ABOUT STEM CELLS
During the past 10 years, there have been hundreds of published studies that strongly support the future use of embryonic stem cells for treating a variety of degenerative conditions, such as those induced by spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, and heart disease. For an overview of some clinical applications, please visit our Clinical Applications page.
Source of embryonic stem cells. Human embryo at the blastocyst stage before (left) and after (right) zona pellucida removal. Zona removal marks the start of stem cell derivation.
Stem cells have the ability to replace dying or damaged cells and to regenerate specific tissues. This means that under certain physiologic or experimental conditions, stem cells can become cells with special functions such as the beating cells of the heart muscle or the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.
Today, stem cells hold promise for treating multiple degenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury or diabetes. Many scientists believe that stem cell therapies will save countless lives.
Perhaps the best-known stem cell therapy to date is bone marrow transplant, which is used to replenish the stem cells found in bone marrow. This is a common treatment for leukemia and various blood disorders, and has been used therapeutically since 1968. Bone marrow transplant utilizes adult stem cells. Similar to the sibling bone marrow, we expect that the use of the sibling embryonic stem cells as a source material for therapy will provide higher likelihood of transplantation match than use of stem cells from the unrelated individuals.
As embryonic stem cell therapies become available, you and your family will have access to your own, high quality, genetically-related stem cell lines. This will reduce risks associated with using over-manipulated generic stem cell lines and the chance for negative immune system response and tissue rejection.
Common Types of Stem Cells
Many kinds of stem cells are being studied for therapeutic purposes. These are categorized based on their origin in the body.
Embryonic Stem Cells
Embryonic stem cell colony. Human embryonic stem cells stain for specific pluripotency markers visualized here by fluorescent microscopy.
Embryonic stem cells are derived from embryos that have been fertilized in vitro in a laboratory usually for the purpose of in vitro fertilization. These stem cells have very specific benefits:
- They can grow indefinitely and form virtually any cell type in the human body, a trait that is referred to as “pluripotency.” For example stem cells can form liver, muscle or brain cells and can have more than one potential outcome.
- They are the original building blocks of the body’s various organs and tissues, and their development into particular tissues is known as cell differentiation.
- They may be used to treat multiple individuals. Due to their unlimited growth potential, they can be propagated, or multiplied, to produce as many cells as needed.
Based on current research, scientists have hypothesized that therapies derived from embryonic stem cells will change the face of medicine. According to the National Institutes of Health, “Human embryonic stem cells are thought to have much greater developmental potential than adult stem cells.” (1)
Please visit our Clinical Applications page. for more information and research involving embryonic stem cells.
Adult stem cells are derived from various parts of the body from organisms that have reached a mature state. Their natural role is to replenish only certain types of cells or tissues.
Cord blood stem cells are collected from the umbilical vein (cord); before (in utero) or after (ex utero) the placenta is delivered. It is becoming increasingly popular for new parents to cryogenically freeze and store blood derived from their infant’s umbilical cord. Although these cells seem to exhibit some properties of the embryonic stem cells, unlike embryonic stem cells, they have limited capacity for propagation, or multiplication.
Amniotic stem cells are collected from amniotic fluid during amniocentesis – a type of prenatal genetic testing. Research into amniotic stem cells is still preliminary. It is unclear whether amniotic cells will have same capacity as embryonic stem cells and how efficiently they may be derived.
References
1) The official National Institutes of Health resource for stem cell research: Regenerative Medicine 2006
