Stem Cells- The Better of Two Bad Odds

It's one of those 'controversies' that makes me bang my head against the wall: Why are we NOT researching stem cells? This article does a great job at defining where embryonic stem-cells come from, although it shies away from emphasizing why they're important and instead notes that other companies have used adult stem cells instead. Adult stem cells can be 'pluripotent,' meaning they are able to produce multiple kinds of cells within the tissue they are a part of, but embryonic cells are 'totipotent,' meaning they can turn into any kind of cell within the entire body. Also, stem cells in adult tissue are sparse, especially in the nervous system, leading to the origional beliefs that after a point your brain can't regenerate itself (not true! It just takes a damned long time because there are so few stem cells there). So, the idea is to take totipotent stem cells and make them pluripotent neuron stem cells, then inject a whole bunch of them into the area needing to regenerate. Since adult stem cells do not replicate themselves- when they divide they create one stem cell and one differentiated cell- it's a lot harder to produce more of them. There are just so many things we might be able to successfully treat that we can't imagine another treatment for- like spinal cord injuries- using stem cells.

The only real medical concern I've heard voiced (although I'm sure there are many more that I haven't heard yet) is in regards to cancer. A leading theory on cancer is that it origionates as a mutation in the stem line of the tissue, so increasing the number of stem cells in any type of tissue would increase the odds of a mutation occuring in one of them and thus increase the odds of getting cancer. Still, which would you rather have: the inability to use the lower half of your body and a nearly 50% chance of getting cancer (which is the going rate here in the U.S.), or greatly increased mobility and the potential for an increased risk of getting cancer, maybe something like 70%?

More research is needed, so let's fund it and get started catching up with Asia in terms of medical advances!