Wednesday, October 8, 2014

What Is Done Stem Cell Treatment Centers

By Jocelyn Davidson


Stem cell therapy has been and continues to be the focus for scientists in the quest to find treatments for many medical conditions. This therapy treats and prevents several kinds of diseases in animals as well as human beings. Most therapies discovered are still under development and have not yet been used successfully on humans anywhere in the world. Bone marrow transplant is the most commonly practiced therapy by many stem cell treatment centers.

Bone marrow transplant has been advanced more than other therapies making it the most used. It helps to treat blood diseases like lymphoma and leukemia in people with cancer. Its research is still being done to achieve higher levels of efficiency and accuracy. In future, there will be treatments for heart diseases, deafness, missing teeth, diabetes, HIV AIDS, baldness, neurodegeneration, formation of blood cells, and infertility among many other conditions.

Stem cells used in treatment are derived from various sources some of which have raised a lot of concerns among critics. Of all the cells, the major ones used are the embryonic stem cells which are isolated and cultured from embryos. Critics argue that derivation of such cells promote abortion and human cloning. Another way of creating cells involves the use of somatic cell nuclear transfer techniques and induction of pluripotent cells.

Treatments which are formed basing on transplanting of cultured umbilical cord blood continue to face challenges and criticism in marketing. This is because this field is highly criticized. The controversies lead to lack of finances by research facilities, which shut done later while researchers are discouraged . Some treatments which would be complete by now are hindered by the challenges.

The working of stem cell therapy involves regeneration of cells damaged or lost in affected tissues or organs. Once they are introduced into the body, they cause new cells to be formed by the body. This way, conditions that cause brain degeneration such as Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, and amyyotrophic lateral sclerosis can be treated. Similarly, normal body tissues are able to be formed in the place of typical scar tissue, which gets formed on wounds.

Many people have a lot of hopes in these treatments hence it is good to understand what they can do and what they cannot. First, it is worth knowing that the body has different types of stem cells and each type is specific to the function it does in human bodies. That is the reason why unrelated medical conditions cannot be treated by the same kind of cells. Tissue specific cells are specific in what they can do hence they cannot be used for functions they are not specialized for.

The techniques used to introduce cells into the body by various therapies are very complicated. Patients face a lot of risks in the introduction process let alone the side effects. Cells derived from the body first need to be cultured before they are returned into the body. The culturing process codes the cells with instructions on how to behave once in the living tissues. The instructions have been known to fail resulting in serious side effects.

The therapy is also a very expensive affair. It is therefore discouraging for most people to go for them due to lack of funds. Other medical options are therefore sort in its place.




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