Stem Cells: Application
The study of stem cells will allow us to understand the mechanisms of cell specialization. What mechanisms cause a gene to be active and do their job and what mechanisms inhibit the expression of that gene. Cancer, for example, is a case of abnormal cell specialization.
Stem cells can be used to test new drugs in all types of tissue prior to actual testing in animals or humans.
Stem cells have applications in cell therapy, regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Many diseases are caused by malfunctions cellular or tissue destruction. One of the remedies, in severe cases, it is the transplant. Pluripotent stem cells stimulated to develop into specialized cells offer the possibility of replacing frequently damaged cells and tissues. So may be used in cases of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, spinal cord injuries, burns, heart or brain injuries, diabetes, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis.
See examples of applications:
As reported in Science in April 2000, two babies born with a genetic defect that caused them severe immunodeficiency, were extracted stem cells from bone marrow. Cells were cultured, replaced the defective gene and transferred back to the children. This experiment, which used stem cells from their own babies, was the first successful cure by gene therapy.
For the first time in Spain at the University Hospital of Navarra has healed (PDF) implanting a heart infarct patient’s own stem cells. The patient had a portion of heart muscle dead accused of several attacks. Cells were extracted from the thigh were selected and purified stem cells. After cultivating for three weeks were injected in the infarcted muscle. The recovery was miraculous.
A study from Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Neuroscience explained that injecting stem cells into the spinal fluid of animals could restore movement to a paralyzed rodents. The experts introduced neural stem cells into paralyzed rodents by a virus that specifically targets motor neurons and found that 50 percent regained the ability to support the plants of one or two of his hind legs.
The research is very promising and rapidly advancing, but much remains to be done to achieve real clinical applications. It remains to be understanding the mechanisms that allow the specialization of human stem cells for specialized tissues for transplantation valid.
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