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The big discoveries related to stem cells have issued a real tsunami wave of debates. 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 daring research attempts are in the domain of red blood cells or nervous cell regeneration.

Stem cells seem to work great for the repairs necessary to the bone marrow, but so far, only partly success has been reported for research conducted in heart and pancreatic stem cell division. 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, embryonic stem cells represent the best viable option to push medical knowledge beyond its present limits. The embryos result from in vitro fertilization projects, since only part of the embryos can get transferred and implanted in a womb. The remaining embryos 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.

If this practice proves successful and useful, worries will stop concerning the legitimacy of lab tests on human embryos. 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. On the other hand, the importance of stem cells is overwhelming if we consider what huge opportunities it opens for the treatment of diseases such as diabetes, leukemia, Parkinson’s disease and so on. However, stem cell therapies are not fully known or available because this part of regenerative medicine has a lot more to unravel before becoming fully operational, safe and effective.

Chemotherapy as a cancer treatment destroys the blood generating cells in the bone marrow, which is why transplants are often necessary in order to increase the life expectation of patients treated for tumors. 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. Before any transplant, one needs to find a suitable donor, or in the absence of compatibility, the patient’s bone marrow cells will be collected and stored prior to the beginning of chemotherapy. 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 transport the oxygen through the body, the white cells protect the system against bacteria acting as body shields and the platelets regulate blood clotting and bleeding.

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 represent a method of restoring the blood cells production that would otherwise stop by lack of undifferentiated cells. Not all the cancer patients require stem cell transplants. In fact, several factors indicate whether the treatment is suitable for the patient or not, and the clearest examples are the patient’s responsiveness to the treatment, the health condition, the stage of the disease and so on.

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 people have only heard of just a few. And these include bone marrow transplants, peripheral stem cell blood transplants or cord blood transplants. Otherwise, the number of classifications and the criteria serving for such purposes is very large, although not necessary to the average person.

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 chemotherapy 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 make it even clearer than that, stem cells will turn into specialized blood cells such as platelets, white and red cells.

The most common and widely practiced form of stem cell transplantation that has also enjoyed the highest rate of success is the bone marrow transplant. 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.

Modern stem cell transplantation options include the use of umbilical cord blood or peripheral blood collected either from a donor or from the patient. Nevertheless, such procedures are less common since they usually require special equipment and modern technologies. Hence, the bone marrow transplant remains the most popular and widely used kind of stem cell transplantation worldwide. It has a high rate of success, even if several transplantation sessions are necessary before complete regeneration of the blood. Normally, there will be a stem cell transplantation for every intensive chemotherapy session.

It is important that the the patient and the doctor should discuss all the aspects related to the procedure. For instance, the donor as well as the patient have to be carefully prepared in order to know what the procedure involves. Most people fear the fact that the collection of bone marrow is incredibly painful. The methods used are no mystery, and the patient and donor should be familiar with everything that a stem cell transplantation involves.

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. Not any patient will qualify for this kind of therapy or even need it. 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.

The use of a donor or the collection of individual stem cells is one main issue to consider once the necessity of a stem cell transplant has been established. The collection operation for individual transfers has to take place before the administration of the chemotherapy drugs. 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. It is preferred to undergo a stem cell transplant from a donor because when using the patient’s cells, there is the risk of a reaction from the immune system.

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 could also rely on 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 studies have also confirmed the possibility of combining umbilical cord stem cells from several sources so that a treatment compatible with a patient’s condition may be created. And last but not least, an even more rare or unusual case of stem cell transplant is from one identical twin to another, thanks to the huge compatibility rate between such individuals.

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. Regenerative medicine is the one that benefits most from the advantages of stem cell therapy since tissue regrowth is considered almost impossible for certain medical conditions. Just think of people who suffer from spinal cord injury!

In 2004, a great success case marked the evolution of stem cell therapy when a team of Korean researchers used stem cells taken from umbilical cord blood and treated a patient who was immobilized because of a spinal cord injury. Presently, the woman has no difficulties walking, after nineteen years of sufferance. This stem cell therapy simply consisted in the injecting of stem cells into the injured spinal cord portion. Heart diseases are also supposed to be treated by the revolutionary stem cells, but cures are still experimental for these ailments. People from all over the world can use such experimental medicine to solve their heart problems, but surely, they should also afford the intervention.

The blood cells formation is another territory conquered by 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 health benefit of the blood condition is one of the first successes reputed by medicine and stem cell research. The most common procedure involved is the bone marrow transplant from a donor to a patient.

Even if 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 pro-life supporters who argue against stem cell research are unaware of the fact that not all lab procedures are harmful to embryos. Even if they have a lower biological potential, adult stem cells for instance represent a great study material and a constant replacement for embryonic samples.

Unlike adult stem cells, embryonic stem groups can develop into absolutely any type of cells specific to the body. Moreover, stem cell research points out that embryonic material is more suitable and useful for nervous system therapies. Bad bits can be identified for embryonic stem cells as well because very often they are rejected by the immune system. 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 type of stem cell transplantation that is widely practiced without any problem is the bone marrow transplant. 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 needs to come up with other collection sources 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 results of stem cell research have been unparalleled so far in the history of medicine. In the same year, 2007, scientists announced that the amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus in the uterus contains stem cells that can specialize and grow into bones, blood vessels, muscles, nerves and organs. This new tissue resource could enhance the chances of developing ways for the treatment of injured or malfunctioning organs.

Stem cell lines represent families of cells that divide on a constant basis resulting from a unique parent group of stem cells that replicate extensively. Most of the time, stem cell lines develop in pre-created environments and serve for research purposes. A similarity with the womb conditions is necessary in order to create viable embryonic cell lines, because the embryos can only develop in the presence of nutrients matched to their needs. The stem cell lines that result from the division will carry on the multiplication process if they are safe from interferences that cause differentiation. The number of stem cell lines fully grown and used for worldwide distribution is not clear for the moment.

According to the American National Institute of Health, the total number of stem cell lines is twenty-one. 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 problem 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 comes from the fact that the donor’s DNA remains present in all the material, thus replacing the bone marrow stem cell transplants for instance. The main efforts of the medical research sector are directed towards developing media for the cultivation of stem cell lines without any use of animal ingredients.

Study models 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 instance, scientists are trying to isolate stem cells from living tissues without causing any harm to the organism. This would be the answer to all the prolifers’ protests against the use of human embryos for research, and no homicide doubt would cloud research. Until a viable solution is provided for the controversy, many more debates will fire public opinion, hindering the progress of science and medicine in general.

Stem cell funding has become a priority for many research institutes, organizations and even governments, if we consider the efforts being made to come up with treatments for all sorts of irrecoverable diseases. 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 concerns and questions have always been fired on the topic of stem cell research because of the embryo death controversy. Pro-lifers are strongly opposing all the lab research that sacrifices human embryos.

Some institutes receive more stem cell funding than others, with continuous support from the organizations interested in the development of this part of the medical science. 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. Some of these funds are dedicated to the treatment of autoimmune diseases like scleroderma or sclerosis, while others are directed to transplantation research. The National Institute of Health is another important financial supporter of research centers that focus on stem cell biology.

Moreover, lots of other smaller societies and associations finance research: The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the American Cancer Society, the Diabetes Foundation and several others. These groups act in the interest and on behalf of disease-specific groups that expect solutions from the findings and achievements of stem cell therapy. Moreover, it is thanks to such financial supporters that one institute or another designs clinical trials and group tests for patients declared 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.

Consequently, we may expect a new wave of stem cell funding that will change the perspective for many research centers. 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 are not at all cheap, and we’d be faced with a stagnation of research without the massive investments in this medical branch.

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 mechanism on which the use of stem cell cures depends, 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.

Although limited in number and extent, for the moment, stem cell cures do exist. With the exception of bone marrow transplantation that is common and widely practiced, 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.

For the treatment of lymphoma and leukemia, the stem cell cures have been developed from umbilical cord blood. The traditional cancer treatment based on chemotherapy destroys the blood formating 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. Other than this bone marrow transplant, other stem cell cures represent only potential treatments.

Stem cell cures could become available in the treatment of brain damage after stroke episodes. Head injuries could thus become treatable if the brain stem cells are stimulated to divide and differentiate more quickly. Animal tests have also proved 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.

If it was possible for scientists to create blood by means of human stem cells, it would be the end of the blood crisis that seems to affect medical facilities all over the world. 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 considering in relation to stem cell blood is not the artificial production of this vital human fluid, but the collection of the umbilical cord blood that is very rich in stem cells. The practice has become pretty extensive and more and more parents believe in the possibility to solve future health problems, thanks to the umbilical cord stem cells stored in private or public banks. The main criticism is directed against private stem cell blood banks that that have transformed blood collection and storage into a lucrative business.

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. The storage of stem cell blood extracted from the umbilical cord could be a small fortune, and you may never be able to test its potential. The controversy is far from being over, and stem cell blood remains a major issue and pivotal element related to stem cell research conducted all over the world.