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Why Use Stem Cells
Stem cells have been a hot topic in the medical industry in recent years, though for some people the question still exists as to why they are such an important issue in the first place. The primary reason for this lies in the base value stem cells have to our bodies as objects that can regenerate tissue and allow our body to repair itself in conditions that it otherwise cannot recover from.
With the multitude of tissues that exist within our bodies that have developed and specialized to one particular purpose many of these have lost the ability to actively repair themselves if damaged in order to return to virtually the same state that they existed in prior to the damage occurring while others have remained proficient at it. Skin cells, for instance, have retained this ability to a high degree and can conduct extensive repair procedures along with bone marrow cells that allow our bones to mend and re-grow. Nerve and cartilage cells, on the other hand, have nearly completely lost this ability due to the fact that they have needed to specialize into highly durable and difficult to alter forms in order to allow our body to function properly.
With the advent of stem cell research scientists have begun to allow two separate benefits to emerge that can benefit our bodies: the supplementing of our body’s natural repair functions in regards to tissue it can normally repair and avoid troublesome scar tissue and avoid cases where trauma may be too severe for our body’s natural regenerative capabilities to be adequate as well as the regeneration of certain cellular structures that otherwise cannot repair themselves due to their high level of differentiation and specialization. This effectively means that severe trauma to areas such as our skin or bones can potentially be reversed and allow the tissue to return to a near perfect pre-trauma state while at the same time allowing things such as nerve damage to no longer be an incurable debilitating issue.
Of course stem cells do come with their own risks associated with them along with many ethical issues, particularly in regards to the highly useful yet ethically questionable fetal stem cells that can be effectively used to repair virtually any system, yet the benefits gained from them are strong enough to make a solid argument in medical communities around the world and as of today they have been successfully used to help thousands of patients avoid otherwise debilitating damage that would have been untreatable just a few short years ago.
Subscribe to the comments for this postStem cells ligament damage
Ligament damage (including ruptured or otherwise damaged tendons) has long been a concern for many medical staff for a number of reasons, primarily due to the fact that while most ligaments can be reattached or repaired in some way to return functionality to an individual they may not necessarily be able to return 100% usability to a damaged area. This is particularly true for highly sensitive areas such as fingers where repair of severed tendons commonly results in some partial loss of motor functions, even if done at a young age with an individual given plenty of time to recover.
With this in mind many researchers have turned to stem cell research – particularly research into adult stem cells that can be extracted from bone marrow – as a viable alternative to other commonly highly invasive and potentially damaging surgical procedures. The reason for this focus lies in the fact that stem cells gathered from bone marrow and modified slightly to regenerate specified tissues have a number of advantages that are unavailable in many other medical procedures, namely the fact that they come from the patient’s own body and therefore have virtually no risk of being rejected as well as the fact that they can work to actively form cellular bonds between two damaged ligaments that would otherwise only be able to be achieved through extensive surgical reattachment and the loss of some usable ligament in the process.
While advancements have been made in this regard there are still a number of concerns related to these developments, however. One of the largest issues related to this form of treatment lies in the fact that the high tensile demand of ligaments means any weak cellular bonds could easily be broken again should they not regenerate properly, resulting in further tissue damage. Additionally modified adult stem cells may not be able to adapt fully to the desired cellular construct, meaning that harvested and modified stem cells from the patient’s own body may not be sufficiently capable of regenerating the tissue effectively enough to be a viable treatment.
Nevertheless continued research into this method has shown many promising results, with similar research being cone into cartilage and other soft tissue regeneration also potentially aiding in this regard through the development of various regenerative techniques using both modified stem cells and conventional medical treatment. Current medical treatments for ligament damage involving stem cells are being carried out in medical institutions throughout the world with particular interest in Texas and London with promising success rates, helping to drive even further interest into these areas from both the private and public sectors.
Stem Cells Cloning
The ability to clone a particular cell, tissue, organ or even an entire body has a tremendous potential in the medical world in terms of what it can mean in terms of the development of a treatment or cure for any number of diseases and other ailments that individuals face around the world. Nevertheless while this may have a number of positive benefits attributed to it there are also a large number of ethical concerns related to cloning using stem cells that are preventing it from becoming a mainstream treatment option.
The primary reason for the ethical concerns related to stem cell cloning lies in the process of how the cloning occurs. As cells are driven by deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) encoded within the central nucleus of the cell this means that, for a cell to divide and develop into an intended biological structure, an original cell must have its DNA removed and replaced with the target DNA – in computer terms, removing the entire hard disk and replacing it with a new one so you can start fresh. This forces the cell to replicate and follow the target DNA structure rather than its initially intended replication chain.
In order to ensure that the cell has the greatest replication ability as well the cell must be harvested and modified in as early of the cell’s replication stage as possible. For this reason newly developing embryonic cells are the most viable as they contain the potential to be “omnipotent” or develop into any cellular structure, while more differentiated cells (such as those taken from umbilical cord fluids) are already partially differentiated and therefore cannot be used to fully clone anything from an organ to an entire creature.
Because of the underlying benefit – and indeed necessity in most cases – of utilizing embryonic stem cells for treatment purposes little work has been done into this particular venue as any experiments or treatments using such cells would effectively be terminating any developing life. Nevertheless research is still being done on more differentiated “adult stem cells” that can be harvested from fully grown individuals with little to no harm to the person in order to generate treatments and recent advancements in this regard have proven highly promising in many regenerative treatments that can be used for a number of purposes. Still, full tissue or organ cloning using adult stem cells is proving difficult due to the differentiation needs and may prove a medical impossibility after all.
Stem Cells Neuropathy
Neuropathy is an unfortunately relatively common issue that many people around the world face as a result of a number of different factors ranging from trauma to disease side effects. Regardless of the specific cause, however, the result is the same – a failing of proper neurological processes that can cause numbness, lack of responsiveness and for some people even complete paralysis.
Thankfully research is being done into a number of different processes that can help combat this ailment and bring about an effective treatment – or even complete cure – for many people that have experienced this symptom in the past or are suffering from it now. Each of these focuses on treating the direct cause of the neuropathy, not the symptom itself, and for many individuals preliminary research has already shown great progress.
One of the most common forms of neuropathy for many people, direct brain trauma (even minute) is being explored by stem cell researchers around the world as a prime candidate for initial test treatments as well progressive treatments for those having already been afflicted. Focusing on utilizing adult stem cells found within bone marrow (commonly extracted from the hip of a patient) and programming them to target specific neural pathways in the brain, initial reports have shown surprisingly optimistic results for many people by working to rebuilt neural pathways and prevent excessive damage from cascading into other regions – particularly if the treatments can be applied soon after the trauma is received.
Initial treatments are already currently under way at hospitals in some locations globally, with particular interest on children head traumas suffered in Texas. The results have shown a treatment of adult semi-differentiated stem cells can restore necessary brain pathways that would otherwise cause long-term neurological damage (with neuropathy being only one possible outcome) and prevent further damage from swelling from occurring.
For neuropathy caused by other chronic diseases such as diabetes treatments are further being explored in this regard as well. In terms of diabetes, as one example, research is being done on utilizing adult stem cells to stimulate insulin production within the pancreas and thus allow for the progressive damage to be halted before it gets worse. Existing damage could then be focused on with additional stem cell focus in order to re-grow damaged synaptic responses.
While neuropathy is difficult to focus on in particular due to the varied nature of it causes one thing is certain: advances in stem cell development and application are proving beneficial in all areas, and for many sufferers looking for help a treatment may soon be available in a medical center near you if it is not available already.
Stem Cells Umbilical Blood
As many people have heard by now a child’s umbilical cord can contain a large quantity of multipotent stem cells capable of being cultivated into a number of different tissues. These cells, though partially differentiated to the developing child and thus losing their totipotent or pluripotent characteristics, still have the potential to be used in both effective treatment for the child as it develops to generate treatments or cures to ailments with virtually no risk of rejection. Additionally due to the genetic similarity between a child and its family members mean that the blood could potentially even be used to assist with the medical treatment of close family members should they need assistance as well.
Because of the versatility of the stem cells umbilical cord contains many doctors are beginning to recommend parents actually collect and store the umbilical cord from birth in order to be used later on down the line. Private blood collection and storage can actually be purchased by expecting families today for anywhere from $1000 to $2000 initially with a yearly maintenance fee of around $100 to ensure the blood retains its usefulness. Alternatively families may also store their child’s umbilical cord blood in a public blood bank for free, however chances are that over the years the blood may be used by some other patient that could use the blood for a treatment of their own and therefore not allow for the blood to be available should you need it.
As treatments continue to improve over the years and become more and more diverse and effective it is expected that the potential for umbilical cord blood to grow exponentially over time. Given that storage methods can generally maintain blood viability for decades this is generating a growing public awareness and focus on the potential benefits storage can bring about, especially knowing that there is roughly a 1 in 2,700 chance that the child will need a treatment from their own umbilical cord blood sometime in their life based on global health care statistics, with a proportionally higher chance that other family members may require it as well.
Should parents be expecting and wish to preserve their child’s umbilical cord blood be sure to ask your attending health care professional for options available to you in your area. Many doctors are beginning to offer this option without prompting, however if yours does not do not feel afraid to approach them with the request in order to explore all options available to you.
Stem Cell Lines
Much discussion can be found in the medical profession regarding stem cells and what are known as “stem cell lines”. What these lines consist of specifically are a genetic group of cells that have differentiated into various different tissues from one single group of initial stem cells. For harvesting purposes various different stem cells lines can come from virtually any tissue, and in many cases research into various lines is the primary focus for many researchers looking into any number of stem cell applications ranging from small tissue growths to even cloning entire organs or bodies.
Alternative sources for various stem cell lines are also being explored in order to try and fully realize the potential for stem cell development via adult stem cells as well. This includes the study of various tissues (including skin cells) and umbilical cord blood – a particular source of interest for many researchers as umbilical cord blood has proven to be a valuable source for potent stem cells.
The downside in terms of stem cell research on adult stem cell lines lies in the fact that cells harvested from even umbilical cord tend to have at least even partial differentiation towards a specific cellular structure or host. This means that any cells successfully obtained via an adult stem cell harvesting method will have the potential of being rejected by a host that may receive a cell line derived from some other individual. This is why in the past both totipotent and pluripotent stem cells harvested from embryonic tissue has been of much more interest to researchers given its ability to help more people and be accepted universally, however the ethical difficulties faced when utilizing this type of tissue are a strong barrier in its development.
Nevertheless the multipotent cells found in adult stem cells can, and have been, highly effective treatment methods for many people given the fact that even though they are partially differentiated already they still have the inherent nature to assist with the regenerative processes needed in the body. Additionally other methods such as iPS cells (short for induced pluripotent stem cells) where the genetic structure of a somatic cell that does not have the natural stem cell’s ability for repair is re-programmed into becoming a stem cell for treatment and repair purposes. These forms of stem cell lines have proven particularly effective for treatment of individuals that are the initial hosts of the cells as even though they are only multipotent at best the fact they originate from the host virtually eliminates any risk of rejection.
Stem Cells Liver Disease
The human liver is a highly resilient organ with amazing regenerative abilities. Unfortunately for a number of reasons it can break down over time, and although there are a number of different treatments available for complete liver failure a transplant is the only option – and this can be a risky business at best. Although not even a full liver is necessary to be transplanted from one individual to another in order for treatment to be successful (given that even if 40% of the original liver is transplanted into a patient the liver’s natural generation ability will cause it to re-grow to roughly the original size) the chances of organ rejection are still high and a major concern for many people suffering from liver disease. Additionally the widespread epidemic of liver failure means that for every one successful liver transplant 10 people are left on the waiting list hoping to receive one of their own.
Because of the risk of organ rejection among other concerns (including simply finding a suitable donor quick enough to save the life of an individual) alternative treatments utilizing adult stem cell therapy has been explored. In fact, researchers in both London and Japan are currently exploring treatment methods utilizing adult stem cells for the treatment of chronic liver disease and liver fibrosis.
This move towards liver repair and exploration of stem cell therapy to repair liver damage is partly due to the fact that there is a lack of any significant dialysis machine to assist with the liver’s functions (unlike dialysis for kidney failure), making the need for a treatment method other than an invasive transplant dire. Additionally studies have shown that liver disease is on the rise in many countries around the world, with highly-industrialized countries such as the UK and US among two of the homes of the fastest growing liver-disease demographic in the world.
The stem cells being used in the treatments underway in the UK and Japan are being extracted from the patient’s own bone marrow, effectively eliminating the risk of rejection from the patient as the cells will simply be modified native cells to the patient’s body. Adult stem cells extracted from bone marrow are proving highly flexible for use in many different areas of treatment, ranging anywhere from tissue repair (such as that being done in these cases in regards to liver damage) to even being utilized in the treatment of traumatic brain injury cases.
Stem Cells Knee Repair
Knee cartilage is a highly resilient tissue that is necessary to absorb high amounts of stress throughout our lives on a regular basis, needing the ability to withstand heavy loads and impacts that we subject our body to through any number of actions. Unfortunately it is also a non-regenerative tissue and if damaged or worn-down through years of hard usage or other complications such as disease or nutritional deficiency it can easily cause a wide number of problems and, in extreme situations, even cause immobility.
While a number of surgical options have been available for some time in order to assist with mending cartilage tissue damage there has been no way to actually repair any cartilage damage to its proper complete state. Further, while some of these surgical options can be done arthriscopically (by making small 1cm incisions in the areas surrounding the knee and inserting small instruments into the knee cavity to conduct repairs) more extreme damage requires highly invasive procedures that can take months to recover from and after which individuals may never fully recover to their pre-damaged level of use.
Recent developments in autologus stem cells, however, are proving promising in terms of being able to regenerate damaged cartilage tissue. Originating from a patient’s own body, autologus cells have virtually no risk of be rejected by the patient as they are simply modifications of cells already existing within their system. Further, there is no risk of any disease transmission through the use of autologus cells due to the fact that they do not come into contact with any outside source. Their nature also allows them to be more easily studied and implemented in treatment procedures due to the fact that they are harvested from and re-implanted in adult bodies and therefore are free of much of the negative stigma associated with other forms of stem cells.
Current focus for stem cell cartilage treatment is on the usage of autologus mesenchymal stem cells due to their promising results in animal studies. A clinic in Colorado has also reported numerous successes in the usage of autologus mesenchymal stem cells to regenerate knee tissue in many patients. Unfortunately due to the relatively new nature of the treatments as well as the limited ability to know of long-term effects of the stem cell treatments the FDA is engaged in an ongoing debate over their continued usage within the US and whether or not they are truly a viable, healthy method of treatment.
Stem Cells Brain Damage
Traumatic brain injury (commonly known as TBI) is a primary candidate for stem cell study and treatment due primarily to two factors. First, the current conventional treatment methods used in TBI cases focus primarily on pharmacological supplements to bring about balances in brain chemistry that may have been imbalanced due to trauma as well as rehabilitation treatments to allow an individual to better cope with lost functionality that may have come about due to the initial brain injury or, more likely, the subsequent swelling that results from the body’s natural defense mechanism to deal with traumas. While this has proven effective in coping with brain damage in the past it is inherently limited in its actual scope of application due to the fact that it does not ever treat the actual damage that exists. Secondly, TBI has proven as a prime candidate for stem cell research and development due to the fact that various stem cells were recently discovered in adult brains that, when activated, could effectively be used to repair damaged brain tissue and return lost functionality to otherwise unusable brain regions. Additionally some bone marrow stem cells have proven effective in generating the necessary cells to repair damage to areas that have recently suffered from some sort of trauma based on laboratory studies. In fact, if modified adult stem cells from bone marrow is injected into damaged regions of the brain within 48 hours of an injury occurring significant recovery of damaged tissue has been able to be observed in laboratory animal tests. Because of the high potential nature of adult stem cells in the treatment of traumatic brain injury tests are currently being planned on the first human subjects, with the intention of treating children suffering from TBI at first with bone marrow extracted from their pelvis. These stem cells will be activated to restore both neurological tissue and blood flow to damaged regions in order to stem off any cumulative damage that may result from otherwise untreatable areas. Due to the fact that TBI is currently the leading cause of death for individuals under the age of 45 within the United States as well as a highly debilitating condition with little to no current effective treatment in place these initial tests are being highly anticipated by a number of parties and could help pave the way for future breakthroughs in stem cell usage for brain trauma treatment in the coming years.
Stem Cell Potency
Much like virtually all drugs stem cells are also attributed a potency rating based upon their capabilities in being able to differentiate into various other cell times for use in treatments and other developments. Based on this primary characteristic most stem cells generally fall under the totipotent or pluripotent cell rating, though various other types can also be considered stem cells for use in modern day studies:
Totipotent – in some circles also referred to as “omnipotent”, totipotent cells have the potential to form any cell type necessary based on the inherent DNA embedded for their control processes. These cells are generally found in newly formed eggs and form the basis for both embryonic and extra-embryonic development.
Pluripotent – Cells derived directly from the initial totipotent cells, these cells also hold the potential to form virtually all cell structures before they have differentiated into specialized systems.
Multipotent – The next stage following pluripotent cells, multipotent cells can form a variety of different cellular structures however are generally limited to closely related cell systems due to their partial differentiation.
Oligopotent – Highly limited in their flexibility of use, oligopotent stem cells can only be used in very similar, closely related systems that will have limited differences from their initially intended system.
Unipotent – Highly differentiated, unipotent stem cells maintain the ability to only form one particular type of cell, however unlike other cells that do not fall under the stem cell range (such as muscle cells) these cells have the ability to self-replicate and develop renewing tissues or other systems.
The primary difference separating each of these classifications of stem cells from other non-stem cells found within a body is the fact that each of these cells has the ability to repair or regenerate tissues and system components that other cell types cannot. Depending on the actual stage in terms of levels of differentiation the cells have gone through, however, the actual usefulness of each particular stem cell can be either great or highly limited and severely affect its viability as a treatment cell in terms of medical application. Nevertheless each form of stem cells is being studied and explored in order to develop various different treatments and cures for diseases as well as explore useful applications of adult stem cells that can be harvested and used with limited ethical concern that affects most fetal stem cell usage today.