Stem cells are those primary cells that develop when an egg turns into an embryo after fertilization. The entire living organism comes from a single stem cell Zygote which is formed when egg and sperm fuse together. It is these stem cells that develop, rejuvenate, and multiply themselves to form different types of specialized cells of our body.
One of the fundamental properties of stem cells is that they can renew themselves indefinitely and give raise to more specialized cells. The early primitive stem cells can give rise to many different specialized tissues and are called embryonic stem cells whereas stem cells derived from the embryonic stem cells are tissue specific. The specialized cells like the blood cells, skin cells, liver cells, retina cells, or hair cells all are derived from the stem cells to perform their respective duties. The constant research on stem cells and their application has resulted in the cell-based treatments in some medical conditions like hematopoietic stem cell transplant in people suffering from leukemia or epithelial stem cell transplants in the cases of burns or corneal disorders.
In This Article
- Why Are Stem Cells Important? What Do They Do?
- Stem Cell Research and Its Merits
- Possible Medical Treatments by Stem Cell
- FAQ’s
Why Are Stem Cells Important? What Do They Do?
The specialized cells can multiply a finite number of times. And then it make copies of themselves through cell division, once damaged due to an injury, disease, or aging. But they are not capable of indefinite number cell multiplication like the stem cells. And here comes in the main uses of stem cells as they can recreate themselves as well as the specialized cells constantly or whenever needed hence play an important role in tissue maintenance.
So, in a way, stem cells are our body’s natural reservoirs that supply and stock specialized cells to function our body properly. You can understand the duty and importance of stem cells by knowing the fact that they produce roughly 1000,000 million new blood cells each day.
[Read : Everything You Need to Know About Stem Cells]
Stem Cell Research and Its Merits
So what are stem cells used for or why should we research them? The main motive behind stem cell research is to cure the damaged tissues and cells that cannot heal by themselves. And with its improvement, many patients with chronic diseases are finding hope for cures. Stem cell therapy can go simply from cell transplanting or directing them to develop into healthy, new tissue, up to coaxing the stem cells existing already in the body to work more and produce more new tissues.
Stem cells can be collected from embryos from in vitro fertilization clinics which are never implanted in the women’s uterus. More commonly, they are collected from the umbilical cord blood, bone marrow or mobilizing the stem cells from the marrow into the peripheral blood with help of growth factors and collected directly from the blood. So the stem cells of a healthy person’s bone marrow can become potentially curative for many different medical conditions of an ill person.
[Read : List of Diseases that can be Cured and Treated by Stem Cells]
Thus, the future of medical science relies upon researching what stem cells can do. And also to what extent they can cure or re-establish any tissue or organ.
Possible Medical Treatments by Stem Cell
Stem cells, as mentioned above, can cure a number of conditions, including degenerative diseases. Stem cell research has opened the doors to many other advantages as well:
1. Stem Cell Research Has Proven to be a Boon
The study and application of stem cells are important because they can help us understand how complex organisms develop from a fertilized egg. Birth defects and cancer are caused due to abnormal division of the cells. By studying the stem cells in the laboratory and witnessing their growth, one can understand genetics, molecular controls, and comprehend how such diseases occur.
2. BMT Helps Restore Blood Cell Types
BMT or Bone Marrow Transplantation, otherwise known as hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT), is a tested and successful medical use of stem cells. Through the process of BMT, one can restore different blood cell types and repopulate the bone marrow after a high dose of radiotherapy or chemotherapy. This will work as our body’s natural defense to eliminate the cancer cells. It is also used for many defective bone marrow conditions, bone marrow failure, genetic blood disorders and inborn immunodeficiency states.
3. Treatment of Diseases
Soon diseases like cancer, Parkinson’s disease, type 1 diabetes, Mellitus, Huntington’s disease, cardiac failure, celiac disease, neurological disorders, muscle damage, macular degeneration etc will be treated positively by applications of embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. The first research of implanting fetal cells for Parkinson’s disease has resulted in the survival of the dopamine-producing stem cells and the release of dopamine and an improvement in the patient’s clinical conditions. Researchers are now trying to eradicate the side effects and make stem cells more useful.
4. Treatment of Diabetes
Diabetes is a very common disease caused due to the abnormal metabolism of the insulin hormone. A cellular structure in the pancreas named Islets of Langerhans produces this insulin. Thus implanting stem cells that can create copies of pancreatic islets can help produce the necessary insulin to control diabetes. Recently, research on insulin-producing cells from a mouse’s stem cells has been done, which successfully creates cell structures that resemble pancreatic islets. With its successful transplantation in the human body, people can get relief from taking constant insulin injections in the near future.
5. Research Continues to Find Solutions and Cures
The application of stem cells can go to the extent of producing a large number of specialized cells to experiment with new medications without using a living body. This will reduce the almost cruel act of animal testing. For example, the potential anti-tumor drugs are now being tested on cancer cell lines.
[Read : Top 10 Stem Cell Banks in India]
Stem cells are necessary throughout our lifetime and have a lot to offer to medical science. But instead of knowing what stem cells do or what stem cells are used for, a few religious groups, anti-abortion groups, and some conservative people are protesting against it because, using cells from an embryo is, allegedly immoral as it destroys life. However, the majority can understand why stem cells are important for us. And thus the stem cell research gets passed by a 2-1 margin and is backed by the federal government despite all the controversies. This is a rapidly evolving area in medicine that has the potential to cure many hitherto untreatable conditions in future.
FAQ’s
1. Can Stem Cells Cure Juvenile Diabetes?
No, not yet. However, research is being done on this front. A solution is expected very soon.
2. Can I Extract My Stem Cells Now, For Future Use?
No, this is not possible. Stem cells have to be extracted at birth. These are the cells extracted from the cord blood.
3. Will My Child’s Stem Cells Match Me?
Yes, they can. A child’s stem cells can be a 50% match for their parents. It can even match their siblings.
4. Are There Any Side Effects to Treatments Using Stem Cells?
This is an on-going research. Stem cell therapy is being tested on many fronts. We will have to wait a while until we have more details about this type of treatment.
Read Also: List of Diseases that can be Cured & Treated by Stem Cells
