What are stem cells and why are they needed?

On our portal we often write about the achievements in the use of stem cells. In order not to miss out on such materials, we recommend you to subscribe to our news channel in the Telegram. But today we decided to tell you about another discovery, namely, what are some of those stem cells. Whether their use is very promising direction and what stem cells can help humanity.

The use of stem cells may open new horizons in regenerative medicine

What are stem cells?

Stem cells (or as they are called, progenitor cells) are the cells from which are formed all the organs and tissues of the body. The cells themselves are formed during fetal development and is able to maintain its strength for some time. With age, due to the fact that all the organs are formed, the stock of stem cells is reduced. But it leads to a deterioration of the regenerative abilities and, as a consequence, the aging of the body. Where are stem cells? In the human body there are several sources of stem cells, namely bone marrow, adipose tissue, peripheral blood (the so-called hematopoietic stem cells, but they are present in the bone marrow) and umbilical cord blood of babies and the umbilical cord.

See also: Discovered structure, with a large regenerative potential than stem cells

The last two paragraphs I would like to elaborate. Because today is a very popular cord blood to be conserved to ensure that in the future these stem cells could be used to treat a specific person. That is, they will not need to create artificially (as we will explain), and you can use “his own” genetic material. However, data on successful application of this approach are very few and the industry is “young enough” in order to draw any conclusions about the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of this approach. It is also worth noting that contrary to popular belief, the sources of stem cells does not apply the tissue of the placenta, as it is formed from the parent body and contains adult cells mother.

Why do we need stem cells

The question may arise: what do people who are “not yet” to save your cord blood? In this case, come to the aid of the technology of reprogramming cells. For her, as a rule, come from the cells of the deep layers of the skin and in a special way preprogrammed. Moreover, this process is very similar to conventional programming. To work with cells developed a special language called Cello. Only if the regular languages are working with numeric data, the Cello works with noclegowymi acids within cellular DNA. Thus you can set of nucleic acids of any parameters and it will change the cell at the genetic level. Because of this, roughly speaking, skin cells are exposed to a “reverse development”, not forming new tissue, but rather “going to the roots”, becoming cells-predecessors.

Stem cells can develop into any tissue of our organisa

Speaking about the applications of stem cells it should be noted that already today they are used for the treatment of some diseases of the blood and bone marrow. In particular, in the treatment of leukemia (blood cancer). Based on the fact that stem cells can form any tissue, scientists have found a use for them when, for example, treatment for serious burns to create skin grafts, to repair nerves after injury and “build” new vessels.

But that’s not all. Currently actively being developed in the field of therapy of severe organic lesions of the nervous system. In particular, for developing drugs against Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis and so on. Moreover, there is evidence that using stem cells to grow new organs. For example, heart, liver, kidney, of the lung, bone, muscle and tendons.

But one should not see stem cells as “the cure for all diseases”, because the technology of their use are still poorly understood. In particular, some data suggest that a wrong stem cell therapy could trigger a “failure” in their development and cause the formation of tumors. Also still not clear how well will settle down artificially grown organs and whether they are suitable for transplantation at all. This doctors remains to be seen.


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