Imagine being a real life hero, saving a person’s life. Matt, 22 years old, became one after his football coach asked players to volunteer at a Be The Match Drive and join the registry in the spring of 2009. After two years of waiting, Matt received a call telling him he was a potential match for a patient in need of a peripheral blood stem cell donation. After further testing, Matt found out he was the best match for 42 year old Ken who had a form of lymphoma. Matt helped save Kens life just like so many other people have done through bone marrow, peripheral blood stem cell, and cord blood donations (Be The Match). Becoming a stem cell donor is easy and a great way to help others. Eligible people should donate stem cells because it helps save lives of people with severe illnesses, there are three low risk ways to donate, and upon donating people will receive the gift of knowing they have possibly helped save a life. When a person is diagnosed with a disease such as leukemia, lymphoma, or sickle cell anemia a bone marrow, peripheral blood, or cord blood transplant may be the most promising option of survival (Be The Match). Cord blood transplants are used to treat a variety of blood disorders and certain metabolic conditions (Shier, David 108). Blood diseases such as leukemia and lymphoma are usually treated with bone marrow transplants (BMT) or peripheral blood stem cell transplants (PBSCT) (Bone Marrow Transplantation... par 7). There are about 20,000 bone marrow transplants (BMT) preformed each year in the United States to treat these disorders (Rubin par 1). Human leukocyte-associated (HLA) antigens are a set of proteins on the surface of a persons cells. These HLA antigens are used to match a patients stem cells to their most compatible donor. The success of allogeneice transplantation is dependent on how closely the HLA antigens of the recipient’s stem cells
... it, which destroys all healthy bone marrow in the body. As a result of this, the patient will have to undergo a process to replace all deteriorated or damaged bone marrow. This process involves taking the stem cells from a donor and transplanting them into the patient’s body, so that the patient will transform these stem cells into bone marrow. Bone marrow can also be a complication for the body if it escapes into the blood stream. If the bone marrow enters the blood stream, it can travel throughout the body, and cause serious complications. This is a condition referred to as fat embolism, and mainly occurs after serious trauma or surgery to lower limbs. There is not a specific diagnosis or treatment for this; it is mostly based on the patient’s condition or symptoms. Bone marrow can be a very dangerous thing if it has any type of complications within the body.
The primary ethical debate that arose from the discussion of HeLa cells is the issue of informed consent. Lacks and her family were not told of the cells taken from her body until more than 20 years after Lacks had passed away. In fact, the family found out when researchers contacted them in order to get samples for genetic testing to learn more about the HeLa cells. Of course, at the time the ce...
With deaths occurring everyday due to a lack of organ donation, this tragic situation could possibly be rectified by educating the public about organ donation by revealing stories behind successuful transplants and the reality that organ donation is truly giving
Used in scientific research, the HeLa cells are known to be a type of immortal, tissue cultured cell line. A cell line is a group of cells taken from a person and used for scientific research (science.howstuffworks.com). When a cell type is known to be immortal, it refers to the cells being able to divide an indefinite amount of times, when cell survival conditions are met in a laboratory. The first human cell line to survive in a test tube, or in vitro, was the HeLa cells (science.howstuffworks.com). These cells were taken from a tissue of a tumor of a woman with cervical cancer back in the 1950s. Her name was Henrietta Lacks. There have been many advances in medicine and biomedical research because of her cells.
Currently, the limitations on research are too restricting, as researchers are limited to resources already gathered. There are sixty existing stem cell lines today, already derived from embryos. Researchers are to only use these lines. These limitations severely hinder stem cell research. The government, especially President Bush, should re-evaluate stem cell research.
Stem cell research began in 1956 when Dr. E Donnall Thomas performed the first bone marrow transplant (“Adult stem cells are not more promising,” 2007). Since that time, research has evolved into obtaining cells from a variety of tissues. According to stem cell research professors, Ariff Bongso and Eng Hin Lee (2005), “Stem cells are unspecialized cells in the human body that are capable of becoming cells, each with new specialized functions” (p. 2). Stem cells are in various adult tissues, such as bone marrow, the liver, the epidermis layer of skin, the central nervous system, and eyes. They are also in other sources, such as fetuses, umbilical cords, placentas, embryos, and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are cells from adult tissues that have been reprogrammed to pluripotency. Most stem cells offer multipotent cells, which are sparse...
Imagine that there is a cure for nearly every ailment that affects the human race. Imagine that you could help the terminally ill, put those you love out of pain, and cut the healing time of an enormous number of serious illnesses in half. Imagine a world in which pain and suffering would be nearly nonexistent, and the people you love can live safe from the fear of crippling injury. Now what if I told you that this utopia was a fast approaching reality? Everything from serious life threatening burns to lymphoma, AIDS, Alzheimer’s, Muscular Dystrophy, Parkinson’s Disease, Spinal Cord Injury, and Strokes could, in the very near future, be eliminated through the simple culturing and implementation of stem cell therapy . These diseases are no small component of the myriad of conditions that plagues the human race, and yet, the end for these horrible maladies could very well be in sight. Man has always sought to end suffering, largely without success, until now. the promise that stem cell therapy holds could completely change our world for the better. Already, stem cell therapy is being used to treat leukemia, immune disorders, hodgkins and non-hodgkins lymphoma, anemia and a profusion of other ailments. As you all know, this is no small accomplishment. One day i believe that we may look at alzheimer's and diabetes and other major illnesses much like we look at polio today, as a treatable illness. Right now, our research with stem cells is providing us with new light into how we look at and model disease, our ability to understand why we get sick and even to develop new drugs. In 2008, a researcher from the New York Stem Cell Foundation Laborato...
Stem cells are located deep down in our bone marrow. They have the incredible ability of “generating an endless supply of red cells, white cells, and platelets”(1). They have been called the “Mother of all blood cells” due to their ability to regenerate the entire blood supply of a persons body. Just to think that this is possible is actually pretty incredible. The man who claims to be responsible for the discovery of this gem is a immunologist from Stanford University named Irving Weissman, and his collaborators at SyStemix, (a biotech company that he cofounded in 1988, located in Palo Alto, CA). He and his company are so confident about these cells, not only have they obtained a government patent on the process by which these specific cells are separated from other cells, they have also patented the cells themselves. They have even convinced Sandoz Ltd. (a giant Swiss drug-and-chemical company) to purchase 60 percent of the stock for SyStemix for a reported 392 million dollars.
Imagine if it were your best friend, your parents, your siblings, or any other close person that needed a live saving organ transplant. It might change your mind on being an organ donor.
One of the most spoken of topic in the past four decades, are the advancements in genetic engineering. Stem cells were discovered in the mid-1800s and the subject of experimentation in the early 1900s, it’s only been in recent decades that they’ve truly caught the imagination of medical researchers and the public. Today, our understanding of these cells is expanding dramatically, and research has proliferated, as their potential is becoming clearer and clearer. Research into stem cells grew out of findings by Ernest A. McCulloch and James E. Till at the University of Toronto in the 1960s. “And the remarkable thing about the discovery itself is that we’re just starting to realize the potential of stem cells for medicine. In the 1960s, scientists recognized that Drs. Till and McCulloch’s discovery was important, but I don’t think anyone could have imagined that more than 45 years down the road their work would still be laying the basis for new ideas, new strategies, even new research institutes built around the concept of stem cells.” says Dr. Bob Phillips, Deputy Director of OICR and a former colleague of Till and McCulloch’s at the Ontario Cancer Institute.”[4]
You are all in luck. Becoming an organ donor, you are entitled to be able to say, “I will save a life”.
By donating blood to insure there is enough in supply, the life we save may be our own.
middle of paper ... ... en through the example of Nickolas Green, when you donate organs you not only save one life, but often numerous. Your body has so many vital organs and tissues that can be donated and given to many different people. For many of these people, what you donate to them, can be a matter of life or death.
The first successful case of stem cell therapy in human was reported in 1959. Bone marrow restorations were observed in leukemia patients who received total body irradiation subsequent by intravenous injection of their twins’ bone marrow (Thomas et al, 1957). Nevertheless, that effect was transient and the following bone marrow transplantation attempts in non-twin patients and donors can eventually lead to patient’s death from graft-versus-host disease (Mathé et al, 1965). During that time, the safety of hematopoietic cells transplantation was not guaranteed because of the limited knowledge in human histocompatibility and immunosuppression. However, the turning point came after the discovery of human leucocyte antigen (HLA) groups (Dausset, 1958; van Rood et al, 1958), HLA typing and compatibility testing were performed prior to the transplantation. In addition, the improvement of immunosuppressive protocol also helps bringing the bone marrow transplantation to become more and more successful (Donnall and Hutchinson, 1999).
Organ donation is always a hard decision to make before you pass away, and for your loved ones to make after you have passed away. People often misinterpret how organ donation works. In order for someone to want to be a donor they have to be able to understand all the facts about it. Not all people realize how important being an organ donor is. Three steps that everyone should go through before you decide where you stand on organ donation are understanding the facts from myths, understand the process of organ donation, and read at least one story of how organ donation has changed someone’s life. (Organ Donation Myths, Ten Facts,