Stem cell plays a very important role in all multi-cellular organisms. This cell is known by its ability to regenerate itself through mitotic division and differentiate into a diverse range of specific cell types. In other words, the stem cell can be exploited to produce new tissue, or even organ, for replacing or repairing damaged one. The most popular stem cell (or technically, most commonly used) is embryonic stem cell, that are isolated from the inner cell mass of early stage of embryo called blastocysts. This is due to the fact that, stem cells can differentiate into all of the particular embryonic tissues, usually when the embryo is developing, through cell culture. Recently, a group of researchers from UC Irvine reported that they have successfully utilized human stem cells to differentiate into retinal cell, represented as the first 3D tissue structures (published in Science Direct). Instead of using telescopic devices surgery to overcome vision loss on human (report and illustration from Singularity Hub), this breakthrough is seems to be more natural because it uses biological cells itself without involving any mechanical hardware. Moreover, since retinal cells are directly produced, it is possible that this discovery may revolutionizes traditional retinal transplant therapies, in the near future. In addition, culturing new retinal cells may also overcome s' retinal supply' scarcity problem. The only potential challenge of this visionary finding is the differentiation procedure is highly complicated since retina involves a complex set of cell types to allow it to work. Thus, embryonic stem cells have to be placed onto a patch of retinal pigment epithelium in order to make sure that the cultured cells may growth correctly (see the report here). However, despite of this challenge, this finding can be see as an innovative achievement to medical research and since it still in preliminary work, it may bring remarkable improvement along with hope to society all over the world.Saturday, June 12, 2010
Embryonic Stem Cell for Eye Treatment
Stem cell plays a very important role in all multi-cellular organisms. This cell is known by its ability to regenerate itself through mitotic division and differentiate into a diverse range of specific cell types. In other words, the stem cell can be exploited to produce new tissue, or even organ, for replacing or repairing damaged one. The most popular stem cell (or technically, most commonly used) is embryonic stem cell, that are isolated from the inner cell mass of early stage of embryo called blastocysts. This is due to the fact that, stem cells can differentiate into all of the particular embryonic tissues, usually when the embryo is developing, through cell culture. Recently, a group of researchers from UC Irvine reported that they have successfully utilized human stem cells to differentiate into retinal cell, represented as the first 3D tissue structures (published in Science Direct). Instead of using telescopic devices surgery to overcome vision loss on human (report and illustration from Singularity Hub), this breakthrough is seems to be more natural because it uses biological cells itself without involving any mechanical hardware. Moreover, since retinal cells are directly produced, it is possible that this discovery may revolutionizes traditional retinal transplant therapies, in the near future. In addition, culturing new retinal cells may also overcome s' retinal supply' scarcity problem. The only potential challenge of this visionary finding is the differentiation procedure is highly complicated since retina involves a complex set of cell types to allow it to work. Thus, embryonic stem cells have to be placed onto a patch of retinal pigment epithelium in order to make sure that the cultured cells may growth correctly (see the report here). However, despite of this challenge, this finding can be see as an innovative achievement to medical research and since it still in preliminary work, it may bring remarkable improvement along with hope to society all over the world.
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