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Stem cell therapies promise to be one of those true scientific breakthroughs that will have an impact on health care in the future. Stem cells will bring us closer to the goal of personalized medicine, just as genomics is doing. With stem cells, projections need to be five, ten, even fifteen years out – because this is truly an emerging science. The course of a disease will change once we have the technology to insert stem cells into the human body to actually create a tissue. For example, a person with a heart attack will not go on to live the rest of his or her life with damaged heart muscle and resultant heart failure. Instead, stem cells will regenerate the heart and make it whole again. Similarly, a person with Parkinson’s disease will recover full faculties thanks to the ability of stem cells to regenerate the damaged area of the brain. The person with type I diabetes will be free of the disease because of the formation of new pancreatic islet cells. The athlete will play again because new cartilage will be created for the worn knee. This is the promise of “regenerative medicine.”
It is a promise that is already being kept with adult stem cells used for treating patients with immune defects, usually children, or those with some cancers. Sometimes doctors use the patients own stem cells to give the bone marrow a “boost” after intensive chemotherapy for cancer [called autologous transplants.] Or the stem cells of a closely matched donor are used for a leukemia patient to not only restore the bone marrow after aggressive therapy but also to attack any remaining leukemia cells [known as allogeneic transplants.]. And adult stem cells are being used today in research studies of patients who have had heart attacks leaving their heart muscle weakened.
The president has just created an important enablement to further research on stem cells. Yes, it is true that much can be done with adult stem cells but science so far suggests that embryonic stem cells hold promise for much more benefit. It will probably be embryonic stem cells that pave the way for replacing the islet cells of the pancreas with new insulin producing cells to cure diabetes or replace the damaged cells in the brain that are key to Parkinson’s disease. Some strongly feel that it is wrong to use cells form embryos. It is important to remember that these are fertilized eggs that were prepared for couples that could not conceive and so had eggs and sperm placed into a dish with special fluids. Experience has shown that success is better if the doctor implants a few embryos into the woman’s uterus rather than just one. But the doctor may have more than enough embryos and the extras will be discarded if the woman becomes pregnant. I look at it this way. Since the embryos will be destroyed anyway, why not use them for creating stem cells that perhaps many people with diverse diseases might benefit from. It is not dissimilar to transplanting the organs of a person who has died in a car accident rather than burying them in the grave. And there is no issue about “human cloning” – that is just not what is being done or proposed. And the embryo, made up of just a few cells, is disrupted so each cell grows independently. Now the cells can be stimulated to become heart cells, liver cells or what ever might be useful in treating a disease. It will take some years but there will certainly be major advances in how we can repair, restore or replace damaged tissues or organs.
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Praise for Dr Schimpff
The craft of science writing requires skills that are arguably the most underestimated and misunderstood in the media world. Dumbing down all too often gets mistaken for clarity. Showmanship frequently masks a poor presentation of scientific issues. Factoids are paraded in lieu of ideas. Answers are marketed at the expense of searching questions. By contrast, Steve Schimpff provides a fine combination of enlightenment and reading satisfaction. As a medical scientist he brings his readers encyclopedic knowledge of his subject. As a teacher and as a medical ambassador to other disciplines he's learned how to explain medical breakthroughs without unnecessary jargon. As an advisor to policymakers he's acquired the knack of cutting directly to the practical effects, showing how advances in medical science affect the big lifestyle and economic questions that concern us all. But Schimpff's greatest strength as a writer is that he's a physician through and through, caring above all for the person. His engaging conversational style, insights and fascinating treasury of cutting-edge information leave both lay readers and medical professionals turning his pages. In his hands the impact of new medical technologies and discoveries becomes an engrossing story about what lies ahead for us in the 21st century: as healthy people, as patients of all ages, as children, as parents, as taxpayers, as both consumers and providers of health services. There can be few greater stories than the adventure of what awaits our minds, bodies, budgets, lifespans and societies as new technologies change our world. Schimpff tells it with passion, vision, sweep, intelligence and an urgency that none of us can ignore.
-- N.J. Slabbert, science writer, co-author of Innovation, The Key to Prosperity: Technology & America's Role in the 21st Century Global Economy (with Aris Melissaratos, director of technology enterprise at the John Hopkins University).
4 comments:
There are 100's of scientific studies that have been done on AFA and our product StemEnhance. There are also 100's of scientific papers on Adult Stem Cell therapy. I have listed quite a few on my blog that you can read at www.phyl247.biz You can also find the book over at Amazon.com that Christian Drapeau wrote. It is called "The Stem Cell Theory of Renewal" Take a look if you would like to talk feel free to email or call me anytime 877-696-8581
Currently, there is a growing market for parents to save the stem cells harvested from the umbilical cord of their child at birth. This is a costly procedure, with an initial investment and yearly storage fees. How do you feel about this practice? Do you feel it is worth the cost to save the child's stem cells? What if you have a second child? Do you save theirs as well? I would be interested to hear your thoughts.
The idea is to have stem cells available for a later date in case your child needs a [bone marrow] transplant for cancer, immune disorder, etc. Like insurance, you are making a decision to spend money now in case of an adverse event later. There is no right answer but just whatever seems comfortable to you. But if you do it, you need to save each child's own stem cells since we are all genetically different and the idea is to have your own [identical] cells if the need ever arises.
really the future of transplantation i think that stem cells embryonic is the future so we need to look for the cure of the transplantation .
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