In stem cell transplants, stem cells replace cells damaged by chemotherapy or disease, or serve as a way for the donor's immune system to fight some types of cancer and blood-related diseases, such as leukemia, lymphoma, neuroblastoma, and multiple myeloma. . These transplants use adult stem cells or cord blood. Stem cells have the potential to treat a wide range of diseases.
Find out here why these cells are such a powerful tool for treating diseases and what obstacles experts face before new therapies reach patients. Arthritis is an inflammatory condition that affects our joints.
Stem cell therapy
can help repair damaged articular cartilage and reduce inflammation that occurs in and around the joint. Stem cells can help replace missing or damaged beta cells, special cells in the pancreas that produce insulin.Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes involve problems with beta cells (either there are not enough beta cells or they don't work properly). Stem cell therapy may be useful in patients with either type. Stem cells can be very useful in modulating inflammatory responses, including inflammation thought to be associated with fibromyalgia. They can also help repair and regenerate damaged nerve cells that may “fail”, sending pain signals when there are no painful stimuli.
Because stem cells have the ability to transform into many other types of cells, including kidney tissue, they are used to treat acute and chronic kidney injury and kidney disease. The goal is to replace damaged cells and cells that have already been lost due to tissue damage. Stem cells are a type of cell that can develop in different ways to form every organ in the body, from bones, kidneys, and liver to blood and brain. Specialized types of stem cells have the ability to stop immune responses.
Therefore, stem cells can be very useful as therapy for diseases in which organs are damaged or where the immune system is too active. Some types of stem cells are already used for therapy, such as hematopoietic (blood) stem cells, which are used to treat bone marrow cancer. The use of other types of stem cells is currently being studied in the laboratory and in experimental therapies. Researchers are trying to find the best way to give stem cells to patients, where do cells go in the body and how long they survive in the patient.
We hope that many more stem cell therapies will be available in the future. In each case, the goal of treatment is to allow stem cells to repair and replace damaged heart tissue and blood vessels. Scientists are exploring the different roles that tissue-specific stem cells could play in healing, with the understanding that these stem cells have specific and limited capacities. Once a researcher has a mature cell type on a laboratory plate, the next step is to find out if those cells can function in the body.
However, treatments with unproven stem cells can be unsafe, so be aware of all the facts if you are considering treatment. Stem cells isolated from IVF embryos will have a genetic makeup that does not match that of the person receiving the transplant. We can do this by removing some bone marrow or some adipose tissue through a small operation and then isolating the mesenchymal stem cells from these tissues. If the cornea is severely damaged, for example, by a chemical burn, limbal stem cells can be taken from the patient, multiplied in the laboratory, and transplanted back into the patient's damaged eye (s) to restore eyesight.
You will be surprised to know their statistics and the possibilities of therapeutic drugs with stem cells. European researchers genetically manipulated narrow bone cells taken from a two- and seven-year-old boy and then transplanted the altered cells back into the child and apparently stopped the progress of a deadly brain disease. A number of life-threatening diseases, such as sickle cell disease and malignancies, have been approved for stem cell treatment. Cardiac regeneration using stem cell therapy is used to help patients who have had heart attacks, patients with heart failure, and even patients with large and small vessel disease.
Your best protection against clinics selling unproven stem cell treatments is to understand the science behind your illness, injury, or condition. The only type of stem cell that is widely used today in hospitals as therapy is hematopoietic (or blood) stem cells. Its potential is evident in the use of blood stem cells to treat blood diseases, a therapy that has saved the lives of thousands of children with leukemia; and can be seen in the use of stem cells for tissue grafts to treat diseases or injuries to the bones, skin and surface of the eye. Clinics selling unproven stem cell treatments often exaggerate the benefits of their offerings and use patient testimonials to support their claims.
The information on this page is intended to help you understand both the potential and limitations of stem cells at this time, and to help you spot some of the misinformation widely circulated by clinics offering unproven treatments. . .
