Stem cell treatment, similar but still very different from gene therapy, is based around the idea of introducing new cells to damaged tissue with the hope that these new cells will encourage the repair of damaged tissue and in doing so reverse the symptoms of a medical problem.
Stem cells are taken from either the patient’s own body or from a suitable donor or donated organ depending on the particular treatment and are then cultured in a laboratory before being put back into the patient’s body.
Here is a look at some of the stem cell treatments currently in use and some of the potential treatments that scientists hope to one day make as successful as those in use today:
Current treatments:
Bone marrow stem cell transplants
Perhaps the most well-known and commonly used of stem cell treatments. It is used to treat various cancers such as Leukaemia and Lymphoma and other blood disorders. In the case of Leukaemia – where the white blood cells are not working correctly – the patient’s own bone marrow stem cells and abnormal white blood cells are killed off using chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Then, donated bone marrow is injected into the patient’s body and, if successful, the new stem cells will be accepted by the body and will begin to produce new, healthy white blood cells to replace the abnormal ones.
Peripheral blood stem cell transplants
Most of our blood stem cells are found in the bone marrow but a small number can be found in the bloodstream. These stem cells can be used for the same purpose as bone marrow stem cells but as there are fewer available from drawn blood it can be a challenge to collect enough stem cells to perform any major treatment with. On the other hand, this method is much less invasive as the cells are taken from the bloodstream whereas bone marrow stem cells can only be taken from within the bone.
Umbilical cord blood stem cell transplants
The usefulness of the umbilical cord has only been discovered in recent years. The stem cells found in the usually discarded umbilical cord can be used to treat the same problems as bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cells. The major advantage of the umbilical cord though is fact that these stem cells are less prone to rejection because of the immaturity of the cells meaning that the treatment has an even better success rate.
Potential treatments in the future:
Brain damage and brain degeneration
Clinical trials have proven hopeful in one day being able to cure, or at the very least reduce the destructive effect of such medical disorders as strokes, brain injury, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease
Heart damage
Stem cell therapy has the potential to repair damaged heart tissue through methods such as regenerating heart muscle cells and stimulating the growth of new blood vessels. Clinical trials have proven that stem cell therapy is a safe and effective means of treating heart disease and the treatment is already available in some parts of the world.
Spinal cord injury
Clinical trials have shown that injecting umbilical cord blood stem cells into the spinal cord has the potential to repair spinal cord injury. It is also believed that this type of stem cell therapy could reduce the effects of diseases such as muscular dystrophy.
Cancer
Clinical trials have demonstrated that injecting stem cells into the body has the potential to dramatically reduce the size of cancerous tumours.
As well as the medical diseases, disorders and injuries discussed above, stem cell therapy also has the potential to treat the extensive list of medical problems below:
- Blindness/impaired vision and deafness
- Haematopoiesis (blood cell formation)
- Diabetes
- Orthopaedics
- Infertility
- Neural and behavioural birth defects
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- Graft vs. host disease
- Crohn’s disease
- Huntington’s disease
- Celiac disease
- Cardiac failure
- Muscle damage
- Neurological disorders
- Wound healing
- Baldness
- Missing teeth
The list is endless and therefore it is clear to see why stem cell therapy is a discovery that excites the world of medical science so greatly. Even though most of the stem cell therapies discussed here are still at the experimental stage; it is the positive results of these experiments that provide the hope that one day so many of these medical problems will no longer be tragically incurable diseases that destroy the lives of so many people.
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