Stem cell therapy is a form of regenerative medicine used to treat illnesses and injuries. Stem cells are the body’s natural healing and repair mechanisms; they’re the cells from which all other cell types are created. In both the body and lab environments, stem cells can proliferate into daughter cells.
Daughter cells can either be new stem cells in a process known as self-renewal or they may become specialized cell types, such as blood or brain cells, through differentiation. Stem cells are the only cells in the body with this capability.
Medical experts and researchers alike have been drawn to stem cells in recent years due to their compelling benefits. Here are just a few to consider.
They help us understand conditions.
Researchers study stem cells to understand how they mature into differentiated cell types. In doing so, they may be able to uncover new findings of how conditions develop.
They can help replace damaged or diseased tissue.
In some cases, cells which have been lost or damaged by injury, disease, and normal wear and tear may not be able to be renewed or replaced on their own. Because stem cells have unique regenerative properties, they open up many possibilities for treating chronic illnesses. The cells can be strategically transplanted into patients in the area where they’re needed most to regenerate and repair damaged tissue or replenish cells that have been lost.
While the list of potential candidates will likely only grow as treatment modalities are refined, experts believe people who could benefit from the treatment include those with diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries, ALS, osteoarthritis, heart disease, stroke, and Parkinson’s disease, among other conditions.
They help with drug testing.
In some applications, stem cells are used to test drugs during their trial stages before they’re used in people. Stem cells can be programmed to be tissue-specific, and can then be exposed to new drugs. For instance, a medication used to treat nerve conditions in its testing phase might be studied on nerve cells created from stem cells in laboratories before being tested on actual participants. This allows researchers to assess whether the intended benefits are happening to the cells and whether any damage is occurring at the cellular level.
Ultimately, stem cells hold enormous potential both for research purposes and medical applications. While much stem cell research is still underway, the findings researchers have already gathered are promising and suggest that this form of regenerative medicine could very well be the new frontier in treating challenging conditions.
This post was written by a medical professional at Stemedix Inc. At Stemedix we provide access to Regenerative Medicine for multiple sclerosis, also known as stem cell therapy for multiple sclerosis. Regenerative medicine has the natural potential to help improve symptoms sometimes lost from the progression of many conditions.