INTRODUCTION:
Stem cells or undifferentiated cells are found in all multicellular organisms or living things. They have the ability to renew themselves through mitotic cell division into other specialized cell types such as blood cells, skin cells, or intestinal tissues. Stem cells can now be developed and transmuted into specified cell types that are consistent with cells of different tissues for example, nerve or muscle cells through cell culture.
TWO BROAD TYPES OF MAMMALIAN STEM CELLS:
There are two main types of mammalian stem cells;
1. Embryonic stem cells: these cells are isolated from the inner cell mass of blastocysts (is the blastula of a placental mammal in which some differentiation of cells has occurred). During development of embryo undifferentiated cells can be differentiated into all of the specified cells. It also upholds the normal revenue of re-forming organs like skin, blood, and intestinal tissues. Through therapeutic cloning embryonic cell lines and autologous embryonic stem cells have been generated for future medical therapies.
2. Adult stem cells: these cells are found in various tissues. Stem cells and progenitor cells (is a biological cell that, like a stem cell, has a tendency to differentiate into a specific type of cell, but is already more specific than a stem cell and is pushed to differentiate into its "target" cell) in adult cells act as a repair system for the body. In medical therapies, plastic adult stem cells from different sources like umbilical cord blood, and bone marrow are consistently used.
WHAT IS STEM CELL THERAPY?
Stem cell therapy has been the buzz word over recent years. Stem cell therapy is defined as the therapy that can provide both relief and hope to those patients that are diagnosed with nervous disorders. As we know that, neurological diseases (Structural, biochemical or electrical abnormalities in the brain or spinal cord, or in the nerves leading to or from them, can result in symptoms such as paralysis, muscle weakness, poor coordination, loss of sensation, seizures, confusion, pain and altered levels of consciousness) and nervous disorders are very difficult to handle. For the treatment of such subtle diseases stem cell therapy has introduced. Stem cell therapy is an intervention strategy that inserts new specialized cells into damaged tissues in order to find the cure for the disease or treat disease or injury.
Most of the medical researchers consider that stem cell therapies have the prospective to modify the face of human disease because stem cells have the ability to renew themselves into subsequent generations.
There are numerous stem cell therapeutics exist in medical sciences. Adult and embryonic stem cells therapies will soon be able to treat;
• Cardiac failure (is generally defined as inability of the heart to supply sufficient blood flow to meet the body's needs. Several clinical trials targeting heart disease have shown that adult stem cell therapy is safe, effective, and equally efficient in treating old and recent infarcts),
• Cancer (Research injecting neural (adult) stem cells into the brains of dogs has shown to be very successful in treating cancerous tumors),
• Celiac disease (is an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine that occurs in genetically predisposed people of all ages from middle infancy onward),
• Type 1 diabetes mellitus (is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced. Human embryonic stem cells may be grown in cell culture and stimulated to form insulin-producing cells that can be transplanted into the patient),
• Huntington's disease (is a neurodegenerative genetic disorder that affects muscle coordination and leads to cognitive decline and dementia),
• Parkinson's disease (is a progressive degenerative disorder of the central nervous system),
• Neurological disorders,
• Muscle damaged
• Spinal cord injury
• Baldness (hair follicles also contain stem cells, and some researchers predict research on these follicle stem cells may lead to successes in treating baldness through an activation of the stem cells progenitor cells),
• Deafness (Heller has reported success in re-growing cochlea hair cells with the use of embryonic stem cells),
• Blindness and vision impairment (using embryonic stem cells, scientists are able to grow a thin sheet of totipotent stem cells in the laboratory) and
• Many other diseases.
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