Embryonic stem cell technologies are some of the most costly and controversial approaches in cell-based research.
Embryo tech is a relatively new term relating to technologies that rely on embryonic stem cells as the basis for their research. Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are cells harvested from the embryo four to five days after fertilization.
Significant funding has been invested in embryo tech due to ESCs having unique properties such as pluripotency and immortality, meaning they retain the potential of dividing into different types of cells or into more stem cells.
These qualities allow them to be used in technologies that make specific cells needed to treat degenerative diseases.
Much controversy with ESC-based technologies lies in retrieving these cells, since they require the formation and destruction of an embryo. Large biotechnology companies such as Bayer AG are based out of Germany, a country which has strict laws surrounding the destruction of embryos for research purposes.
The loophole is that they can use existing embryonic stem cell lines created prior to 2007.
In Canada, it’s permissible to use ESCs for research purposes if the cells were harvested from human embryos that were created by in vitro fertilization (IVF) and are no longer required for fertility treatment. There are still tight regulations, however, with a very limited number of labs allowed to access and use these cell lines.
There are ethical and moral dilemmas surrounding the use of the cells themselves, since there are different perspectives on what is considered life.
Controversies lie in the cost going into these studies. Despite billions of dollars of funding across private and public research sectors, there has been no successful ESC treatment made available on the market.
The most promising potential treatment that has emerged is transplanting lab-made neurons created from embryo tech into the brains of Parkinson’s disease patients.
Parkinson’s disease symptoms are caused by a shortage of dopamine and dopamine-producing neurons. Unfortunately, the body is unable to create new neurons or repair disordered ones.
This is where embryo tech is very beneficial as the ESCs can be used to grow new neurons to be implanted into the patient and restore dopamine production. At the forefront of this new treatment is BlueRock, a subsidiary of the well-known pharmaceutical company Bayer AG.
It’s important to highlight there have been other strides made in stem cell research. Researchers now know how to convert any cell into a pluripotent stem cell through gene editing which reprograms the cell to return to an embryonic-like state. Through refining this approach, the use of these “induced” stem cells could potentially replace embryonic stem cells, eliminating the controversial need for embryos.
This carries over to another interesting discovery in embryo tech, where these induced stem cells can be used to form embryo-like structures, referred to as synthetic embryos.
These structures would be able to develop an embryo model without the use of sperm or egg cells. Currently, these models are used in contraceptive research to test and develop new contraceptives.
Although this is a brief overview of all the emerging applications of embryonic stem cells, it is exciting to think about the potential to treat life-altering diseases and development of new research models.
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