Stem cells can give rise to any tissue found in the body and, as a result, can provide nearly limitless potential for medical applications (regenerative medicine). Current studies are researching how stem cells may be used to prevent or cure diseases and injuries such as Parkinson's disease, type 1 diabetes, heart disease, spinal cord injury, muscular dystrophy, Alzheimer's disease, strokes, burns, osteoarthritis, vision and hearing loss. Stem cells could also be used to replace or repair tissue damaged by disease or injury.
The two broad types of mammalian stem cells are: embryonic stem cells that are isolated from the inner cell mass of blastocysts, and adult stem cell that are found in adult tissues. In a developing embryo, stem cells can differentiate into all of the specialized embryonic tissues. In adult organisms, stem cells and progenitor cells act as a repair system for the body, replenishing specialized cells, but also maintain the normal turnover of regenerative organs, such as blood, skin, or intestinal tissues.
Stem cells can now be grown and transformed into specialized cells with characteristics consistent with cells of various tissues such as muscles or nerves through cell culture. Highly plastic adult stem cells from a variety of sources, including umbilical cord blood and bone marrow, are routinely used in medical therapies. Embryonic cdell lines and autologous embryonic stem cells generated through therapeutic cloning have also been proposed as promising candidates for future therapies.
Stem Cell Research Development Areas:
- 'Living' cartilage grown using stem cells could prevent hip replacement surgery: Researchers describe how it may be possible to use a patient's own stem cells and a 3-D, synthetic scaffold to grow new hip joint-shaped cartilage.
- Lou Gehrig's Safety of stem cell treatment investigated: Stem cell research may offer a glimmer of hope for the future treatment of Lou Gehrig’s disease. A new study examines its safety in humans.
- New MS treatment shows promise, but experts urge caution: A new way of combining chemo- and stem-cell therapy benefits 23 out of 24 patients with multiple sclerosis, but it entails a risk of serious complications.
- Stroke patients able to walk again after stem cell transplant: Stem cell transplantation restored the motor function of stroke patients in a new clinical trial, with some patients even regaining the ability to walk.
- Tissue regeneration may be easier with new blood vessel method: A new method using patient-derived 3-D scaffolds should make it easier to grow blood vessels that integrate lab-grown organs and tissue into patients.
- Stem cell technique predicts patients likely to have severe chemo reaction: Study shows heart cells generated from a patient's own skin-derived stem cells can predict if they are likely to suffer severe heart muscle damage from a common chemotherapy drug. Around 8% of patients treated with the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin develop cardiotoxicity, where the heart muscles become damaged.
- Insulin-producing cells grown in lab control glucose spikes in diabetic mice: Researchers have found a switch that spurs beta cells made from human stem cells to mature to a state where they release insulin in response to glucose spikes.
- Platelet production on large scale steps closer with new stem cell method: By reprogramming stem cells into platelet precursors faster and more efficiently than ever before, researchers take a key step toward mass production of platelets for transfusion.
