The Lowdown On Stem Cell Therapy
by Atifa Deshamukhya



Even though stem cell therapy has been around for a while in the laboratories, the first embryonic stem cell therapy happened only last month. Despite the controversy that embryonic stem cell therapy has managed to generate, this mode of treatment is fast gaining acceptance among members of the medical community as well as people in general. Here is the lowdown on stem cell therapy in general.

Stem cell therapy got seriously underway 17 years ago, at the initiative of Richard Burt, an immunologist at Northwestern University. He set out to replace the faulty immune systems of his patients with new ones. He pinned his hopes on stem-cell research and before long, made considerable headway in his field of endeavor.

Till date, Burt has successfully treated 170 patients with stem cells, and increasing numbers of doctors are following his lead. Upwards of 1,000 stem-cell therapies on humans are in trial stage now around the world. While most therapists use cells from patients' own bone marrow, cells from other healthy adults are also being tried out.

What makes stem cell therapy so viable is the unique capacity of stem cells to regenerate and act as a repair system for infected, injured or diseased parts of the body. They are unique in the sense that they can take on the functions of any body organ. Basically, you will find stem cells in the human body.

The first type is the adult stem cell. Doctors can retrieve them from the bone marrow and blood of the umbilical corddefine, and they do not present any problems whatsoever. They have quite a few attractive qualities – they are easy to extract, can be introduced smoothly into the affected area, and pose little or no problems regarding assimilation in the body.

The second type of stem cell, the embryonic stem cell is the one that generates the controversy. As the name suggests, these stem cells are derived from days-old human embryos and are much more potent in their regenerative functions. Using embryonic stem cells brings into the picture the question of ethics.

Conservative opinion is strongly against it as it involves destruction of human embryos. US President George Bush has presently blocked all federal funding for research in embryonic stem cells.

Despite the opposition to embryonic stem cell therapy, research in this direction has been on for a while. A number of doctors and medical facilities with private funding have been secretly experimenting with embryonic stem cells. There are a number of instances involving embryonic stem cell therapy.

Geron, a California-based company, has already documented how embryonic stem cells can prevent heart failure in mice. The company has announced its decision to work towards a human trial very soon.

In November last year, doctors in Oregon injected embryonic stem cells into a child afflicted with Batten disease, a rare and fatal neurodegenerative disorder. All eyes are now on that case – if the stem cells cure the disease and also multiply, the world of medicine will chart new territory.

Burt has scripted a largely successful story with his stem cell research. He has treated patients with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and numerous other immune disorders. In his publication regarding the results of a stem-cell trial for type 1 diabetesdefine, he says that after three years of therapy, some patients have achieved normal blood sugar levels and do not need insulindefine.

Burt also plans trials for Lou Gehrig's disease and a rare type of autism involving the immune systemdefine in which "nothing else really seems to work.” That is not all; patients suffering from deadly diseases like cancerdefine, leukemia, and cardiacdefine ailments can also hope to reap the benefits of embryonic stem cell therapy in the near future.

And so it is that despite the controversy, scientists are still willing to place their bets this revolutionary field. Many of them are already predicting that the use of stem cells for medicinal and therapeutic purposes will emerge as one of the greatest revolutions in modern medicine.

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