A New Era of Life-Saving Option for Blood Cancer Patients — Blood Stem Cells

Blood stem cell research has successfully captured the minds of people around the globe. Stem cells are special human cells that have the ability to generate other cells which can perform specialized functions.

Why Stem Cell Research & Studies?

Studies and research on stem cells help to understand how diseases related to blood can and other blood disorders occur. Based on how these cells transform into bone cells, nerves, heart muscle, other tissues and organs, medical professionals are able to understand the conditions of diseases and its influence on the human body.

Replace diseased cells: Stem cells act as a regenerative medicine as they can be guided to perform specific functions. Patients with Spinal cord injuries, Parkinson’s disease, Type 1 diabetes, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Stroke burns, Cancer, Heart and Alzheimer’s disease are benefited from stem cell therapies.

Researchers have found that stem cells have all the potential to become a new tissue and can be used in transplantation and regenerative medicine.

Investigational drugs: Doctors and scientists can make use of stem cells prior using investigational drugs on human beings. This will have a direct result on drug development and its implementation process for any diseases.

The current research is based on the stability of tissue specific stem cells to test new drugs. When it comes to testing new drugs, these stem cells should be programmed to inherit the properties of the targeted cell by the drugs. Study of programming techniques that can transform cells into a specific functional cell is an ongoing process. For example, nerve cells are generated, which can be used to discover a new drug for any nerve diseases. The result of the test can show whether the new drug acts as a solution or brings harm for the cells.

How Stem Cell Originates?

Here are some illustration of various types of blood stem cells:

Embryonic stem cells: These cells are usually three to five days old. An embryo is also known as blastocyst, which houses 150 other cells. It can be divided into more stem cells and has the ability to transform itself into any type of cell. This versatility helps in regeneration or repair of diseased tissues or organs.

Controversy about using Embryonic stem cell

When a woman’s egg is fertilized with a man’s sperm, an embryos is formed. Embryonic stem cells are generated from embryos, which is a group of cells. Since these stem cells are extracted from human embryos, it has raised several questions about the ethics of the research involved. The National Institutes of Health created guidelines for human cell research in 2009 that explains how to use them in research laboratories, various methods of recommendations for donations, how they should be created and a lot more

Adult stem cells: These cells are less in number as compared to embryonic stem cells. It is found in bone marrow or fat, and the ability to generate new cells is poor. According to researchers, stem cells present in the bone marrow can generate various types of cells. For example, bone marrow stem cells can create two different types of cells i.e heart or bone muscle cells.

Generic reprogramming transforms regular adult cells into stem cells, and scientists have discovered that by altering the genes in the adult cells, they can reprogram it to function like embryonic stem cells. The technique allows the use of reprogrammed cells instead of embryonic cells. However, medical scientists aren’t familiar about the adverse effect of using altered adult stem cells.

Perinatal stem cells: These stem cells are derived from perinatal tissues such as umbilical cord and amniotic fluid with an ability to transform itself into specialized cells. Samples of amniotic fluid are extracted from pregnant women to analyze the abnormalities. The Amniotic fluid is present in the sac that protects the growing fetus in the uterus.

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