Stem cells are undifferentiated biological cells that can differentiate into specialized cells and can divide to produce more cells. These basic building blocks of life are fast becoming the ultimate repair-kit of future. Yet proving its ethnicity every now and then seems to be never-ending. There have been huge outcries and demonstrations against stem cell research and some people have even fallen victim to intimidation of imbecile people. However, this is too important an area to be abandoned as it has huge potential for finding treatments and cure to vast array of diseases. As it is rightly quoted by Mother Teresa- “One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody”.
The excitement about stem
cell is primarily due to medical benefits in areas of regenerative medicine and
therapeutic cloning. Another potential application of stem cells is to form
cells and tissues for medical therapies.Currently; it is donated organs that
are substituted for damaged or dysfunctional ones. Sadly, the number of people
awaiting a transplant is much higher than the number of available organs. An
average of 20 people dies each day due to lack of transplant available. Stem
cells offer a viable source of replacement cells to treat and can potentially
reduce morbidity and mortality for those awaiting transplants. Some of the
areas that stem cells can benefit include: Parkinson’s disease, Diabetes,
Arthritis, Burn victims, cardiovascular diseases.
Stem cells can play a
pivotal role in pharmaceutical field. New drugs can be tested on stem cells to
assess their safety before testing drugs on human/animal model. For example, a
cancer cell line could be treated to test on antitumor drug.
A Baby’s cord blood is 100% match for the baby.
Cord blood is used to treat children with cancerous blood disorders like
Leukemia or genetic blood disease like Fanconi anemia. Families who have stored
it will be in a position to take advantage of future medical stem cell
breakthroughs.