Stem Cell Research and Therapy
Researchers are studying stem cells to see if they can help to: Increase understanding of how diseases occur. By watching stem cells mature into cells in bones, heart muscle, nerves, and other organs and tissue, researchers may better understand how diseases and conditions develop.
Cell therapy is a modern approach in the treatment of most of the diseases which uses stem cells and it has been recently developed rapidly. Cell therapy has shown satisfactory results in this way.
Stem cells are the only cells in your body that make different cell types, like blood, bone and muscle cells. They also repair damaged tissue. Now, stem cells are essential blood cancer and blood disorder treatments. Medical researchers believe stem cells also have the potential to treat many other diseases.
If your body were a building, your stem cells would be the foundation. Stem cells are the only cells in your body that can create specialized cells. They can make more than 200 specialized cells, such as blood and bone cells, among the trillions of cells in your body. One stem cell type builds your body. After building your body, another stem cell type serves as maintenance crew teams assigned to specific structures.
Right now, healthcare providers use stem cells’ special qualities to treat blood cancer and blood disorders. Medical researchers are still learning how stem cells work and how stem cell therapies can treat or possibly cure diseases.
Healthcare providers may classify stem cell types by the cells’ source or the cells’ function. Most people probably are more familiar with stem cell classification by source:
- Embryonic (pluripotent) stem cells.These cells have the power to become any cell type. (“Pluri” means many. “Potent” comes from the Latin word for posse, or being powerful.) Medical researchers obtain embryonic stem cells from donated cord blood or embryos developed during in vitro fertilization.
- Tissue-specific (multipotent or unipotent) stem cells.These cells can make new stem cells, but only for the tissue in which they live. For example, blood-forming stem cells in your bone marrow can make new blood cells and platelets. But they can’t make new lung or liver stem cells. Researchers obtain stem cells from donated tissue.
- Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). These are lab-made stem cells that resemble and act like embryonic stem cells. Medical researchers use these cells to study how tissues develop and how disease affects tissue, and to test new drugs and treatments.
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a neurodevelopmental condition affecting the muscle function and mobility of many children that has limited curative treatment options, with most only focusing on alleviating the present symptoms and increasing the lifespan and quality-of-life of such individuals. Stem Cell Treatment however offers hope, with studies showing stem cell therapy can slow or reverse core symptoms of SMA.
Stem cell therapy is an experimental procedure being studied in MS (Multiple Sclerosis ) as a way to “reset” the immune system so that it is less likely to attack myelin.
Spastic paraplegia type 7 is a rare and classical monogenic inherited neurodegenerative disease caused by heterozygous mutations in the SPG7 gene. The principle clinical features include progressive spasms of the lower limbs, scissor gait, and muscle weakness. The disease currently has no effective treatment. In this study, we obtained dermal fibroblasts from a patient, which were successfully transformed into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) by employing reprogramming plasmids expressing OCT3/4, SOX2, KLF4, LIN28, and L-MYC. Our method provides a resource for mechanism exploration, drug research, cell transplantation, and gene therapy (Stem Cell Research ,Volume 56, October 2021)
Muscular dystrophies are a heterogeneous group of genetic diseases, characterized by progressive degeneration of skeletal and cardiac muscle. Despite the intense investigation of different therapeutic options, a definitive treatment has not been developed for this debilitating class of pathologies. Cell-based therapies in muscular dystrophies have been pursued experimentally for the last three decades. Several cell types with different characteristics and tissues of origin, including myogenic stem and progenitor cells, stromal cells, and pluripotent stem cells, have been investigated over the years and have recently entered in the clinical arena with mixed results.
Stem cell therapy is the transplantation of stem cells into patients, using either their own cells or those of a donor. This therapy has the potential to benefit people with muscle wasting conditions, as it could encourage the growth of new muscle fibres in damaged muscle.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic joint disease that generally occurs worldwide with pain and disability. The progression is slow, and it is mostly diagnosed midlife and often disturbs the knees, hips, feet, hands, and spine. Sex, age, obesity, occupation, and hereditary factors are risk factors that increase the opportunity for OA. Physical examinations involving X-rays and MRI, joint fluid analysis and blood tests are common tools for the diagnosis of OA. Interventions including exercise, manual therapy, lifestyle modification, and medication can help relieve pain and maintain mobility in the affected joints, yet none of the therapies enables the promotion of regeneration of degenerated tissues. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a promising source for the treatment of OA due to their multipotency for differentiation into chondrocytes and their ability to modulate the immune system. Herein, we review the pathogenesis and treatment of OA and address the current status of MSCs as a novel potential therapeutic agent in OA treatment. (Am J Transl Res. 2021; 13(2): 448–461)