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The concept of Stem Cells is more and more widely debated outside the medical circles where it started from. Stem cells are unspecialized cells that have the extraordinary capacity to develop into any kind of specialized cells necessary in the body, not to mention the fact that they have the capacity to renew themselves through division over and over again, even after being inactive for a long period of time. Thus, stem cells can contribute to damaged tissues regrowth or internal organ repair, and the most advanced research attempts touch upon nervous cell and blood regeneration.

Stem cells seem to work great for the repairs necessary to the bone marrow, but so far, stem cells have been only partly able to divide in the heart or the pancreas. There are two types of stem cells used in scientific research and medical applications: embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. The studies on embryos started back in the early 80s when mouse cells were used for lab testing. These first investigations made it possible for scientists to discover methods of collecting human stem cells that can be afterwards grown in artificial cultures.

Although a controversial issue, the use of the human embryonic stem cells in lab tests are considered by some people the only way to push medical science forward. The embryos result from in vitro fertilization projects, since only part of the embryos can get transferred and implanted in a womb. The embryos that are no longer needed for implantation in the uterus, can be passed to laboratory studies if the donor gives his/her consent. Another source of stem cells is the use of somatic cells that are reprogrammed to return to the initial unspecialized state.

The main moral concern is that of harming embryos, that are considered alive in spirit and not only in the physical form alone. While banned by president Bush in the United States, studies have once again been given the green light by the new American president Barrack Obama. Stem cells do remain the main hope of many health care providers in the fight against devastating diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer, diabetes, leukemia, heart failure and lots of others. However, the medical world is just taking the first steps towards understanding how regenerative and reparative medicine could work with the help of cell-based therapies.

Stem cell transplants are a supportive treatment adjacent to chemotherapy, since anti-Cancer drugs usually destroy the blood-formating cells in the bone marrow. Stem cell transplantation seems to be the right support for chemotherapy, and so far, thousands of people have benefited from the regenerative advantages of such transplant therapy. There are several steps that need to be taken before the stem cell transplants are possible: a donor has to be looked for, but in the absence of compatibility the patient’s own cells may be used. After collection, they will be frozen and stored until the intervention.

The stem cell transplants are injected into the patient’s bloodstream and they thus reach the bone marrow where they start producing blood cells. Normally, more than one transplant sessions are necessary, as the treatment cycles ought to follow the chemotherapy periodicity. How can Stem Cells work for blood formation? Well, these remarkable biological cellular formations can generate all the blood components, from the red cells to the white cells and platelets. The red cells carry the oxygen to all the body parts, the white cells protect the system against bacteria acting as body shields and the platelets control bleeding rate and blood clotting.

The blood and bone marrow naturally contain stem cells, but under the influence of chemotherapy drugs, they get destroyed without the possibility to regenerate without help. The stem cell transplants thus become the way to restoring the production of blood cells that would otherwise stop by lack of undifferentiated cells. Stem cell transplants are not necessary to all cancer patients. In fact, several factors indicate whether the treatment is suitable for the patient or not, and here we can count the stage of the disease, its intensity, the patient’s responsiveness to the treatment and the overall physical condition.

In the past, only younger patients were chosen for stem cell transplants, but at present, age is no longer such a relevant criterion. What does indeed matter is the health of the internal organs such as kidneys, heart and lungs as well as the performance status in the cancer therapy. There are several types of stem cell transplants but only a few of them have reached a notorious status. And these include bone marrow transplants, peripheral stem cell blood transplants or cord blood transplants. There are other more scientific ways of separating stem cell transplants into further categories but they usually serve more for research purposes.

Stem cell transplantation is a necessity for many Cancer patients who undergo a very intense chemotherapy treatment. The drugs used for tumor reduction affect body cellular groups with a rapid growth rate, and blood cells are among the first to fall victim to the chemical impact. The problem comes from the fact that an anti-cancer treatment triggers the blood’s incapacity to regenerate. If the personal Stem Cells are destroyed only a stem cell transplantation could save one by the regeneration of the blood. To put it in other words, stem cells will be able to evolve into specialized blood cells with their various functions: white cells, red cells and platelets.

Bone marrow transplant represents the most basic form of stem cell transplantation, and the practice of this treatment has brought numerous successes. A donor is most of the time necessary to provide the right amount of biological material to support the chemotherapy treatment of a cancer patient. If this is not possible, doctors will perform a stem cell collection from the patient’s own bone marrow, before the beginning of chemotherapy. The stem cells will be frozen and stored until the intervention.

The use of the umbilical cord blood and of peripheral blood represent the alternatives to stem cell transplantation from bone marrow. Nevertheless, such procedures have just started being put into practice since they usually require modern technologies and special equipment. Hence, the bone marrow transplant remains the well-known kind of stem cell transplantation in the world. It enjoys a high rate of success, even if it often requires several transplants before complete blood regeneration. Normally, there will be a stem cell transplantation for every intensive chemotherapy session.

It is important that the doctor, the patient and his/her family as well as the donor be informed about the risks, the success rate, the advantages and the inconveniences of a stem cell transplantation. Risks, health threats, discomforts, pain, all have to be known or explained in advance. This is why the doctor has the obligation to inform the people involved and discuss possibilities as well as methods that work for the benefit of all, so that the result of the transplantation be a successful one.

A stem cell transplant is a medical procedure consisting of the transfer of Stem Cells into the system of a Cancer patient who is undergoing chemotherapy. The drugs used for the reduction of tumors damage the blood generation cells as well. Therefore, depending on the intensity of the cancer treatment and the chemotherapy cycles, doctors often recommend and perform a periodical stem cell transplant. There are many cases when stem cell transplant is not necessary or possible. But the course of action is usually established by one doctor or a team of experts after analyzing the patient’s condition, the chemotherapy sessions and the responsiveness to the treatment.

Finding the right donor is the next challenge for stem cell transplant; in case no match is available, the patient’s individual stem cells will be used. The collection procedure for individual transfers will only be possible prior to the administration of the chemotherapy high-dose treatment. Until usage, the stem cells will be stored frozen. In case a donor is needed, then the collection of the stem cells is performed just prior to the intervention. The variant of donor transplant is considered preferable given the chance of getting an immunity response at the patient’s individual cells.

While in the past, the stem cell transplant could only be performed by using tissue samples from the bone marrow, things have changed a bit in the meantime. Such a procedure used to be pretty dreaded because of the pain and discomfort associated with it. Yet, medical advancement has made it possible to extract the stem cells necessary for the stem cell transplant from the patient’s or donor’s peripheral blood. It is true that for the moment, bone marrow transplants are more used or common, but the one relying on peripheral blood is gaining territory and will impose itself eventually.

The stem cell transplant may also be performed with umbilical cord blood, but since the number of stem cells extracted from the umbilical cord is low, the procedure is definitely not so common. Recent discoveries have also proved that umbilical cord stem cells from more patients be combined and used to suit a specific medical condition. And finally, an even more rare or unusual case of stem cell transplant is that from an identical twin, in which case the compatibility is expected to be very high.

Stem cell therapy has grown from the huge potential identified in some body cells to develop specific functions depending on the tissue or organ where they are located. The transformation of Stem Cells into body functional cells is known as specialization or differentiation, and it represents the main characteristic on which all stem cell therapy is based. Most of the time, stem cell transplantation serves for regenerative medicine in the case of patients with serious injuries that have impaired their body motion and functions. Just think of people who suffer from spinal cord injury!

A team of Korean researchers reputed an incredible success in 2004 when they transplanted stem cells into the broken spine of an immobilized patient. Presently, the woman has recovered almost completely, being able to walk, after nineteen years of sufferance. This stem cell therapy simply consisted in the injecting of stem cells into the injured spinal cord portion. Another major treatment in this medical domain is that of heart diseases. People worldwide can use such experimental medicine to treat their heart problems, but surely, they should also afford the intervention.

The blood cells formation represents another territory with great advancements for stem cell therapy. Many types of Cancer destroy the quality of the vital fluid and cause a collapse in the entire system. Moreover, the administration of very powerful medication for the reduction of tumors further damages the quality of the blood by killing the rapidly regenerating cells. The use of stem cell therapy for the improvement of the blood condition is one of the first successes reputed by medicine and stem cell research. The most common intervention involved is the bone marrow transplant from a donor to a patient.

Although the number of cures provided by stem cell therapy is theoretically unlimited, we’ll just mention one other practical achievement. Stem cells could be the solution for hair loss or baldness because they can take over the function of the cells in the hair follicles that for some reason have failed to regenerate from a certain moment onwards. This stem cell therapy requires the collection of stem cells from healthy follicles and their transplant into the skin to regenerate the hair. Similar applications are available with various other treatments depending on the injury.

There is a huge morality question concerning the use of human embryos for stem cell research that claims their life. On the other hand, stem cell research gives hopes to the medical world about the possibility to cure diseases like Alzheimer, Parkinson’s, heart attacks, diabetes, strokes and many others. Yet, lots of people who protest against stem cell research don’t really know that there are many processes and lab tests that work with Stem Cells without causing any harm to human embryos. Adult stem cells for instance represent a good biological material to work on, although with a lower potential then embryonic stem cells.

There are many limitations related to the specialization potential of adult stem cells, particularly since embryonic cells have an unlimited variants of differentiation. Moreover, stem cell research points out that embryonic material is more suitable and useful for nervous system therapies. There are bad bits to embryonic stem cells as well because the immune system could reject the transplant. This is actually the trap that many parents are not aware of when storing stem cells from the umbilical cord blood in banks as an insurance policy for the future health of their child.

Lots of mysteries remain unsolved for the moment, and stem cell research needs to progress a bit further before coming up with new and viable treatments. The only kind of stem cell transplant that is no longer an issue or secret for the medical world is bone marrow transplantation, that has been practiced for almost fifty years now with great success. Otherwise, the rest of the cures available on the basis of stem cells are usually experimental and pretty expensive. For the moment, stem cell research tries to find alternative sources for cells, other than embryos.

A great success was reputed by stem cell research in 2007 when three stem cell lines were created at the Advanced Cell Technology Institute without causing any harm to parenting embryos. Such significant achievements of stem cell research have been unique so far in the world, but more novelties seem to change the evolution of experimental medicine. In the same year, 2007, scientists announced that the amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus in the womb contains stem cells that can differentiate and develop into bones, blood vessels, muscles, nerves and organs. This new resource for tissues could enhance the possibility to develop methods for the treatment of malfunctioning or injured organs.

One of the major objectives for the division of Stem Cells in cultures is the creation of stem cell lines, that are in fact families developing from a determined parent group. Most of the time, stem cell lines develop in artificial environments serving for research purposes. In order to create embryonic stem cell lines, conditions similar to those in the womb are met, with all the nutrients necessary for the normal development. The stem cell lines that appear from the division will carry on the multiplication process if they are safe from interferences that cause differentiation. The number of stem cell lines available for distribution to researchers is not known at the moment.

The American National Institute of Health claims that there are only twenty-one viable stem cell lines to be used. While those derived from embryonic biological material are the most widely appreciated, there are also adult stem cell lines that work well for research purposes. Success was claimed even for the projects using umbilical cord blood as a source of stem cells. The only issue with this kind of lineage is that the cells have a specific genetic imprint included, and this specificity limits the experiments, as they are not functional for the treatment of genetic disorders for instance.

Scientists claim that stem cell lines may also be developed from somatic cells that have been reprogrammed into becoming unspecialized all over again. The main advantage for such stem cell lines is that the DNA of the donor remains present in all the material, thus replacing the bone marrow stem cell transplants for instance. Scientists are presently making efforts to develop adequate environments for the cultivation of stem cell lines totally free of animal components.

Study patterns for the development of stem cell lines are quite numerous, and emphasis now falls on the necessity to create stem cell cures as ethically as possible. For example, things would be different if stem cells could be collected from living tissues without harming them in any way. This would be very much in the line followed and supported by pro-lifers who claim that any embryo that dies in the lab is a wasted life or a homicide. Although many other people only refer to embryos as human beings when they develop at superior stages, the debate remains open and opinions are definitely divided.

Lots of institutes, organizations and universities are confronted with the difficult issue of raising money or getting stem cell funding to continue their research. The highest sums take the way of regenerative medicine institutes that have a high commitment in the field of stem cell biological research for the development of cures and remedies that will reshape mankind’s health condition. Ethical questions and concerns have always been fired in relation with stem cell research because of the controversy related to the embryos. Pro-lifers are strongly opposing all the lab tests that sacrifices human embryos.

Certain organizations keep a close watch on the progress made with the stem cell funding they provide. CIRM for instance gives millions of dollars in the form of stem cell funding to Stanford’s Institute for specific projects and clinical studies conducted on a determined period of two or four years. Part of the funding goes for research in the transplantation of Stem Cells while others in the pioneer treatment of autoimmune diseases such as sclerosis or scleroderma. The National Institute of Health is another important financial supporter of research centers that specialize in stem cell biology.

All sorts of smaller associations provide stem cell funding to research centers, and here it suffices to mention the American Cancer Society, the Diabetes Foundation or the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. These groups act on behalf and in the interest of disease-specific groups that would benefit incredibly from the findings and achievements of stem cell therapy. Moreover, it is thanks to such financial supporters that clinical trials are possible in collaboration with patients declare irrecoverable. For the moment, stem cell research is going through a new phase of growth since the American president Barrack Obama raised the ban on this kind of research.

Therefore, we may expect a new wave of stem cell funding in the near future given the boost medical research centers received. How can we explain the huge sums of money necessary for research? Well, the demands and challenges of experimental science comes from the necessity of using advanced technologies. The biological material, the laboratory equipment, the qualified personnel, the special work environment and overall gear necessary for research cost a huge amount of money, and without a serious investment in this research field, development and discoveries would stagnate.

Due to the great medical potential specific to Stem Cells, many therapies rely on their use for the treatment of various diseases and injuries. So far, tests have proved that stem cell cures are the solution for life-claiming injuries and diseases. The working principle on which the use of stem cell cures relies, is the possibility of these cells to differentiate and develop into cells with specific functions adequate for a certain tissue or organ. Hence, regeneration is possible if stem cells are injected into a tissue or planted in a wound.

Stem cell cures are operational for a number of health conditions, although there is so much more to be done. Other than the performance of bone marrow transplants that is widely practiced and almost ordinary, the rest of the stem cell treatments are experimental and very expensive. Stem cell cures are presently being tested for diabetes, muscular damage, Parkinson’s disease, cardiac problems, cancers, Alzheimer and many others. This means that the stem cell cures can be used both for curative and regenerative therapies. How does tissue regrowth function? Well, in order to eliminate the appearance of a scar, stem cells have to be implanted in the wound where they will start to differentiate.

Stem cell cures have been developed from the umbilical cord blood and they are generally used in the treatment of blood Cancer such as leukemia or lymphoma. Chemotherapy used to destroy tumors will also kill the rapidly growing cells in the bone marrow. Hence, in the absence of a transplant, the patient’s recovery may not be possible. A matched donor has to be identified so that the patient can receive good stem cells for the stimulation of the blood creation process. Besides the basic bone marrow transplant, other stem cell cures remain only potential treatments.

Stem cell cures could become available in the treatment of brain damage after stroke episodes. It seems that a stimulation of the brain stem cells in the direction of accelerated division and thus an increase in the differentiation of newly formed cells could be enough for the recovery of adult patients with head injuries. Experiments on animals have also demonstrated that stem cell cures may treat various kinds of tumors. This would be a major difference from the majority of the cancer treatments that destroy the tumor without any possibility of preventing it in the first place.

The constant blood crisis and the low number of donors that many medical units complain about could be solved if scientists manage to come up with a method of creating blood out of human Stem Cells. Experiments and trials have been made at various research institutes worldwide, and so far, scientists have managed to come up with a kind of immature stem cell blood. Although strenuous efforts are being made, studies may lead nowhere and this artificial blood production will never come to substitute donation. Another issue here is the sterility of the so-called artificial stem cell blood that would be totally free of diseases.

The fact that one day mankind could produce blood in laboratories seems quite distant and unlikely in some people’s opinion. So far, speculations can be made with or without a justification, because the outcome remains unknown for the moment. Therefore, not only for the present, but for many more years to come, blood donation remains the quickest and easiest solution for use in medical units. Stem cell blood formation will continue to be supported in several laboratories worldwide, and the problem of funding is not an issue just yet. There is enough money to continue research!

Another issue worth analyzing in relation to stem cell blood is the collection of umbilical cord blood as an alternative to the artificial creation of this vital fluid. The practice has become pretty extensive and more and more parents are convinced that by storing their baby’s stem cells, they insure a future treatment in the eventuality of an irrecoverable illness. The main problem here is directed against private stem cell blood banks that collect and store umbilical blood samples for lucrative purposes, pretending that these cells will be enough to cure a very serious disease.

The fact is that no one can guarantee a treatment that is still in the experimental stages. No doubt, there is an immense potential to the use of umbilical stem cell blood, but no all potent treatments can be generated on its basis, at least for the moment. You may be paying a lot of money for the storage of the stem cells and in fact there is a chance that they won’t prove useful when it comes to be implemented for treatment. The controversy will not be over too soon, and stem cell blood still makes a pivotal element and major issue related to stem cell research carried on all over the world.