Stem Cell Treatment Cure for Degenerative Disorders
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.
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.
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