As medical science advances, scientists and researchers are coming up with innovative therapies that have the potential to save lives. One of these is stem cell therapy, which holds tremendous promise when it comes to treating a host of diseases, conditions, and injuries. And this is just the beginning as numerous clinical trials involving stem cells are still underway, which means that a lot more new avenues will open up in the future. Essentially, stem cells come from the umbilical cord blood and placenta that are collected and preserved at the time of birth. These can be used for stem cell therapy for treating serious diseases in the baby or close family members later. Let us explain the life-saving potential of stem cell therapy in detail.
Transplant treatments
Stem cells are capable of forming cells and tissues for diverse medical therapies. At present, donated tissues and organs are substituted for damaged ones. Unfortunately, people awaiting a transplant have to struggle to get donor organs and even die awaiting them. Stem cells, on the other hand, offer a viable option for replacement cells to treat diseases. In fact, they can potentially cut down the morbidity and mortality for the patients awaiting transplants. Though research is still on in this field, the developments are positive and there is great hope for the future.
Regenerative medicine
Apart from organ transplants, stem cell therapy has a huge potential for treating a range of diseases through regenerative medicine. These include type 1 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, stroke, cancer, spinal cord injuries, genetic defects, and osteoarthritis. If you ask Who should consider placental tissue banking, the answer would be “everyone”, considering the immense opportunities that the stem cells it offers can open up. The same goes for cord blood banking because it is an equally viable source of these cells. As new parents, this single decision can promise a long and healthy life for your child and even other family members.
Burn treatment
One of the most challenging fields of medicine is burning treatment. Victims have to endure tremendous pain and frustration because of scarring. Stem cells can transform treatment by replacing donor tissue therapy as they can be used for generating new and healthy tissues. Basically, the therapy is similar to those used for bone marrow transplants, where the stem cells create specialized healthy blood cells. For burn victims, they can be used for growing a small piece of the skin progressively. It can be used to cover a burn area which is much larger in the area as compared to the original size of the piece of the skin.
Besides their treatment capabilities, stem cells also serve a significant benefit for the pharmaceutical field. They can be used for testing new drugs to assess their safety, rather than doing so on animal and human models. The current benefits of therapies using stem are already well documented and things are expected to get even better with continued research. They offer hope for treatment and even a reversal of diseases that were once considered fatal.