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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 is the only kind of stem cell therapy that is in wide use. It is employed in the treatment of blood diseases like leukemia in cancer patients. It has been in use for several years and continues to be researched further. In future, this therapy will be able to be used in the treatment of heart diseases, diabetes, HIV AIDS, deafness, missing teeth, baldness, neurodegeneration, infertility, and formation of blood cells among several other conditions.

Cells are derived from many different sources and some are under serious criticism. Embryonic stem cells form the bulk of all the cells used because they are easier to derive. They get isolated from embryos first before being taken through culturing and preparation procedures to ready them for use. Human cloning and abortion politics are highly stirred by these methods. Other methods include pluripotent stem cells induction and utilization of methods of somatic cell nuclear transfer.

As a result of a lot of criticism in this field, it has become very hard to market treatments that are based on transplant of stored umbilical cord blood. These difficulties and controversies discourage researchers and cause research facilities to shut down due to lack of finances to run them. These are some of the reasons some of the treatments have not been completed yet.

Diseases destroy and kill cells reducing their numbers, stem cell therapy works to restore the lost or damaged cells in the area that is affected. When introduced into live tissues, they result in formation of new cells. This way, Parkinson disease, amyyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer disease, and other brain degenerating diseases are curable and preventable. Similarly, wounds can be treated by formation of normal body tissues instead of typical scar tissues.

Many people have high hopes in these therapies but they do not understand the technicalities involves. First, one must understand that human and animal bodies have stem cells of different types which perform specific functions in human body. This limits their ability to treat more than one condition especially if the conditions are unrelated. Tissue specific cells only perform the function they are meant for and specialized in.

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.

It is very expensive to go for the therapy too. Lack of finances therefore limit the number of people that can afford the treatment. This makes the majority to seek other treatment options.




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