Understanding Stem Cell Therapy and it's potential to cure a severe illness
Stem cell or stem cell therapy is one promising treatment, which can help restore body cells damaged by severe illness.
Stem cell therapy is new hope in the world of medicine in curing various severe diseases that are difficult to cure. Let's discuss more this therapy and what makes it a very promising treatment.
Stem cell or stem cell is a stem cell that can multiply and transform into different types of cells. This cell is the only cell in the blood that can regenerate a new type of cell. It is becoming a potential breakthrough in curing various severe diseases such as chronic diseases, degenerative diseases, and autoimmune diseases.
Where are stem cells coming from?
Based on cell origin source, stem cell is categorized in several types:
- Embryonic Stem Cell
This stem cell is derived from an embryo aged 3-5 days. These cells are pluripotent, which means they can multiply or develop into any type of cell in the body. This enables embryonic stem cells to repair damaged tissues or organs.
An embryo is a cell formed when the female ovum is fertilized by a male sperm. As these cells are extracted directly from the human embryos developed under the microscope, it is still considered unethical. Therefore, it should only be done when the embryo is a donation from a donor.
- Adult Stem Cell
This type of stem cell is found in the tissues of the adult body, such as bone marrow. Compared to embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells have more limited ability in terms of development into different types of cells in the body.
Researchers found that adult stem cells could only be developed into the same type of cell as it came from. For example, stem cells extracted from the bone marrow can only produce blood cells. However, some recent studies show that stem cells from the bone marrow can also help form bone cells or heart muscle cells. However, it still needs to be examined further.
Ordinary adult cells are modified into a stem cell embryonic (induced pluripotent stem cell or IPS)
Researchers have successfully transformed ordinary adult cells into a stem cell through genetic reprogramming technology. The adult cells are reprogrammed to have the same properties as embryonic stem cells.
The new technique allows the use of stem cells from the body itself compared to other embryos, thus preventing the occurrence of immune rejection reactions. However, the side effects of this method are still unclear.
- Perinatal Stem Cell
Researchers found that the stem cells contained in the oat fluid and the umbilical cord also could develop into different types of cells.
The use of Stem Cell therapy in medicine
Some of the ailments that can be solved with stem cell therapy include paralysis of spinal nerves, diabetes, Parkinson's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (or also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, Alzheimer's, heart failure, stroke, blindness, fracture Unconnected bones, widespread burns, cancer, the laceration of bone joints, and autoimmune diseases.
Research on stem cell therapy is still being developed in a variety of chronic and degenerative diseases that cannot be cured by regular medications.
How to Stem Cell transplantation?
How to transplant a stem cell can be done, among others:
- Autologous: The source of stem cell comes from oneself
- Allogenic: A source of stem cell origin
Stem cells derived from cord blood are considered the safest. The cell is taken when the baby has just been born. The transfer was assisted by the obstetrician, then the process was done by the bank from the central strap.
Before being transformed for diseased or injured tissue repairs, the stem cell will be harvested first in the laboratory. Then immediately it is implanted into the damaged tissue so that the stem cell does not die. For example, in patients with heart disease, stem cells will be implanted into the heart muscle to repair damaged muscles.
What are the side effects of Stem Cell therapy?
Embryonic Stem cells trigger immune responses that attack the body itself, due to the rejection of the cells, which are regarded as foreign objects by the body.
Thus, stem cells that come from themselves are safer in minimizing the rejection reaction. Stem cell therapy can also fail to function normally with no obvious cause. Researchers are continuing to develop research to prevent complications in stem cell therapy.
Continuing to grow medical science and technology in the application of stem cell therapy is a hope for the healing of various degenerative diseases, chronic diseases, and diseases that are difficult to cure. Hopefully, one to two decades in the future, stem cell therapy can be perfected and become a solution for the treatment of various harmful diseases.