Biology Olivia
Samios
Current Event May 19th, 2014
In
this article, researchers explained how they discovered a stem cell that
creates bone, cartilage, and stromal niche cells. These three tissues are
essential to human life, as bone cells create bones, which we need to function
in everyday life, cartilage allows our bones to move and be flexible, and
stromal niche cells create bone marrow which creates blood cells. These three
cell types are part of the hematopoietic system- the bodily system that
includes organs and tissues such as bone marrow, spleen, tonsils, lymph nodes,
and the production of blood. The hematopoietic system can be used in such a way
to fight infections and cancers.
The researchers at
Stanford University School of Medicine, Michael Longaker, MD, and Charles Chan,
PhD, supported by the National Institutes of Health, discovered the cell BCSP
(Bone Cartilage Stromal Progenitor). These cells make blood cells and immune
cells, stromal cells such as the one that supports blood and immune cells, one
that supports the generation of an immune cell called the B cell, and another
that supports another progenitor cell. The discovery of this stem cell allows
scientists and researchers to understand how one cell can create many different
kinds of cells. The researchers believe the interactions between stromal cells
and blood cells can answer questions about certain diseases.
The discovery of
the BCSP cell is relevant today because it allows scientists and doctors and other
people of the medical world get closer to finding cures for diseases and
caners, such as leukemia and other blood diseases. The finding of new stem
cells lets scientists expand their knowledge of the human body and how it
works, which leads them to long sought after cures for numerous diseases.
I
found this article to be very remarkable, as it’s not every day one discovers a
new part of the human body. The author explained clearly what the importance of
finding this cell is and he talked a lot about what the BCSP cell does and why
it is critical that researchers know about it. However, I had to look up a lot
of the words in this article, such as “stromal niche” and “hematopoietic
system.” In all fairness, this article was probably not written for high school
students to read, most likely other researchers, doctors, etc. so the
vocabulary was not suited to my level of understanding. Another thing that I
found strange was that the author did not discuss the experiment or the way
that the researchers found the BCSP cell. I would’ve liked to know what exactly
they did to find a new stem cell. Perhaps if the author had explained the
experiment or process and had been more specific with his terms, I would’ve
found this article more informative, although there was a lot of great
information and I learned a lot.
"Stanford Researchers
Discover Precursor Cell for Bone, Cartilage, Blood and Stromal
Cells." Bone Progenitor Cell. Standford School of Medicine.
Web. 19 May 2014. <http://stemcell.stanford.edu/news/progenitor.html>.
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