New Hopes in Stem Cells
Human embryonic cells remain a research tool to study the mechanisms of disease. There will be many therapeutic benefits. We will be able to produce new drugs. Thomas M. Messell, a neurobiologist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, stated he hoped to see the research generate new drugs for neurodegenerative disease. He expects a revolution within the next 5 years. Scientists have spent the last 5 years in how to grow the cells in the lab and how to differentiate them. Dr. Ron McKay, a stem cell researcher at the National Institute of Health thinks the progress has been incremental and it can also differentiate.
The hope of using human embryonic stem cells for cell therapy has been driven in part from bone marrow transplants. In this process, the patient’s blood supply is regenerated from his own blood-making stem cells. These cells are already present in the body. When the bone marrow transplant is used in any other disorder, it is really a big step.
Bone marrow or myeloid tissue is a soft, gelatinous tissue that fills bone cavities.
Red bone marrow contains stem cells, progenitor cells, percursor cells, and functional blood cells. Lymphocytes mature in the lymphoid organs. All other blood-cell formation occurs in red marrow, which also takes part in destruction of old erythrocytes (red blood cells). Yellow bone marrow mainly stores fats. Because the leukocytes (white blood cells) produced in bone marrow are involved in immune defenses, marrow transplants can treat some types of immunodeficiency. Radiation and some anticancer drugs can damage marrow and impair immunity. Bone-marrow examination helps diagnose diseases related to blood and blood-forming organs.
Researchers see the primary benefit of human embryonic cells as models for human disease. The cell is taken from a patient, convert it to embryonic form, and then make it mature into the type that goes awry into the patient’s disease. It may be a dopamine-producing cell for Parkinson’s disease or an insulin-making cell for diabetes.
The scientists can investigate the cause of the disease. The diseased cells also provide a means of screening thousands of chemicals for new drugs. With the help of stem cells, John D. Gerhart of John Hopkins University, a stem cell expert asserts that these cells help them to understand a lot of human biology and disease processes. These informations are more important than cells. However the researchers have not abandoned cell therapy. In cell therapy, the cells are used to regenerate tissue.
Cell therapy requires making a stem cell develop into a heart or liver cell or whatever tissue needs to be replacing. The scientists found some cell types are easier to generate than others. Scientists do not know clearly the early stages of differentiation.