STEM CELLS

Stem cells are very young cells than can develop into specialised cells, like blood cells, bone cells and brain cells. The cells are being studied as a potential way to treat many diseases.

Stem cells can be harvested from adults, but another source is umbilical cord blood

stems cells from cord blood also are being sold to doctors to treat patients for conditions like pain in their joints, shoulders or back

research team at Kyoto University plans to inject five million induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells, which have the potential to develop into any cell in the body

The iPS cells from healthy donors will be developed into dopamine-producing brain cells, which are no longer present in people with Parkinson’s disease.

The clinical trials come after the researchers successfully used iPS cells to restore functioning brain cells in monkeys last year. 

In a significant development, a person with HIV infection has been reported to be experiencing remission for the last 18 months after antiretroviral therapy (ART) was stopped following stem cell transplantation in London.

Remission is when HIV RNA (ribonucleic acid) is undetectable in blood. ART is used for treating HIV.

the Union Health Ministry had notified New Drugs and Clinical Trial Rules, 2019, which for the first time include “stem cell derived products” as “new drugs

White blood cells are produced in bone marrow and then mature inside the thymus, where they become specialized T cells that help the body to fight infections and cancers. But the gland starts to shrink after puberty and increasingly becomes clogged with fat.

iPS cells are created by stimulating mature, already specialised, cells back into a juvenile state — basically cloning without the need for an embryo

.A major obstacle in using human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) to treat a variety of diseases has been successfully overcome by a team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay.

Researchers, including those from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, found that fasting dramatically improves stem cells’ ability to regenerate, in both aged and young mice.

Intestinal stem cells are responsible for maintaining the lining of the intestine, which typically renews itself every five days.

fasting induces cells to switch from their usual metabolism, which burns carbohydrates such as sugars, to metabolising fatty acids. This switch occurs through the activation of transcription factors called PPARs, which turn on many genes that are involved in metabolising fatty acids.

in a common type of ovarian cancer, cancer stem cells can morph into special cell types that build tiny bunches of blood vessel within the tumour.

Cancer stem cells are small in number in the tumour but are perhaps the most difficult ones to target as they resist chemotherapy and radiation.

When cancer stem cells are grown in the lab (in vitro) in a three-dimensional matrix, they form spherical structures referred to as spheroids

intra-pulmonary stem cell therapy is recently used in treating the chronic lung disease

Embryonic stem cells are capable of generating all the cell types that compose the organs and systems of the human body.

Embryonic stem cells contain multiple endocytosis-associated genes whose expression is suppressed unlike in the case of the specialised or differentiated cells.

One of the reasons why the efficiency of bone marrow transplantation gets compromised is due to fewer hematopoietic stem cells available for transplantation. 

treating hematopoietic stem cells with nitric oxide improved the engraftment potential of juvenile cells

Increase in the engraftment potential improves the success rate of bone marrow transplantation.

adult hematopoietic stem cells lost the engraftment potential when treated with a nitric oxide

They are self-replicating and, with appropriate biochemical signals, have the capability to divide and grow into any of the 200-odd "specialised cells" in the body that make up the different tissues of the heart, the lung, the liver, muscles, limbs, bones, the brain and the nervous system. This property is termed "pluripotency"

the best source of human pluripotent stem cells is known to be the cell mass that gathers at the bottom of the hollow of a five-to-seven-day-old embryo, or the blastocyst.

Stem cells can be derived from sources other than embryos as well - from adult cells, discarded umbilical cords, human placenta and foetal tissue.

At the centre of the moral controversy about stem cell research is the status of the embryo and its "right to life". Deriving stem cells from embryos results in the destruction or "death" of the embryo,

this societal perception of morals and ethics with regard to embryos is what underpins the 1994 legislation that forbids federal funding of embryo research.

The term "human embryo" is defined in the statute as "any organism... that is derived by fertilisation, parthenogenesis, cloning, or any other means from one or more human gametes or human diploid cells."

the treatments, Lipokraft, offers practical and long-lasting solutions for removing lines, wrinkles and even scars. 

Stem Cell Therapy treatment, Repokraft, offers hope to infertile couples.The treatment makes use of autologous stem cell therapy, combined with freshly prepared Platelet Rich Plasma