Experts from the medical field say studying in stem cells is the hope for our various diseases in the future. Let’s investigate what stem cells are!
What are stem cells?
The human body is made up of hundreds of different types of cells that play an important role in our day-to-day health. These cells are responsible for maintaining our body every day. Like making our heart beat, making our brain think, purifying the blood in the kidneys, and replacing flaky skin cells. The unique role of stem cells is to create these diverse cells. Stem cells are a supplier of new cells. When a stem cell divides, it can make its own or other types of cells, for example, a stem cell in the skin can make more skin stem cells, and it can produce a specific type of melanin that is present in the skin. It can even create differentiated cells that do the job.
Why are stem cells important to your health?
When we get hurt or sick, our cells also get hurt or die. In this case, the stem cells are activated. Stem cells are responsible for healing our wounded tissue or replacing cells that are routinely dying with new ones. In this way, stem cells keep our bodies healthy and prevent the body from aging too soon. Stem cells are like our body’s army of tiny doctors that can be seen under a microscope.
What is possible in the future, and how can stem cells change the way doctors treat you?
Since stem cells are fundamentally replacing sick or old cells, scientists have been thinking of ways to use stem cells as treatments for patients with various types of diseases. In other words, the idea is that by treating a patient with stem cells or cells differentiated from them, we can use the natural abilities of stem cells to bring the patient back to a healthy state. For example, if you have a heart attack, you can transplant stem cells to that patient so that they can heal the damage to the heart. The common stem cells that exist in our bodies have limited ability to heal damage to our bodies. Back to the example of a heart attack, the stem cells in the original heart are not enough to heal the damage caused by a heart attack. However, transplanting millions of stem cells can be even more powerful. So, by transplanting stem cells into patients, we can increase the healing power of our bodies beyond what a limited number of naturally present stem cells can show. In order for stem cell therapy to become common, there are still tasks such as the safety of stem cells and immune rejection that must be considered due to the possibility of forming cancer. Even so, stem cells will change the framework of the medical community. Maybe within a few decades, someone around us will get a stem cell transplant, and someone will be us. Stem cells are giving hope that they will be able to treat the important diseases people face, including cancer, heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, stroke, Huntington’s disease, and spinal cord injury. Especially in Parkinson’s disease, experts are looking forward to finding treatment from a stem cell. Parkinson’s disease occurs damaging to a specific class of neurons located in the midbrain which robs the brain of dopamine (a neurotransmitter that helps to control movement). In a new study, published in the journal npj Regenerative Medicine Trusted Source researchers reveal that they reversed motor symptoms of PD in rats by implanting induced pluripotent stem cells.
You can find more information at these links: Mayo Clinic/Medical News Today
Image source: <1>
Featured image: <1>