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Embryonic Stem Cell TherapyStem cells are undifferentiated, "blank" cells that do not yet have a specific function. Under proper conditions, stem cells begin to develop into specialized tissues and organs. There are many types of stem cells, including adult, fetal and embryonic stem cells. As part of regenerative medicine, stem cell therapy aims to repair organs or tissues that are damaged by disease, aging or trauma, so that function can be restored, or at least improved. On August 23, 2006, the online edition of Nature scientific journal published a letter by Dr. Robert Lanza (medical director of Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, MA) that stated that his team had found a way to extract embryonic stem cells without destroying the actual embryo, a point which has been under controversy on this type of stem cell therapy. Embryonic Stem Cell Therapy - StudiesBoyer L, Lee T, Cole M, Johnstone S, Levine S, Zucker J, Guenther M, Kumar R, Murray H, Jenner R, Gifford D, Melton D, Jaenisch R, Young R (2005). "Core transcriptional regulatory circuitry in human embryonic stem cells.". Cell 122 (6): 947-56. Andrews P, Matin M, Bahrami A, Damjanov I, Gokhale P, Draper J (2005). "Embryonic stem (ES) cells and embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells: opposite sides of the same coin.". Biochem Soc Trans 33 (Pt 6): 1526-30. Martin G (1981). "Isolation of a pluripotent cell line from early mouse embryos cultured in medium conditioned by teratocarcinoma stem cells.". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 78 (12): 7634-8. Cedar SH, Cooke JA, Luo Z, Patel MJ, Minger SL. From embryos to embryonic stem cells: biopolitics and therapeutic potential.Reprod Biomed Online. 2006 Nov;13(5):725-31. Denker HW. Potentiality of embryonic stem cells: an ethical problem even with alternative stem cell sources. J Med Ethics. 2006 Nov;32(11):665-71. Sun Y, Li H, Yang H, Rao MS, Zhan M. Mechanisms controlling embryonic stem cell self-renewal and differentiation. Crit Rev Eukaryot Gene Expr. 2006;16(3):211-31. Findikli N, Candan NZ, Kahraman S. Human embryonic stem cell culture: current limitations and novel strategies. Reprod Biomed Online. 2006 Oct;13(4):581-90. Goldberg Cohen I, Beck G, Ziskind A, Itskovitz-Eldor J. Human embryonic stem cells for vascular development and repair. Isr Med Assoc J. 2006 Aug;8(8):573-8.
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