Stem Cells Can Heal... Or Not?

Recent studies have shown that mutated stem cells may migrate to the surface of wounds in individuals and could potentially cause skin cancer in those people. A skin cancer called Marjolin's ulcer for example, has been connected to many battlefield wounds. Also, 'kangri cancer' has been affiliated with burns that have been caused by heaters worn under clothing in Kashmir. Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco did research and concluded that damaged skin resulting from physical injury may have to do with the migration of mutated stem cells, particularly if the individual with the wound is predisposed to getting cancer. Using mice, scientists looked at basal cell carcinomas, a type of skin cancer said to be a result of a sun-damaged outermost layer of the skin called the epidermis. However, science has shown that basal cell carcinomas are similar to the stem cells that fix wounded skin, thus the skin cancer might be a result of mutated stem cells differentiating in the wound area, causing skin cancer. The researchers mutated a gene in mice that, when done so, has been said to cause skin cancer. Activating the mutated gene within mice did not result in increased numbers of skin cancer in the mice, so the researchers changed the experiment. The mutated gene was again activated in mice, but this time the mice were wounded in one area and sure enough, results showed that the mice developed increased numbers of basal cell carcinoma at the wound site. Some studies have shown that once the stem cells are mutated, they may rest for years without causing cancer and will act once prompted by a wound, but other studies have shown that most basal cell carcinomas do not arise at the site of injury and therefore, the study is not very significant.

This article is very relevant to the world today particularly because media has really emphasized lately the dangers of skin cancer as well as the fact that skin cancer seems to be on a serious rise. Media has stressed the importance of being careful when in direct sunlight, for example on the beach or being out in the daytime during the summer because of ultraviolet rays from the sun. The ultraviolet rays are the reason individuals get sunburned when outside and that particular skin damage has been correlated with skin cancer. Tanning beds have also been been emphasized in the media lately because laying in a tanning booth means laying under direct ultraviolet rays for an extended period of time. Tanning salons have been linked to skin cancer particularly because of the dangers that the increased UV exposure can cause. Individuals sometimes do not know fully the threats of skin cancer and how deadly it can actually be. For instance, melanoma, a type of skin cancer, is extremely aggressive and can kill an individual very quickly. Thus, this article is very much associated with current events today in the world because of the fact that skin cancer is such a new topic with increasing information, research, and studies.

I chose this article because the idea of stem cells interests me and usually when people hear about stem cells, the research or studies being spoken about are related to the medical breakthroughs stem cells are causing or will cause in the future. This article however, looks at stem cells in a different light. The article as said before, links stem cells to skin cancer. Stem cells have been in the media lately because they are undifferentiated cells, which means they can turn into almost all cells within the human body. Therefore, stem cells are capable of differentiating into heart cells or nerve cells, which could fix a failing heart or heal an individual who is paralyzed. The fact that stem cell research is still pretty new to science however leads to questions on whether scientists know the actual long-term effects of stem cell therapy. The studies talked about within this article show that stem cells may actually cause more issues than they fix because if the stem cells are mutated, then when they eventually differentiate, they multiply and create a large amount of mutated cells - in this case, mutated skin cells. Thus, the article is intriguing because it makes the reader wonder whether or not stem cells used in stem cell therapy could have negative long-term effects that currently have gone unnoticed because they have yet to occur in science.

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110214/full/news.2011.91.html