Miss Lee - Stem Cells

Question 1

What are stem cells

Answer 1

• A stem cell is an unspecialised cell this mean a stem cell is able to become any specialised cell such as a red blood cell. When I sell such as a stem cell has the potential to become any specialised cell it is known as potency
• A stem cell can be replicated many times (self renewal)

Question 2

What are the two types of stem cells

Answer 2

Embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells

Question 3

What are embryonic stem cells

Answer 3

• Embryonic stem cells a stem cells found in embryos they are known as embryonic stem cells as the stem cells come from the embryo.
• These stem cells can develop into almost every cell type under the right conditions in the lab.
• embryonic stem cells are Totipotent before seven days and then pluripotent after the blastocyst forms.

Question 4

Where can you find the embryonic stem cells

Answer 4

Embryonic stem cells can be found from in the blastocyst - -> the stem cells are then taken from the inner cell mass and —-> then you can culture them in the lab to grow more.

Question 5

What are adult stem cells

Answer 5

• Adult stem cells are stem cells found in adult tissues (such as bone marrow, brain, muscle, liver stem cells.) These cells can only differentiate into the same types of cells as the tissue they came from e.g. liver stem cells can only become a liver cells.
• The adult stem cells are present throughout life from birth.
• They are found in specific areas e.g. bone marrow and a multi potent. -They can be artificially triggered to become pluripotent. And can be harvested from the umbilical cords of newborn babies.
• In animals adult stem cells are used to replace damaged cells

Question 6

Where can you find adult stem cells

Answer 6

You can find adult stem cells or throughout the body such as brain, the western cells, muscle, bone marrow

Question 7

What are the advantages of embryonic stem cells

Answer 7

Embryonic stem cells can be treat a wide variety of diseases and can become any cell type

Question 8

Disadvantages for embryonic stem cells

Answer 8

• Embryonic stem cells are very difficult to harvest as they may harm/cause death to the embryo.
• It is humanly unethical as the embryo cannot give consent.
• It is an unreliable message as it’s not been tested very very often

Question 9

Advantages of adult stem cells

Answer 9

• There are no ethical issues with taking adult stem cells as they can give consent
• it is a safe and well tested method

Question 10

What are the disadvantages of adult stem cells

Answer 10

-Adult stem cells when being injected may have a possibility of getting infected.
– Adult stem cells can only become one cell type.
– It can be very painful

Question 11

What are the four main types of stem cells present at various stages in human development

Answer 11

Uniperson, multipotent, pluripotent and totipotent

Question 12

What is a uni potent stem cell

Answer 12

uni potent stem cell cannot be differentiated but however they are capable of self renewal.

Question 13

What are multipotent stem cells

Answer 13

Multipotent stem cells can differentiate into a number of closely related cell types within a certain type of tissue (e.g. haematopoeitic and that stem cells in the bone marrow give rise to different types of blood cells).

Question 14

What is a pluripotent stem cell

Answer 14

A pluripotent stem cell form any cell type (e.g. embryonic stem cells) but not the whole organism.

Question 15

What are Toti potent stem cells

Answer 15

Totally potent stem cells are able to differentiate into any type of cells found in the body and into extraembryonic stem cells such as those in the placenta. These cells are found in the embryo at an early stage called the blastocyst. The “total” individual. E.g. zygote

Question 16

What are plant stem cells

Answer 16

• Plant stem cells are found in the meristems of a plant.
• plant stem cells remain totipotent throughout their life
• meristems tissue implants can differentiate into any type of plant cell, throughout the life of a plant.

Question 17

What is the Cambrium and where is it in relation to the plant

Answer 17

The Cambrian lies between the xylem and phloem .
A layer of meristems.
They divide to produce new xylem and phloem

Question 18

What are some Therapeutic examples

Answer 18

• Leukemia: Bone marrow transplants for cancer patients who are immunocompromised as a result of chemotherapy
• Paraplegia: Repair damage caused by spinal injuries to enable paralysed victims to regain movement
• Diabetes: Replace non-functioning islet cells with those capable of producing insulin in type I diabetics
• Burn victims: Graft new skin cells to replace damaged tissue

Question 19

What diseases can stem cells treat

Answer 19

Stem cells may be able to treat Parkinson‘s and Alzheimer’s disease

Question 20

How would stem cells help to solve Alzheimer’s disease

Answer 20

With Alzheimer’s disease, nerve cells in the brain will die at a very high rate. This then results in memory loss. Research is hoping to use stem cells to regrow a healthy nerve cells in peoples brains who have Alzheimer’s disease as stem cells are unspecialised cells and therefore you’re able to rebuild the nerve cells.

Question 21

How can you treat Parkinson’s disease with stem cells

Answer 21

With Parkinson’s disease it is to do with tumours in the brain that they cannot control. The disease also leads to a loss of a specific nerve cell also found in the brain. The nerve cells in the brain is dopamine which is needed for the movement. So you would be able to use transplanted stem cells to regenerate the nerve cells to produce the dopamine to then allow for easy smooth movement

Question 22

What are Erythrocytes

Answer 22

Erythrocytes are red blood cells.
• Cell loose nucleus, mitochondria, Golgi apparatus and rough E.R
• Packed full of haemoglobin
• Shapechanges,formingbiconcavediscs
• This allows them to transport oxygen

Question 23

What are neutrophils

Answer 23

• A type of white blood cell
• Keep nucleus
• Cytoplasm appears granular
• Largenumberoflysosomesproduced
• This aids their role of ingesting invading microorganisms

Question 24

Where do erythrocytes and neutrophils come from

Answer 24

They both come from the bone marrow as it is an adult stem cell and therefore can be developed into different types of blood cells