Stem Cells Treatment in India

Stem cells have crossed a long, mysterious journey from working 24/7 behind the curtains, to being new superheroes of medical science. A couple of decades ago, when the science of medicine was facing a bad time, without any definitive cure for variety of diseases, due to which the entire mankind was suffering; scientists could discover the power of stem cells and regenerative medicine. Although, the exact usage as well as implementation of these cells were ascertained sometime later; the concept definitely ignited a spark of hope and cure, in minds of millions of people, who were praying for the cure.

Although, stem cells treatments are just emerging as the latest ‘quick fix’ of variety of problems, ranging from skin disease to anti-ageing treatments; the concept of regenerating body parts is not new. The capacity of living animals to regenerate has in fact been noted by Aristotle, as early as 330 BC; when he could analyse that lizard, upon accidental loss of its tail, can grow it back. Since then, there have been continuous efforts and indications, supporting the fact that it does exist since the beginning, but their importance and potential has been estimated very recently.

Stem cells are the naïve, unspecialized cells of living bodies, which come into play, upon formation of a zygote. Since then, these cells undergo multiple cellular divisions to form an entirely new individual inside, the mother’s womb. These stem cells have been gifted with the capacity to divide unlimited time and can still retain their number. Moreover, their strong regeneration power can mould them into any tissue specific cell, subjected to the differentiation pathways, these cells are being involved. This reparative power of stem cells has been identified as the key towards offering cell based therapies to many degenerative diseases.

Based on their origin and characteristics, these stem cells are primarily classified into totipotent, pluripotent and multipotent stem cells; totipotent being the most potent can give rise to any or all cells of the body, and multipotent cells are limited to only formation of cells from limited lineages. Based on the sources of origin, these stem cells can be further distinguished into embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. Former can be isolated from aborted embryos with higher differentiation capacity, but have been less accepted due to ethical constraints and risks. Whereas the later have got maximum acceptance, due to their ease of isolation, availability and ethical exemption.

These adult stem cells are found to be located in a suitable niche of every adult tissue of human body and help in maintaining tissue homeostasis, repair and regeneration. Depending upon their origin of extraction, these cells are further classified into hematopoietic stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells. It is quite interesting to understand that hematopoietic stem cells are obtained from blood sources, like bone marrow, peripheral blood, etc. and are important for the replacement and formation of the entire lineage of blood cells, like red blood cell, white blood cell, etc. The mesenchymal stem cells are obtained from other tissues, like adipose tissue, skin tissue, limbus tissue, etc. and are potential to give rise to all the cells of mesodermal lineage.

These stem cells are thus being highly explored for variety of applications in treatment modules, of chronic debilitating diseases; which have so far been spared by the conventional medicine. Moreover, the overwhelming success of bench work, animal studies and global clinical studies have confirmed them to be the most advanced alternative that can come up with effective therapeutic outcome.