The following day, she removed the inner cell mass

Inner cell mass

In early embryogenesis of most eutherian mammals, the inner cell mass is the mass of cells inside the primordial embryo that will eventually give rise to the definitive structures of the fetus...

from the late blastocyst

Blastocyst

using microsurgery

Microsurgery

Microsurgery is a general term for surgery requiring an operating microscope. The most obvious developments have been procedures developed to allow anastomosis of successively smaller blood vessels and nerves which have allowed transfer of tissue from one part of the body to another and...

. The extracted inner cell mass

Inner cell mass

In early embryogenesis of most eutherian mammals, the inner cell mass is the mass of cells inside the primordial embryo that will eventually give rise to the definitive structures of the fetus...

was cultured on fibroblasts treated with mitomycin-c in media that containing serum and was conditioned by EC cells. After approximately one week, colonies of cells grew out. These cells grew in culture and demonstrated pluripotent characteristics, as demonstrated by the ability to form teratoma

Teratoma

A teratoma is an encapsulated tumor with tissue or organ components resembling normal derivatives of all three germ layers. There are rare occasions when not all three germ layers are identifiable...

s, differentiate in vitro, and form embryoid bodies

Embryoid body

. Martin referred to these cells as ES cells.

It is now known that the feeder cells

Fibroblast

A fibroblast is a type of cell that synthesizes the extracellular matrix and collagen, the structural framework for animal tissues, and plays a critical role in wound healing...

provide leukemic inhibitory factor (LIF) and serum provides bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) that are necessary to prevent ES cells from differentiating. These factors are extremely important for the efficiency of deriving ES cells. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that different mouse strains have different efficiencies for isolating ES cells. Current uses for mouse ES cells include the generation of transgenic mice, including knockout mice. For human treatment, there is a need for patient specific pluripotent cells. Generation of human ES cells is more difficult and faces ethical issues. So, in addition to human ES cell research, many groups are focused on the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells).

Contamination by reagents used in cell culture

The online edition of Nature Medicine published a study on January 24, 2005 which stated that the human embryonic stem cells available for federally funded research are contaminated with non-human molecules from the culture medium used to grow the cells. It is a common technique to use mouse cells and other animal cells to maintain the pluripotency of actively dividing stem cells. The problem was discovered when non-human sialic acid

Sialic acid

Sialic acid is a generic term for the N- or O-substituted derivatives of neuraminic acid, a monosaccharide with a nine-carbon backbone. It is also the name for the most common member of this group, N-acetylneuraminic acid...

in the growth media was found to compromise the potential uses of the embryonic stem cells in humans, according to scientists at the University of California, San Diego

University of California, San Diego

The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...

.

However, a study published in the online edition of Lancet Medical Journal on March 8, 2005 detailed information about a new stem cell line which was derived from human embryos under completely cell- and serum-free conditions. After more than 6 months of undifferentiated proliferation, these cells demonstrated the potential to form derivatives of all three embryonic germ layers both in vitro and in teratoma

Teratoma

A teratoma is an encapsulated tumor with tissue or organ components resembling normal derivatives of all three germ layers. There are rare occasions when not all three germ layers are identifiable...

s. These properties were also successfully maintained (for more than 30 passages) with the established stem cell lines.

Reducing donor-host rejection

There is also ongoing research to reduce the potential for rejection of the differentiated cells derived from ES cells once researchers are capable of creating an approved therapy from ES cell research. One of the possibilities to prevent rejection is by creating embryonic stem cells that are genetically identical to the patient via therapeutic cloning.

An alternative solution for rejection by the patient to therapies derived from non-cloned ES cells is to derive many well-characterized ES cell lines from different genetic backgrounds and use the cell line that is most similar to the patient; treatment can then be tailored to the patient, minimizing the risk of rejection.

Safety: reducing the risk of teratoma and other cancers as a side effect

The major concern with the possible transplantation of ESC into patients as therapies is their ability to form tumors including teratoma. Safety issues prompted the FDA to place a hold on the first ESC clinical trial (see below), however no tumors were observed.

The main strategy to enhance the safety of ESC for potential clinical use is to differentiate the ESC into specific cell types (e.g. neurons, muscle, liver cells) that have reduced or eliminated ability to cause tumors. Following differentiation, the cells are subjected to sorting by flow cytometry
Flow cytometry
Flow cytometry is a technique for counting and examining microscopic particles, such as cells and chromosomes, by suspending them in a stream of fluid and passing them by an electronic detection apparatus. It allows simultaneous multiparametric analysis of the physical and/or chemical...

for further purification. While ESC are predicted to be inherently safer than IPS cells because they are not genetically modified with genes such as c-Myc that are linked to cancer. Nonetheless ESC express very high levels of the iPS inducing genes and these genes including Myc are essential for ESC self-renewal and pluripotency, and potential strategies to improve safety by eliminating Myc expression are unlikely to preserve the cells' "stemness".

First clinical trial

On January 23, 2009, Phase I clinical trials for transplantation of oligodendrocyte

Oligodendrocyte

Oligodendrocytes , or oligodendroglia , are a type of brain cell. They are a variety of neuroglia. Their main function is the insulation of axons in the central nervous system of some vertebrates...

s (a cell type of the brain and spinal cord) derived from human ES cells into spinal cord-injured

Spinal cord injury

A spinal cord injury refers to any injury to the spinal cord that is caused by trauma instead of disease. Depending on where the spinal cord and nerve roots are damaged, the symptoms can vary widely, from pain to paralysis to incontinence...

individuals received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), marking it the world's first human ES cell human trial. The study leading to this scientific advancement was conducted by Hans Keirstead and colleagues at the University of California, Irvine

University of California, Irvine

The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...

and supported by Geron Corporation of Menlo Park, CA. A previous experiment had shown an improvement in locomotor recovery in spinal cord-injured rats after a 7-day delayed transplantation of human ES cells that had been pushed into an oligodendrocytic lineage. In the proposed phase I clinical study, about eight to ten paraplegics who have had their injuries no longer than two weeks before the trial begins, will be selected, since the cells must be injected before scar tissue is able to form. However, the researchers are emphasizing that the injections are not expected to fully cure the patients and restore all mobility. Based on the results of the rodent trials, researchers say restoration of myelin sheathes, and an increase in mobility is probable. This first trial is mainly testing the safety of these procedures and if everything goes well, it could lead to future studies that involve people with more severe disabilities. The trial had been put on hold in August 2009 due to concerns made by the FDA regarding a small number of microscopic cysts found in several treated rat models but the hold has been lifted as of July 30, 2010.

In October 2010 researchers enrolled and administered ESTs to the first patient at Shepherd Center

Shepherd Center

Shepherd Center is a private, not-for profit hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1975, the hospital is devoted to the medical treatment, research and rehabilitation for people with spinal cord injury and disease, acquired brain injury, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain and other neuromuscular...

in Atlanta. The makers of the stem cell therapy, Geron Corporation, estimate that it will take several months for the stem cells to replicate and for the GRNOPC1 therapy to be evaluated for success or failure. In November 2011 Geron announced it was dropping out of stem cell research for financial reasons, but would continue to monitor existing patients, and was attempting to find a partner that could continue their research.

Potential method for new cell line derivation

On August 23, 2006, the online edition of Nature

Nature (journal)

Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...

scientific journal published a letter by Dr. Robert Lanza

Robert Lanza

Robert Paul Lanza is an American Doctor of Medicine, scientist, Chief Scientific Officer of Advanced Cell Technology and Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine....

(medical director of Advanced Cell Technology

Advanced Cell Technology

Advanced Cell Technology, Incorporated , is a biotechnology company located in Marlborough, Massachusetts, USA. The company specializes in the development and commercialization of cell therapies for the treatment of a variety of diseases...

in Worcester, MA) stating that his team had found a way to extract embryonic stem cells without destroying the actual embryo. This technical achievement would potentially enable scientists to work with new lines of embryonic stem cells derived using public funding in the USA, where federal funding was at the time limited to research using embryonic stem cell lines derived prior to August 2001. In March, 2009, the limitation was lifted.
Recently, it was shown that pluripotent stem cell

Stem cell

s highly similar to embryonic stem cells can be generated by the delivery of three genes (Oct4, Sox2, and Klf4) to differentiated cells. The delivery of these genes "reprograms" differentiated cells into pluripotent stem cells, allowing for the generation of pluripotent stem cells without the embryo. Because ethical concerns regarding embryonic stem cells typically are about their derivation from terminated embryos, it is believed that reprogramming to these "induced pluripotent stem cells" (iPS cells) may be less controversial. Both human and mouse cells can be reprogrammed by this methodology, generating both human pluripotent stem cells and mouse pluripotent stem cells without an embryo.

This may enable the generation of patient specific ES cell lines that could potentially be used for cell replacement therapies. In addition, this will allow the generation of ES cell lines from patients with a variety of genetic diseases and will provide invaluable models to study those diseases.

However, as a first indication that the induced pluripotent stem cell

Induced pluripotent stem cell

Induced pluripotent stem cells, commonly abbreviated as iPS cells or iPSCs are a type of pluripotent stem cell artificially derived from a non-pluripotent cell, typically an adult somatic cell, by inducing a "forced" expression of specific genes....

(iPS) cell technology can in rapid succession lead to new cures, it was used by a research team headed by Rudolf Jaenisch

Rudolf Jaenisch

Rudolf Jaenisch is a biologist at MIT. He is a pioneer of transgenic science, in which an animal’s genetic makeup is altered. Jaenisch has focused on creating transgenic mice to study cancer and neurological diseases....

of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, to cure mice of sickle cell anemia, as reported by Science journal's

Science (journal)

Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....

online edition on December 6, 2007.

On January 16, 2008, a California based company, Stemagen, announced that they had created the first mature cloned human embryos from single skin cells taken from adults. These embryos can be harvested for patient matching embryonic stem cells.

Use of human embryonic stem cells as models for human genetic disorders

Several new studies have started to address this issue. This has been done either by genetically manipulating the cells, or more recently by deriving diseased cell lines identified by prenatal genetic diagnosis (PGD). This approach may very well prove invaluable at studying disorders such as Fragile-X syndrome, Cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic disease affecting most critically the lungs, and also the pancreas, liver, and intestine...

, and other genetic maladies that have no reliable model system.

Yury Verlinsky

Yury Verlinsky

Yury Verlinsky was a Russian-American medical researcher specializing in embryo and cellular genetics He is best known as a pioneer in prenatal diagnosis for detecting genetic and chromosomal disorders six weeks earlier than standard amniocentesis...

(Sept, 1, 1943 – July 16, 2009), a Russian-American medical researcher who specialized in embryo

Embryonic

Embryonic received general acclaim from critics upon release, garnering a 81/100 critic score on Metacritic. The New Musical Express noted that "ten years after their last masterpiece, The Flaming Lips have finally produced another one," while Paste Magazine described the record as "a wonderfully...

and cellular genetics

Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....

(genetic cytology

Cell biology

Cell biology is a scientific discipline that studies cells – their physiological properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their life cycle, division and death. This is done both on a microscopic and molecular level...

), developed prenatal diagnosis

Prenatal diagnosis

Prenatal diagnosis or prenatal screening is testing for diseases or conditions in a fetus or embryo before it is born. The aim is to detect birth defects such as neural tube defects, Down syndrome, chromosome abnormalities, genetic diseases and other conditions, such as spina bifida, cleft palate,...

testing methods to determine genetic and chromosomal disorders a month and a half earlier than standard amniocentesis

Amniocentesis

Amniocentesis is a medical procedure used in prenatal diagnosis of chromosomal abnormalities and fetal infections, in which a small amount of amniotic fluid, which contains fetal tissues, is sampled from the amnion or amniotic sac surrounding a developing fetus, and the fetal DNA is examined for...

. The techniques are now used by many pregnant women and prospective parents, especially those couples with a history of genetic abnormalities or where the woman is over the age of 35, when the risk of genetically-related disorders is higher. In addition, by allowing parents to select an embryo without genetic disorders, they have the potential of saving the lives of siblings that already had similar disorders and diseases using cells from the disease free offspring.

External links

Rappaport Institute of the Technion http://www.rappinst.com/Rappaport/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&TMID=610&FID=77&PID=0&IID=263
insertech.simdif.com

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Types

Research history and developments

Techniques and Conditions for Embryonic Stem Cell Derivation and Culture

Contamination by reagents used in cell culture

Reducing donor-host rejection

Safety: reducing the risk of teratoma and other cancers as a side effect

First clinical trial

Potential method for new cell line derivation

Use of human embryonic stem cells as models for human genetic disorders

See also

External links