I had a go at imaginative science writing:
Hello, I am Stemmy. I am a stem
cell, and I am a superhero. As a stem cell, I have the power to develop into
any other cell. This gives me the superpower to treat and maybe heal people suffering
from diseases. I can remain a stem cell for a long time, or become any cell I
want.
Sometimes it is hard to be a
superhero. I have many brothers and sisters, and we all have the same
superpowers. So what makes me unique? When other cells ask me what I am and who
I want to be when I grow up, I have to say I am not sure yet. Except that I
would like to be different from anybody else—I want to be special!
But on second thought, I guess I
am quite special. I am a cord blood-derived stem cell, CB-SC, or as I like to say
CB. I was collected from my human “donor” after his birth. Strictly speaking, some
humans with white coats and facemasks collected my siblings and me from the
blood inside the umbilical cord and stored us in freezers.
My stem cell family is very big.
There are many types of stem cells depending from which part of the body they
have been collected. There are the embryonic stem cells, collected from an
embryo, the tissue stem cells, found in various body tissues, and the induced
pluripotent stem cells (until recently, I didn’t even know they existed). Well,
and there is us, the CBs. We all have slightly different superpowers, but I
think that my sibling CBs and I are the coolest.
We actually go under several
names, such as haematopoietic (blood) stem cells or HSCs, but I prefer CBs, or
if you are just talking to me, please call me Stemmy. It is thanks to us and
other HSCs from the bone marrow that humans know about stem cells; our
discovery was the beginning of stem cell research. We are similar to embryonic
stem cells, only that we don’t have quite as much potential; but we can divide
into many different cell types, in particular blood cells. The white-coats are
not quite sure about our superpower to develop into many different kind of
cells, but it’s definitively certain that we can develop into any blood cell: white
and red blood cells, and platelets. So OK, I might have exaggerated at the
beginning, when I was bragging about my superpower to become any cell I want. I
have to admit I was a bit jealous of my siblings, the embryonic stem cells.
Embryonic stem cells cause quite
a bit of fuss, if you ask me. The reason for this is that they are harvested
from an embryo that was specifically grown for that purpose–I know, that sounds
crazy. But this means that after the stem cells are taken from the embryo, it
can’t develop any further and grow into a human baby, which causes a huge
debate among humans. Some people say, embryonic stem cells aren’t so cool,
because of issues related to their harvesting, and because so far, they’ve
“only” been used to cure diseases of the eye. If you ask me, I think the embryonic
stem cells are pretty impressive–depending on when they are collected they can
develop into any other cell of the human body. How cool is that! There are over
200 types of cells in the human body, so I think that's pretty amazing.
My other siblings are the adult
stem cells and the IPSCs, short for induced pluripotent stem cells. Adult stem
cells have less choice in becoming whom they want. They can be found in babies,
children, or adults, usually in already developed tissues of the heart, brain,
or kidney. An adult stem cell that lives in the kidney will usually create the
same kind of cells; but it would have the potential to turn into many other types of cells too, just not 200.
The IPSCs, they’re a bit weird
if you ask me. Actually, on second thought I am glad that I am not called IPSC,
what a lame name. IPSCs are grown-up cells, but can be reprogrammed to kind of
act as a stem cell. Because embryonic stem cells are not as easy to get hold
of, and often, some people are a bit against the idea to grow embryos just to harvest
stem cells, the white-coats have come up with another brilliant idea. What if
they would take an adult cell, and try to reprogram it back to its origin? And
that’s what they did, and guess what, they used some virus to do that, and even
crazier, it worked. They tried it on skin cells, and managed to turn them into
their original stem cell line! Obviously, that’s a huge success, because it
will be a lot easier to get stem cells this way. But this technique is quite
new, and the white-coats need to understand how exactly the IPSCs act, and if
they’re really like embryonic stem cells. Yes, I admit it, I might be slightly
jealous here too, because although IPSCs might not have much of a freedom to
choose who they want to be, they might very well become famous because of their
“x-factor”.
In a way, my big stem cell
family is pretty cool. We can be used not only to create new cells or tissues,
we can also help to test new drugs for diseases and help the white-coats
understand how diseases come about and how they can be treated.
We recently heard that our cell
donor, Sammy, had some bad news a few weeks ago. He has leukaemia, the poor
fellow–a good thing that my siblings and I were collected at his birth. I guess
I do have a purpose after all.
We are going to be mixed with
Sammy’s blood and transform into blood cells to help him fight his disease. Yeah,
I know, so much for freedom of the mind. I might not be able to make my own
decisions after all, but if it helps Sammy, I would have chosen to be a blood
cell anyway. And that way, my existence did have a good purpose! And I might even
become famous. If the therapy is successful, we will be all over the news, and
hopefully Sammy will be able to finish high school soon, and go to University.
I heard that when he’s older, he wants to become one of those “white-coats”.
Well, so long, guys. Wish me
luck on my mission to become a blood cell.
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