Understanding the Increasing Use of Stem Cells

Despite the controversies that surround stem cell therapy, the benefits of this therapy are quite promising to ignore. This therapy has been used by stem cell therapy doctors for treating chronic illnesses. Read on to know why this therapy is gaining more popularity:

Stem Cells and Human Development

Researchers are studying how stem cells transform or differentiate into the range of specialized cells in the human body. Since illnesses like cancer or conditions like birth defects are believed to take place due to issues in the differentiation process, scientists are trying to understand the development that takes place in normal cells to treat the developmental errors that can happen.

Stem Cells and Cell-Based Therapies

Stem cells can also be applied to form cells and tissues for medical therapies. Today, donated organs and tissues are substituted for damaged or dysfunctional ones. Unfortunately, there are many people awaiting a transplant. Stem cells provide a viable source of replacement cells for treating disease and can possibly decrease the morbidity and mortality of people awaiting transplants. Stem cell therapy is found to help in treating Parkinson’s disease, burn, arthritis, and cardiovascular disease.

Reversing Diseases

As stem cells are directed to differentiate into specialized kinds of cells, they may offer a renewable source of replacement cells for people with those diseases. The therapy can greatly benefit people who suffered a heart attack, those with Parkinson’s disease, and those with genetic defects.

Treating Burns

People with burns have to endure a serious amount of pain from their wounds and frustration from the challenges of healing. Rather than getting donor tissues, they can consider stem cell treatment to produce new and healthy tissues. This is comparable to therapies already being used like bone marrow transplants but stem cells create various specialized blood cells.  Doctors have to find and remove specific stem cells from a tissue and trigger them to differentiate outside of the body before they transplant them back into the patient to replace the damaged tissues.

Stem Cells in the Pharmaceutical Field

Stem cells can be used for testing new drugs to evaluate their safety before testing them on animals and human models. For instance, scientists can create a cancer cell line to test an anti-tumor drug. After perfectly replicating the conditions, testing drugs could offer accurate results.

Currently, the use of stem cells is well documented and continued studies will pave the way for new treatments. People who are suffering from chronic conditions can benefit from stem cell treatments. Also, continued research will teach people more about the use of stem cells for treating debilitating medical conditions.