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Asked by alexleemartin2001 to Dave, Matt, Tomasz on 21 Nov 2013.
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Matthew Tomlinson answered on 21 Nov 2013:
We can put stem cells back into people very quickly. For example in bone marrow transplants the cells are taken from the donor and can be in the patient in less than an hour. These cells contain blood stem cells and can remake the patients entire blood system, which is why they are used to treat leukaemia patients. Some cells take a bit longer to grow, we take stem cells from teeth and grow them into bone like cells, this process takes about 6 weeks, so if we were to use these cells in a patient it would take about that long.
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David Christensen answered on 22 Nov 2013:
The thing that makes this quite easy is that to make cells all we have to do is take some cells from somewhere, possibly from the patient themselves or from another person, and then get them to divide in the lab before giving them to the patient again. Cells have inside themselves everything they need for them to be able to divide and replicate, so making new cells is quite easy.
If you want to make a new cell without using cells taken from somebody, then it is more difficult. Scientists have made cells in a lab before, but I don’t know exactly how long it takes to do. How long it is likely to take will depend how much of the cell you want to make. You could take a cell from someone and then remove all of the contents and replace them with the contents of a different cell, or you could make most things yourself in the lab. Scientists have made the DNA needed by a cell to function and they have made the membrane that surrounds the cell. I think it would be more difficult to make everything else that the cell needs inside itself, but it might be possible in the future. But, as I say, it is so easy to make a cell just by getting another cell to divide, so we don’t really need to make new ones from nothing.
I hope you find this interesting!
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