Stem Cell Research

After reading the article "Fast and Furious", it has been brought to my attention that induced pluripotent cells could really be a significant change for stem cell research. Previously, scientists were still using embryonic stem cells, which created an enormous controversy about whether it was like "killing a baby" or not. The discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells are extremely important because they have the ability to take any cell from the body, reprogram them into an embyronic cell-like state and theoretically have them differentiate into any cell in the body. This then, takes the spotlight away from embryonic stem cells, as iPS cells can do the same job they can, but cause a lot less controversy.

          

Unfortunately, iPS cells have their advantages as well. Even though theoretically, iPS cells could differentiate into any cell in our body, in reality, that is not the case. Certain cells (fibroblast cells from the skin) are easier to differentiate than others, such as a neuron cell. Also, since embryonic stem cells have been studied for quite a long time in the field of stem cell research, the scientists are much more knowledgeable on how they work whereas iPS are still relatively new, and thus, if they have problems in their reprogramming or in their ability to function, it is a lot harder to find a solution. At the end of the day, it's sad to say that embryonic stem cells are the better option for stem cell research, with all ethical issues put aside. There are just too many problems that can occur with the usage of iPS cells, such as the possibility of cancer, because one of the genes used to reprogram the iPS cell, associates with cancer. Which brings up the question of whether using iPS cells is worth it. If you only had a just kidney to replace/repair with iPS cells, and you have the possibility of getting a fatal cancer, would you still go through with it? Or how about your heart? Would you rather die of a heart problem, or take the chance of living you could get with iPS cells?

Maybe in the near future, the problems that iPS cells bring will be solved. Perhaps we'll find a different gene to reprogram iPS cells instead of c-Myc (the one that can cause cancer), or maybe we'll find a way for the cells to be reprogrammed without c-Myc. Perhaps if we went really in-depth with the working of reprogramming iPS cells, we would be able to figure out how to make the iPS cells totipotent, and thus making them preferred over embryonic stem cells.

However, with the success of iPS cells increasing, so does the chance of iPS cells being abused. Perhaps in the near future, we could have the possibility of producing clones with iPS cells, and along with that comes a whole controversy of what these clones will be used for, such as for harvesting organs. This definitely wouldn't be fair to the clones themselves, as they are to be treated as people too.

Even though at the end of the day, people still might prefer to use embryonic stem cells instead of iPS cells, there is no denying the fact that iPS cells opened quite a number of doors for stem cell research, and probably will continue to do so.