The idea of a miracle cure and bodies healing themselves holds a particular fascination. Stem cell research brings regenerative medicine a step closer, but many of the ideas and concepts remain controversial. So what are stem cells, and why are they so important?
Stem cells are a type of cell that can develop into many other types of cell. Stem cells can also renew themselves by dividing, even after they have been inactive for a long time.
The human body requires many different types of cell to function, but it does not produce each cell type fully formed and ready to use. Instead, it produces stem cells that have a wide range of possible functions. However, stem cells need to become a specific cell type to be useful.
When a stem cell divides, the new cells may either become another stem cell or a specific cell, such as a blood cell, a brain cell, or a muscle cell.
Scientists call a stem cell an undifferentiated cell because it can become any cell. In contrast, a blood cell, for example, is a differentiated cell, because it is already a specific kind of cell.
In some tissues, stem cells play an essential role in regeneration, as they can divide easily to replace dead cells.
Scientists believe that knowing how stem cells work may lead to possible treatments for conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease.
For instance, if someones heart contains damaged tissue, doctors might be able to stimulate healthy tissue to grow by transplanting laboratory-grown stem cells into the persons heart. This could cause the heart tissue to renew itself.
Researchers on a small-scale study published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Translational Research tested this method.
The results showed a 40 percent reduction of the size of scarred heart tissue caused by heart attacks when doctors transplanted stem cells to the damaged area.
Doctors have always considered this kind of scarring permanent and untreatable.
However, this small study involved only 11 participants. This makes it difficult to tell whether the improvement in heart function resulted from the transplantation of stem cells or whether it was due to something else.
For example, all of the transplants took place while the individuals were undergoing heart bypass surgery, so it is possible that the improvement in heart function was due to the bypass rather than the stem cell treatment.
To investigate further, the researchers plan to do another study. This study will include a control group of people with heart failure who undergo bypass surgery but who do not receive the stem cell treatment.
Another investigation, published in Nature Communications in 2016, has suggested that stem cell therapies could be the basis of personalized diabetes treatment.
In mice and laboratory-grown cultures, researchers successfully produced insulin-secreting cells from stem cells derived from the skin of people with type 1 diabetes.
Jeffrey R. Millman, assistant professor of medicine and biomedical engineering at Washington University School of Medicine and first author, says:
In theory, if we could replace the damaged cells in these individuals with new pancreatic beta cells whose primary function is to store and release insulin to control blood glucose patients with type 1 diabetes wouldnt need insulin shots anymore.
Jeffrey R. Millman
Millman hopes that these stem cell-derived beta cells could be ready for research in humans within 3 to 5 years.
What were envisioning is an outpatient procedure in which some sort of device filled with the cells would be placed just beneath the skin, he said.
Stem cells could have vast potential in developing new therapies.
One way that scientists use stem cells at the moment is in developing and testing new drugs.
The type of stem cells that scientists commonly use for this purpose are called induced pluripotent stem cells.
These are cells that have already undergone differentiation, but which scientists have genetically reprogrammed using viruses, so they can divide and become any cell. In this way, they act like undifferentiated stem cells.
Scientists can grow differentiated cells from these pluripotent stem cells to resemble, for instance, cancer cells. Creating these cells means that scientists can use them to test anti-cancer drugs.
Researchers are already making a wide variety of cancer cells using this method. However, because they cannot yet create cells that mimic cancer cells in a controlled way, it is not always possible to replicate the results precisely.
In recent years, clinics have opened that provide stem cell treatments.
A 2016 study published in Cell Stem Cell counted 570 of these clinics in the United States alone. They offer stem cell-based therapies for disorders ranging from sports injuries to cancer.
However, stem cell therapies are still mostly theoretical rather than evidence-based.
Very few stem cell treatments have even reached the earliest phase of a clinical trial. Scientists are carrying out most of the current research in mice or a petri dish.
Despite this, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allow clinics to inject people with their own stem cells, as long as the cells are intended to perform only their normal function, according to Cell Stem Cell.
Scientists can harvest stem cells in different ways.
Embryonic stem cells come from an embryo that is just a few days old.
Scientists can extract adult stem cells from different types of tissue, including the brain, bone marrow, blood vessels, skeletal muscle, skin, teeth, the gut, the liver, among others.
Amniotic fluid contains stem cells. Many women opt for an amniocentesis test that checks for congenital disabilities before the child is born. If the doctor keeps the fluid, they could use it in the future to treat other conditions either during gestation or after birth.
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) are cells that scientists can reprogram to act as stem cells, for use in regenerative medicine.
After collecting the stem cells, scientists usually store them in liquid nitrogen for future use.
Historically, the use of stem cells in medical research has been controversial.
This is because when the therapeutic use of stem cells first came to the publics attention in the late 1990s, scientists were deriving human stem cells from embryos.
Many people disagree with using human embryonic cells for medical research because extracting the stem means destroying the embryo.
This creates complex issues, as people have different beliefs about what constitutes the start of human life.
For some people, life starts when a baby is born, or when an embryo develops into a fetus. Others believe that human life begins at conception, so an embryo has the same moral status and rights as a human adult or child.
President George W. Bush had strong, pro-life religious views, and he banned funding for human stem cell research in 2001.
However, President Obamas administration allowed for a partial rolling back of these research restrictions.
However, by 2006, scientists had already started using pluripotent stem cells. Scientists do not derive these stem cells from embryonic stem cells. As a result, this technique does not have the same ethical concerns.
With this and other recent advances in stem cell technology, attitudes toward stem cell research are slowly beginning to change.
Stem cell research is helping scientists to understand how an organism develops from a single cell, and how healthy cells come to replace defective cells in people and animals.
Many severe medical conditions that occur in humans, such as cancer and congenital disabilities, happen because cells divide abnormally.
A better understanding of stem cells can provide insight into how these diseases arise and possible treatment options.
In June 2016, two researchers took second prize in the materials category of the United Kingdoms Royal Society of Chemistrys emerging technology competition for creating a synthetic biomaterial that stimulates stem cells native to a persons own teeth.
The researchers believe that this material will replace fillings, as the stem cells would prompt the damaged teeth to heal themselves.
Although much more research is necessary before stem cell therapies can become part of regular medical practice, the science around stem cells is developing all the time.
In almost every therapy area, doctors hope that stem cell technology will revolutionize therapeutic norms and introduce at least a new standard of personalized treatment, and maybe even self-healing bodies.
When that might happen, no one is quite ready to say.
Find out more here about stem cells, where they come from, and their possible uses.
Read more:
Stem cells: Therapy, controversy, and research
- 100 plus years of stem cell research20 years of ISSCR - PMC - March 26th, 2024
- Stem Cell Science and Human Research Studies Ahead of Cargo Arrival - NASA Blogs - February 18th, 2024
- Stem cell research project to launch into space - Fox Weather - January 24th, 2024
- Breakthrough in cancer research opening up stem cell therapy to more people. How you can get involved - 69News WFMZ-TV - January 20th, 2024
- Stem Cell Research Heading to the ISS on Axiom Mission 3 - ISS National Lab - January 18th, 2024
- No, Rep. Steve Scalise Didn't Vote Against Stem Cell Research From Which He Is Now Benefiting - The Dispatch - January 12th, 2024
- Applications are open for the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund - Technical.ly - January 4th, 2024
- Global Stem Cell Therapy Market to Reach USD 928.6 Million by 2031: Says Allied Market Research - Yahoo Finance - November 19th, 2023
- Current state of stem cell-based therapies: an overview - PMC - November 3rd, 2023
- Dynamic Stem Cell Therapy Uncovers Research in Advance Regenrative Medicine - Yahoo Finance - November 3rd, 2023
- Research Fellow (Aging and Cancer Stem Cell Laboratory ... - Times Higher Education - October 15th, 2023
- Qkine Collaborates with the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute to Facilitate Same-Day Access to Key Research Products for Researchers at the Cambridge... - September 27th, 2023
- Stem cells: a comprehensive review of origins and emerging clinical ... - September 25th, 2023
- Stem Cell Research and Communicating Science | GBH - GBH News - September 20th, 2023
- Stem cell research reveals the earliest stages of a human life - SBS News - September 10th, 2023
- Stem Cell Therapy Market Size 2023 | Innovative Research Methodologies with Emerging Trends and Opportuni - Benzinga - September 10th, 2023
- Autologous Stem Cell and Non-Stem Cell Based Therapies Market Research, Current Trends, Key Industry Play - Benzinga - September 8th, 2023
- Stem Cell Therapy Market 2023 Business Statistics and Research ... - The Knox Student - August 28th, 2023
- Autologous Stem Cell Based Therapies Market Analysis, Research ... - Chatfield News-Record - July 19th, 2023
- Global Stem Cell Market Projected to Reach $14 Bn by 2028: Ken Research - Yahoo Finance - July 11th, 2023
- Theradaptive Awarded Manufacturing Assistance Grant by the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund - Benzinga - July 10th, 2023
- Bionano Announces Presentation of OGM Utility Across Stem Cell Therapy Applications at the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Annual... - June 19th, 2023
- Sana Biotechnology Highlights Preclinical Data from Hypoimmune and Fusogen Platforms at the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) 2023... - June 17th, 2023
- Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPSC) Global Market Report 2023: Effective Research Programs Hold Key in Roll Out of Advanced iPSC Treatments - Yahoo... - June 17th, 2023
- Lung and heart stem cell research paves way for new COVID-19 treatments - Medical Xpress - June 14th, 2023
- Toxicology PhD student cultivating giant leaps in stem cell research ... - June 4th, 2023
- Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) - May 26th, 2023
- Findings may lead to improved insulin-secreting cells derived from stem ... - May 26th, 2023
- Cell Press: Stem Cell Reports - May 26th, 2023
- Stem cell research could enable blood to be made in other parts of the body - Medical Xpress - May 26th, 2023
- Construction of myocardial patch with mesenchymal stem cells and poly ... - May 22nd, 2023
- Cedars-Sinai to Send Stem Cells to the Space Station to Aid in the ... - May 22nd, 2023
- researchers expand human blood stem cells | Institute for Stem Cell ... - May 22nd, 2023
- A Look Inside Stem Cells Helps Create Personalized Regenerative ... - May 17th, 2023
- Exclusive Research Report on Msenchymal Stem Cell and Exosome Diagnostics and Therapies Market to Witness Comp - openPR - May 17th, 2023
- The Future of Stem Cell Research: Master of Science in ... - The Daily | Case Western Reserve University - May 10th, 2023
- Exclusive Research Report on Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetes and ... - Digital Journal - May 9th, 2023
- Aging melanocyte stem cells and gray hair | National Institutes of ... - May 5th, 2023
- Mouse hair turns gray when certain stem cells get stuck - May 5th, 2023
- Science-First Skincare Company Michal Morrison Secures Exclusive World-Wide License of Proprietary STEM6 Molecule, Supported by Over 25 Years of... - May 5th, 2023
- BioCentriq and panCELLa execute research agreement to study stem cell-derived Natural Killer cell expansi - Benzinga - May 3rd, 2023
- Hair turning gray? Study finds a stem cell 'glitch' may be the cause - May 1st, 2023
- Elevai Labs Announces Research Grant Award and Partnership to Better Characterize the 'Payload' of ELEVAI's Stem Cell-derived Exosomes - Yahoo Finance - April 27th, 2023
- Why does hair turn gray? A new study says 'stuck' stem cells may ... - NPR - April 27th, 2023
- Study advances understanding of how melanocyte stem cells work to color ... - April 21st, 2023
- Stem cell research and therapy legislation to be replaced, says ... - Bahamas Tribune - April 21st, 2023
- Stem Cell Research (journal) - Wikipedia - April 21st, 2023
- Scientists Are About to Try to Create Stem Cells in Space - April 21st, 2023
- Stem Cell Research & Therapy | Articles - BioMed Central - April 16th, 2023
- Stem Cell Junk Yards Reveal a New Clue About Aging | WIRED - April 16th, 2023
- Global Stem Cells Market Research Report 2023: Implications - April 16th, 2023
- Stem cell research can help people with hard- | EurekAlert! - April 16th, 2023
- University Of Edinburgh's stem cell research gets funding boost - India Education Diary - April 14th, 2023
- Two major stem cell research projects supported with more than ... - University of California, Santa Cruz - April 8th, 2023
- Cancer detection predicts tumors before they form: discovery - March 29th, 2023
- Stem cell therapy: a potential cure for hearing loss? - March 29th, 2023
- Turkey's Only Stem Cell Production Application and Research Center - Expat Guide Turkey - March 24th, 2023
- Stem Cell Research Article, Embryonic Cells Information, Cell Therapy ... - March 24th, 2023
- Scientists create mice with cells from 2 males for 1st time - March 19th, 2023
- QBRI concludes stem cells symposium - Gulf Times - March 17th, 2023
- 2020 California Proposition 14 - Wikipedia - March 17th, 2023
- Stem Cell Reports | Journal | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier - March 17th, 2023
- Stem cell therapy MSC-NP found to ease inflammatory activity of brain ... - March 12th, 2023
- Stem Cell Research | Office of Research Compliance | SIU - March 12th, 2023
- Heart disease study shows hope for stem cell treatment - March 4th, 2023
- Stem cells drive antler regeneration | Science - March 4th, 2023
- Stem Cell Research: Argumentative Essay - Free Essay Example - Edubirdie - March 4th, 2023
- Stem Cell Research | Thermo Fisher Scientific - US - March 4th, 2023
- Stem cell controversy - Wikipedia - February 28th, 2023
- National Institutes of Health grant funds interdisciplinary ... - February 27th, 2023
- Research Associate in Cancer Stem Cell Research job with ... - Times Higher Education - February 25th, 2023
- Pioneering Stem Cell Research Conference at The Aga Khan ... - The Aga Khan University - February 25th, 2023
- Scientists grapple with ethics of stem cell research - STAT - February 17th, 2023
- Research Associate in Stem Cell Neurobiology job with KINGS ... - Times Higher Education - January 30th, 2023
- Stem cells: past, present, and future | Stem Cell Research & Therapy ... - January 12th, 2023
- Edu Thesis & Essay: Stem cell research outline top writers online! - January 12th, 2023
- Stem Cell Biology Research Program | Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell ... - January 5th, 2023
- Stem cell population identified is vital for bone regeneration: Research - ThePrint - January 5th, 2023
- Leading scientist 'blown away' by UAE advances in stem cell research - The National - December 15th, 2022
- The Stem Cell Assay Market Is Set To Grow At A 20% Annual Rate, Due To The High Prevalence Of Chronic Diseases As Per The Business Research Company's... - December 13th, 2022
Recent Comments