Dear friend,
In an effort to help you understand the clinical trial stem cells therapy treatment process you are about to embark on, I have to explained to you the basic concepts you will need to understand the medical procedures and processes concerned. To begin with, Stem cells are identified as a set of uniquely undifferentiated organic cells found in multicellular organisms. The cells are overly renowned for their unique ability to develop into different specialized cell types. Additionally, the cells have an internal characteristic that allows them to renew themselves independently, in the process repairing the host tissues they match. The process of self-renewal of the stem cells involve the cells actively multiplying, through mitotic cell division to produce identical cells. The replication process, in essence, continues in so long as the person is not dead. Furthermore, the new cells have equal chances of either becoming new specialized cells (brain cells, blood cells) or assuming the state of the parent as a stem cell. It is this unique characters that make these cells most suitable to the treatment of complex health conditions such as spinal cord defects, which more often than not, require specialized bone marrow transplant.
These cells have three main elements that distinguish them from the other cells. The first element is that, they are able to replicate through a biological process known as cell division, even after being inactive for long, unlike the other cells such as muscle or blood cells, which do not ordinarily divide themselves. Then, the cells are unspecialized. This essentially means that they dearth any tissue-specific structures that make them specialized to accomplish specific roles. But, under certain conditions (physiologic or experimental), the cells may be artificially modified to turn out to be either organ-specific cell or tissue specific cells like muscle cells with particular functions, a process known as differentiation (Ito, 2014) . For example, in specialized organs such as bone marrow, stem cells will replicate, and develop to replace the worn out or damaged bone marrow cells. Nevertheless, in specialized organs, for example, the pancreases or the heart, stem cells will necessitate some set conditions to divide and replace the damaged cells within the tissues of the organs.
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Stem cells are classified into two main categories that are based on their source. These main types are identified either as embryonic stem cells or adult stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are extracted from embryos that have been developed from externally fertilized eggs (Yan, 2013) . On the other hand, adult stem cells are the set of unspecialized cells, found among the specialized cells in tissues and organs. The cells can renew and as well differentiate themselves to yield all of the differentiated cell types of the host tissue or organ. The foremost role of adult stem cells is mending worn out cells within the tissues. In contrast, embryonic stem cells are most suitable for stem cell therapies like the bone marrow transplant, basically because they have the ability to differentiate to all of the various cell types of the body (Morrison, 2014) . Unlike, adult stem cells that will only differentiate into specialized cells of the tissue of origin. Also, embryonic stem cells are considered relatively easy to culture, compared to their counterpart, the adult stem cells. Adult stem cells are considerably rare in developed tissues, therefore, segregating them from adult tissues has proven to be extremely challenging. A major downside to the culture of adult stem cells is that there are no known methods of expanding their numbers despite their increasing need. While on the other hand, embryonic stem cells have greater chances of presenting unexpected outcomes.
Despite the above cons on the use of stem cells, they present a major breakthrough within the sphere of medical biology, as a unique way of administering less risky treatment to internal faulty organs of the body (Strauer, 2003) . With special attention to bone marrow transplant as one of the stem cell therapy treatment methods, the medical procedure basically involves, extracting adult stem cells from a person whose DNA is compatible with the patient and is tested to confirm that the adult stem cells compatibility with the patient (Morrison, 2014) . The cells may be cultured to allow time for proliferation. The time needed for proliferation will be determined by the level of the spinal damage, which in the end dictates the number of stem cells required for complete repair of the bone marrow of the spinal cord. These stem cells are then injected into the bone marrow, after which the patient is observed to monitor the level regeneration and the healing process. The stem cells injected are expected to divide and differentiate into the bone marrow cells, which ultimately replace the damaged cells, repairing the tissues and the organ in general.
In conclusion, stem cell therapy is globally renowned for being one of the major breakthroughs in medical history, it presents hope for treatment for complicated diseases that affect the human body organs. By proving to be a method of cell regeneration, repairing mechanism that is generally organic, gives the general research great support compared to other available options. In as much as, there is still much to be done, for humans to realize the greater expectations of stem cell technology. The progress made so far is incredibly significant. I personally stand in complete support of stem cell research whilst also, having high expectations for stem cell therapy, as this holds great hope for the treatment of spinal cord injuries, now as in future.
References
Ito, K. &. (2014). Metabolic requirements for the maintenance of self-renewing stem cells. Nature reviews Molecular cell biology, 15(4) , 243-256.
Morrison, S. J. (2014). The bone marrow niche for hematopoietic stem cells. Nature, 505(7483) , 327-334.
Strauer, B. E. (2003). Stem cell therapy in perspective. Circulation, 107(7) , 929-934.
Yan, L. Y. (2013). Single-cell RNA-Seq profiling of human preimplantation embryos and embryonic stem cells. Nature structural & molecular biology, 20(9) , 1131-1139.
