Embryonic stem cells

As it is easy to understand from their name, embryonic stem cells come from embryos. Their origin is in the cellular balls called blastocysts that represent the first stage of development before the growth of a fetus. Such embryonic stem cells come from eggs fertilized artificially for various couples, but usually not all of them are necessary for the implantation. Such biological material can be disposed of for research purposes only with the consent of the rightful owner. It is also possible to grow embryonic stem cells in the laboratory in what is known as cell culture. All sorts of difficulties and challenges appear in the artificial production of embryonic stem cells, and the inefficiency of embryonic cell lines is often brought into discussion.

Passing through all sorts of stages of cultures and subcultures, embryonic stem cells proliferate over more than six months while preserving their undifferentiated status. An embryonic stem cell line is created when all the cells in a culture are genetically normal while remaining unspecialized. Stem cell batches are afterwards frozen and stored before being transferred to other research units. How are embryonic stem cells identified? Although tests are conducted both on animal and human embryonic stem cells, the characterization procedure cannot be limited to a standard group of tests for the measuring of the fundamental features of human cell groups.

Normal microscopic analysis is usually sufficient to determine whether the embryonic stem cells preserve the long term growth and self-renewal properties. Further investigations involve the presence of specific proteins that are normally produced by unspecialized or undifferentiated cells. The analysis of the chromosomes is equally important to reveal the genetic health of the embryonic stem cells. There is no other form in fact to detect genetic mutations in the cells and establish whether the evolution is normal or not. Thus, precision and care in the performance of the laboratory routine is a rule of professional conduct strictly followed.

The possibility to use embryonic stem cells for the regeneration of organs or body tissues comes from the scientific possibility to manipulate the biological material and make the cells differentiate according to the needs. The specialization of the cells is controlled by the insertion of special genes, the change of the growing environment, the modification of the cultures and so on. At present, research has lots of things to cover yet before general stem cell transplants may be performed.