Stem Cell Treatments

Stem Cell Treatments

Stem cell therapies involve the introduction of new cells into damaged tissue to address disease or injury. Many medical experts believe that these treatments hold immense potential to revolutionize the treatment of human diseases and alleviate suffering.

The unique ability of stem cells to self-renew and generate subsequent generations with varying degrees of differentiation offers significant promise for generating tissues that can potentially replace diseased or damaged areas in the body, with minimal risk of rejection and adverse effects.

While several stem cell therapies are in development, most are still in experimental stages or come with high costs, with bone marrow transplantation being a notable exception. Researchers anticipate that both adult and embryonic stem cells will soon be able to address a range of conditions including cancer, Type 1 diabetes mellitus, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, Celiac Disease, cardiac failure, muscle damage, neurological disorders, and more.

However, further research is needed to understand how stem cells behave after transplantation and their interaction with the diseased or injured microenvironment before these therapeutics can be widely applied in clinical settings.

For over three decades, bone marrow transplantation, and more recently, umbilical cord blood stem cells, have been employed to treat cancer patients with conditions like leukemia and lymphoma. Traditional chemotherapy kills most actively dividing cells, including both cancerous and healthy hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow. Stem cell transplants aim to address this side effect by reintroducing functional stem cells from a donor's healthy bone marrow to replace those lost during treatment in the recipient's body.