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 * "I've been around much longer than you and am very well accompished (modest too!)...but where did it all start?" **

 =THE HISTORY OF THE STEM CELL= The history of stem cell research has a benign, embryonic beginning in the mid 1800's with the discovery that some cells could generate other cells. Now stem cell research is embroiled in a controversy over the use of human embryonic stem cells for research. In the early 1900's the first real stem cells were discovered when it was found that some cells generate blood cells.  Stem cell research, both past and recent, includes work with both animal and human stem cell; but before we get into that...  Just to bring you up to speed on what we know already; stem cells can be classified into three broad categories, based on their ability to differentiate. __**Totipotent stem cells**__ are found only in early embryos. Each cell can form a complete organism (identical twins). __**Pluripotent** **stem cells**__ exist in the undifferentiated inner cell mass of the blastocyst and can form any of the over 200 different cell types found in the body. __**Multipotent**__ stem cells are derived from fetal tissue, cord blood, and adult stem cells. Although their ability to differentiate is more limited than pluripotent stem cells, they already have a track record of success in cell-based therapies. Need diagrammatic representation? See below...(we think of everything!)




 * //Now, let us get back into it with the...

 //** =FIRST TRANSPLANT OF STEM CELLS=

A prominent application of stem cell research has been bone marrow transplants using adult stem cells. In the early __**1900's **__ physicians administered bone marrow by mouth to patients with anemia and leukemia. but unfortunatly therapy was unsuccessful, laboratory experiments eventually demonstrated that mice with defective marrow could be restored to health with infusions into the blood stream of marrow taken from other mice. This caused physicians to speculate whether it was feasible to transplant bone marrow from one human to another (allogeneic transplant). Among early attempts to do this were several transplants carried out in France  following a radiation accident in the late **__1950's__**. Performing marrow transplants in humans was not attempted on a larger scale until a French medical researcher made a critical medical discovery about the human immune system. In <span style="color: rgb(148,20,20);">**__1958__** Jean Dausset identified the first of many human histocompatibility antigens. These proteins, found on the surface of most cells in the body, are called human leukocyte antigens, or HLA antigens. These HLA antigens give the body's immune system the ability to determine what belongs in the body and what does not belong. Whenever the body does not recognize the series of antigens on the cell walls, it creates antibodies and other substances to destroy the cell.

<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(34,34,34); font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">A bone marrow transplant between identical twins guarantees complete HLA compatibility between donor and recipient. These were the first kinds of transplants in humans. It did not happened until the <span style="color: rgb(155,18,18);">**__1960's__** that physicians get enough information about HLA compatibility to perform transplants between siblings who were not identical twins. In <span style="color: rgb(193,26,26);"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(34,34,34); font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: rgb(193,26,26);">__**<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">1973 **__ a  <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(34,34,34); font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> team of physicians performed the first unrelated bone marrow transplant. In <span style="color: rgb(168,21,21);">**__1984__** Congress passed the National Organ Transplant Act, which among other things, included language to evaluate unrelated marrow transplantation and the establishing a national donor registry. This led ultimately to National Marrow Donor Program (NDWP) a separate non-profit organization that took over the administration of the database needed for donors in 1990. The <span style="color: rgb(176,23,23);">**__1990's__** saw rapid expansion and success of the bone marrow program with more than 16,000 transplants to date for the treatment of immunodeficiencies and leukemia. Adult stem cells also have shown great promise in other areas.

These are the small (not really) beginnings of stem cells...but just where are we up to now? More importantly, where will we end up?! <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(34,34,34); font-family: Arial;"> Content from: <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(34,34,34); font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(34,34,34); font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(34,34,34); font-family: Arial;"> http://www.allaboutpopularissues.org/history-of-stem-cell-research-faq.htm Image from: [|http://www.robby.nstemp.com]