Stem Cell Therapy – Benefits and Risks

Stem cell therapy is a widely discussed and researched topic today. The ability of stem cells to replace damaged cells opens up a wide range of options for its application in the healthcare sector. Even though most of the treatments are still in an experimental state. In this article, we will try and understand the benefits and risks involved in stem cell therapy.

In order to further understand the topic, one must understand what stem cells are and how are they able to provide such unique features that could potentially bring about a revolution in the medical sector around the world.

Stem Cells are peculiar cells in the human body that have the ability to develop into many different cell types. Stem cells have the ability to develop into muscle, brain, nerve and many other cell types. This unique property of stem cells makes it highly useful in treating conditions that are caused due to damaged or absent tissues. Stem cells unique quality to repair and regenerate makes it extremely useful in controlling diseases caused due to cell degradation. When a stem cell is divided, the new cell formed has the ability to remain a stem cell or form into a specific tissue cell.

A clear distinction between stem cells and normal cells exist mainly because of two facts:

Non-Specific stem cells have the ability to continuously regenerate and multiply even after long periods of inactivity.

Under certain natural or experimental conditions, these cells can be induced to form tissue or organ-specific cells with the ability to perform particular functions.

In certain organs such as the bone marrow and gut, stem cells are known to be in charge of the regeneration and repair of the damaged cells caused due to wear and tear or accidents. In some special cases stem cells also performs the function of regeneration in organs like the pancreas and heart. These conditions are however very rare and no solid study has been done to identify the exact conditions under which such regeneration happen.

The main source for stem cells are from blastocysts, it is formed when the embryo undergoes the process of proliferation and specialization from the fertilized eggs.

Stem cells are still being researched widely around the world. As of now, there are mainly 2 different types of stem cells namely Embryonic stem cells and Adult stem cells.

Embryonic stem cells are produced from embryos that are formed via in-vitro fertilization, the embryo from a womans body is not used to extract stem cells. There is an organized process that is followed to obtain embryonic stem cells.

Human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESCs) are developed by moving cells from preimplantation embryo state to a lab culture medium. A layer of mouse cells is added to the bottom layer of the culture, enabling the embryo to attach itself. In recent experiments scientists have devised a method to culture embryonic stem cells without the help of mouse cell, curtailing the problem of possible infection.

Embryonic stem cells are different in many aspects, it has the ability to regenerate and replicate into other stem cells and also other specific organ or tissue cells. This pluripotent nature of stem cells makes it extremely valuable in the treatment of a range of potential diseases. The embryonic stem cells are responsible for the creation of our entire human body from the moment of fertilization.

Also known as somatic stem cells, these are the stem cells you find in fully developed organs of a human being. These stem cells are usually undifferentiated and induce only to the type of cell the particular organ requires. Somatic stem cells perform the vital task of regeneration and repair of the organ cells they are a part of.

Adult stem cells are being researched for more than 60 years, these studies show that these cells have the ability to function even when transferred to a different host body. These exciting results have encouraged scientists worldwide to further research the topic.

Adult stem cells found in the bone marrow is called hematopoietic stem cells has the ability to form all types of blood cells in the body. It is one of the most widely used stem cells for a varying range of treatments for diseases like cancer, diabetes, and arthritis.

Induced pluripotent cells refer to the kind of stem cells that are basically adult cells, but have been genetically modified to function as pluripotent embryonic stem cells. This process is done in a laboratory under strict supervision. The process was first successful while working with mouse stem cells and even human iPSC (induced pluripotent stem cells) are capable of being utilized for research purposes.

Induced pluripotent stem cells are widely used for disease modeling, the customizable nature of the cells make it possible for scientists to study the various application of stem cells with controlled variables. This has helped a lot in the advancement of stem cell research around the globe. With genetic modification, stem cells can perform specific functions tailor-made for the need at hand.

Stem cells have an innate ability to multiply and regenerate making it highly useful in the medical field. Even Though deeper research is required to unlock the true potential of stem cells, its safe to say that there are some treatment methods that are highly efficient while using stem cells.

Stem cell therapy is basically the use of stem cells to solve the issues in the human body that are caused due to cell degeneration or malfunction. One of the most widely accepted stem cell therapy is the use of blood-forming stem cells in the bone marrow to replace the ones that are not functioning. This treatment method has shown promising results in patients suffering from blood cancer. The hematopoietic stem cells used in the process are adult cells with a specific function of producing blood.

The scope of stem cell therapy keeps growing with the advances in the research. The method can be used in treating terminal conditions that arise due to cellular malfunction. Stem cells ability to generate and multiply into specific organ cells also showed great promise in the field of organ donations and transplant. The need for organ transplants is always higher than the number of transplant organs available. Stem cell regeneration can solve this issue by producing specific tissue for the organ in need.

Stem cells therapy is basically a transplant process, involving almost the same amount of risk. The stem cell transplant process starts with the modification of embryonic stem cells into adult cell types to perform a specific function.

These modified cells are then transplanted into the damaged tissue or organ replacing the damaged ones. The stem cells ability to repair and regenerate makes the healing process of the particular organ faster.

There are many other experimental stem cell therapies that use various types of embryonic and pluripotent stem cells to treat some specific diseases. The ability of stem cells to regenerate offers multiple avenues of applications. Birth effect diseases are usually caused due to malfunctions in specific organ or tissue cells, making stem cells highly effective for the treatment.

Stem cell therapy can be used to treat a wide variety of diseases. In broad classification, we can specify particular classes of diseases that can be treated using stem cells.

Diseases caused due to neuron damage due to spinal cord injuries, in some cases neuron damage induced due to medical conditions such as Parkinsons disease, Alzheimers or stroke can also be treated.

Repair organ functions caused due to diseases, for example, stem cells could be used to produce insulin that could help people suffering from pancreatic disorders such as diabetes. Also can be used in treating heart muscle cells damaged due to stroke or attack.

Treat virtually any disease or condition caused due to tissue or organ damage. Including arthritis.

Research has also shown promises for stem cell therapy in treating birth defects such as a cleft tongue or lips.

Stem cell therapy unlike many other treatment methods available today come with a fairly high share of benefits. The stem cells are not foreign bodies that are introduced into the system like antibiotics. There are no cases where stem cells itself can cause side-effects.

Stem cells transplant function just like any other organ transplant excluding the fact that the organ tissues are made in a laboratory. However, stem cells have the ability to repair and regenerate which makes it highly beneficial for them to heal highly damaged organs with its self-repairing qualities.

With sufficient funding and support, stem cell therapy research could be advanced to produce a possibly cheaper and effective alternative to all the organ transplant needs around the globe.

Stem cells ability to form into muscle cells can be utilized in performing transplant surgeries aimed at healing muscle cells that could potentially reverse paralysis in patients with spinal muscular injuries.

The uses or medication post the stem cell transplant surgery is fairly low, pertaining to just anti-rejection medications, however, there are certain risks that are involved while undergoing stem cell therapy that we should be aware of.

Stem cells are a great innovation to the medical field today. The benefits of the possible application of this treatment method are manifold. However, there are certain risks that are associated with stem cell therapy.

Stem cells are produced in a lab, earlier methods included providing a base layer cell from mouse cells that could have caused possible infections and mutation in the stem cells. However advanced methods today has eliminated the use of mouse cells as feeder cells to avoid any complications.

However, the fact that stem cells are still produced in a laboratory opens up a chance of possible infection in the cells, that could multiply into an entire infected organ or tissue that could prove fatal to the patient.

Stem cell research is still in its initial stages, the treatments methods involving stem cells are not all clear for use. There is still some experimental aspect to any treatment involving stem cells. In the case of induced pluripotent stem cells, the genetic modification of the cells can cause reactions that were not present before.

A lot of fake practitioners may lure you by telling about the revolutionary benefits of stem cell therapy. Please ensure that you do not fall into these traps. Not all stem cell therapy has been approved as safe for wide public use. There are many factors that are to be still studied and verified before stem cell therapy is made widely available.

The use of approved stem cell therapy is applicable to only a handful of diseases including bone marrow cancer, using hematopoietic stem cells to ensure the continued production of blood, diabetes type 1 to produce insulin-producing organ tissues and for some cases of corneal and bone graft transplants.

Recent studies have also shown promises for stem cell therapy in spinal muscular regeneration and repair, however, every form of stem cell therapies other than the ones said in the above paragraph are to be deemed experimentative.

We can always count on stem cell therapy once every other treatment method fails, but up until that point its highly advisable to stay away from these experimenting therapies to keep yourself safe from being subjected to unwarranted side effects.

-12th December 2018

The Global Stem Cell Therapy Market is reported to grow at a 10.52% between the span of 2018 to 2022, which will also help benefit many people. However, initially, the problem that as pulling the growth of this market was the cost pertaining to stem cell therapy.

Stem cells therapy treatment has been gaining a lot of awareness worldwide and with more and more advances made in this field, its demand has been on the rise and will witness a huge growth in coming years. The report concluded by stating that the major problem affecting stem cell therapy is the high cost that is involved in it and this poses a critical challenge to its growth.

Read this article:

Stem Cell Therapy - Benefits and Risks