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Mackenzie Kern, a high school basketball player, was diagnosed with a disorder affecting blood cell production. She was saved through a successful stem cell transplant. Stem cells have the power to heal and repair tissue. There are two types: embryonic stem cells, which can differentiate into any cell in the body, and adult stem cells, which are found in various organs and tissues. Stem cell research is controversial due to its use of embryos. Stem cell treatment is expensive and limited to those with wealth. The future of stem cells in medicine faces challenges and uncertainties. The decision on whether stem cells are worth it is up to the individual. Mackenzie Kern was a high school student and a star basketball player on her high school team when she was diagnosed with Malito's Plastic Syndrome, which is a group of disorders where something disrupts the production of blood cells, which if not treated, would get worse and worse until it became a harsh version of leukemia. Was there hope? Yes. Luckily, a donor had matched with her, and the surgery was successful. Mackenzie was saved due to stem cells. She shared her experience to the world just to show how incredible stem cell's capabilities are. Hi! We're 8th grade students from High Point, Kansas. I'm Jimmy. I'm Gavin. I'm Grant. And I'm Aiden. Today, we're going to dive into the recent history of these controversial stem cells and what they hold for the future of our medicine. So guys, what are stem cells? Basically, they can be cells that have superpowers to heal the body in ways that are unbelievable. By definition, stem cells are specialized, undifferentiated cells found in various places in the body that have helped you grow and even repair tissue. Whoa! So they're like superheroes in a cell! Do different types of stem cells have different powers? Yeah. We can't talk about stem cells without specifying what type we're going to talk about. So what are these types? Well, first, there are embryonic stem cells. These are harvested from embryo, which is one of the earliest life forms of a human. They also have the ability to differentiate into all the cells of the adult body, allowing them to heal tissues, muscles, generally holding huge potential for healing the human body, the future of medicine. And the second type? The second type is non-embryonic stem cells, which we'll refer to as adult stem cells. Adult stem cells, which have fewer capabilities, but are still amazingly capable, are found in nearly every tissue and organ of the body. They can differentiate to yield the specialized cell types of that tissue or organ, but cannot differentiate into all of the human body cells. Whoa! That's really cool! Yeah. Both embryonic and adult stem cells have incredible capabilities that possibly hold the future of medicine and saving lives. Wow! These are pretty awesome. I still have a question, though. How was something like this discovered? I think I have an answer to that question. It all started around 60 years ago. During the 1960s, a biologist named Ernest McCullough and a cell biologist, James Edgar Till, experimented with transplanting bone marrow into lethally eradicated mice, which are mice with extreme levels of radiation. They wanted to see the result of injecting the mice with transplanted bone marrow to see if it gave hope to saving the lives of those mice. Several weeks later, unique lumps formed on the mice's body. Initially called spleen colonies, these lumps were something that nobody had ever seen. Even more intriguing, these lumps were self-regenerating. This meant that they could heal almost any part of the body by self-regenerating. Only later were stem cells starting to be used for human medicine, cures, and disease treatment. And only until the 21st century did it start to be used consistently in athletes and people with treatable diseases or medical conditions. These seem perfect. Are there any downsides though? Yeah, there's a big one. As we mentioned earlier, many stem cells are harvested from embryos and babies in male coccoid. This raises a lot of controversy, as some people view it as killing babies. But isn't an embryo technically not a baby? Well, that's a tricky one, see, you're correct in that technical terms, it isn't. But it is soon to be one, and the knowledge of that is enough to persuade many people to disagree with the research. Due to this controversy, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Austria banned the treatment. These bans influenced some people to travel to other countries where it was legal to take the treatment. It is all based on opinion and preference, which raises the question of if lifesaving technology should be limited due to a portion of the population disagreeing with it. Yeah, if it can save lives, why limit the use? Just because it's controversial does not change the fact that it can still save a life. Well, you see, it's a very debated topic. Some don't see it as a way of saving lives, but rather taking an innocent one's life. Yeah, that's right, it all depends on if the knowledge that it will become a human is enough to end a possible future in the medical field. It can be compared to killing a seed for a tree, which some would find very acceptable, as there is time and nurture needed for it to become a developed organism. Wow, I never knew that this could be so controversial. We are fortunate enough to have someone who has had a stem cell transplant agree to do an interview with us. I will be asking the questions and Aiden will be answering them. This person has asked that we not use their name or their diagnosis. What was the process of choosing your treatment and why, in the end, were stem cells your choice? I chose my treatment because I kept up with the research and knew it was my best chance. I was able to get a list of centers in the U.S. through the NIH website. I interviewed and was selected and met the criteria at the Colorado Blood Institute, not as a trial, but as a private patient. Were there any lasting side effects? Lasting effects are that it stopped the disease progression. It wiped out my immune system and threw chemo and rebuilt it with stem cells. Stem cells because they can become any cell in the body. Was your treatment tedious or even painful or was it quick and easy? The treatment was tedious. I did it safely over three months and was in the hospital for about two weeks while I had them extracted from my bone marrow and then had them frozen up and received when my blood counts were back up. Looking back on this experience, was the treatment worth it? Looking back, yes, it was worth it. I'm only sorry I waited so long to do it. My insurance at the time covered all the costs. So, yes, I'm glad I did it safely in the U.S., but I know it was because I thought it was incredibly hard to get. I hope we'll see more of you in the future. But what does all this mean? Why should I, a regular citizen, care about stem cells? Well, they are currently being used in various applications ranging from therapy to help athletes and people with trauma recover from treating chronic illnesses and serving as an insanely accurate testing specimen. However, there are many restrictions that limit the use of these stem cells. Stem cell treatment can cost thousands of dollars and in some cases nearly $100,000, making money a burden that restricts stem cell usage. They are also extremely recent and have very little research being done on them. What do you mean by that? We do not know about possible side effects because of how little time doctors and scientists have had to study them. And success is not guaranteed from therapy or transplants. Sadly, the future of stem cells holds great potential, but implementing them and using them is challenging. The cost of the actual treatment, appointments, dodging restrictions, and harvesting the actual stem cells stack up tremendously. So stem cells are really only offered to people with wealthy economic standing. This cuts the range of people who can be saved with stem cells down to a smaller percentage of the population. So how realistic is it that the upcoming couple of decades will start seeing stem cells used regularly in chronic illness and injuries? In order for stem cells to be used in medical treatment in the future, we would need to overcome a lot of burdens, even if we can start making them somewhat in the norm. So my ultimate question is, are stem cells really worth all the risks, costs, and trouble to have a chance to be cured? I don't think we have the authority to choose which one the people want. Let's let the audience decide for themselves.
