• Question: Since stem cells have the ability to differentiate into any type of cell, they offer something in the development of medical treatments for a wide range of conditions. What are these conditions ??

    Asked by th1597 to Emma, James, Jayne, Kara, Sharon on 16 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      Hi th1597,
      You are totally correct, they could be used in lots of treatments. Currently, they are being used in treatment of leukaemia, diabetes, some neurological (brain) diseases and in cartilage and bone treatments. They have also been used to treat rare conditions like fanconi anaemia. Scientists have also used stem cells to rebuild a windpipe which is really amazing! In the future, they have the potential to help most cancers, parkinsons disease, liver disease, heart disease, grow new skin and bones and restore sight. There are probably a lot more that I have not covered, but they are pretty amazing cells!

    • Photo: Emma King

      Emma King answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      Hi th1597 – big question! Stem cells have been talked about as being able to cure or help a whole range of conditions but so far there are not many therapies that have actually been developed. Where they are likely to help out most is in conditions where cells have been lost and we can’t regrow them through conventional methods – two trials that are going on at the moment are looking at regrowing neural (brain) cells to help stroke victims and spinal cord tissue to help people who are paralysed.
      Stem cells can also be used to help regrow blood cells when people have lost theirs due to illness or cancer treatment – we have had bone marrow transplants for many years now, which is technically a stem cell therapy.
      Stem cells could also be used to grow tissue in the lab to help us test chemicals and drugs on – so it may be that the biggest advantages from stem cell research are actually that we find better conventional drugs to cure conditions.

    • Photo: Jayne Charnock

      Jayne Charnock answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      Ace question th1597!

      The list is endless, but at the moment the treatments that have actually had positive results that can be proved to be caused by the stem cells is quite limited. Some private companies will claim that everything from diabetes to MS, from spinal injury to blindness can be cured by stem cell therapy. Studies though have had varying degrees of success in proving this to be the case, some with amazing results, others that are more dubious. I certainly wouldnt dismiss them stright off, but i like to read all the details of the studies very careful before making up my mind. I personally suffer from MS, but i’m not convinced that spending thousands of pounds at a clinic on the other side of the world on a treatment that hasnt been fully tested is the way to go!

      However, you may have heard of bone marrow transplantations? Thats a kind of stem cell therapy that been in use over 30 years! For over 30 years, bone marrow, and more recently, umbilical cord blood stem cells, have been used to treat cancer patients with conditions such as leukemia and lymphoma. During chemotherapy, most growing cells are killed by the cytotoxic agents. These agents, however, cannot discriminate between the leukemia or neoplastic cells, and the hematopoietic stem cells within the bone marrow. It is this side effect of conventional chemotherapy strategies that the stem cell transplant attempts to reverse; a donor’s healthy bone marrow reintroduces functional stem cells to replace the cells lost in the host’s body during treatment.

      So it can, and does work!

    • Photo: James Chan

      James Chan answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      You are absolutely right – stem cell technology can help us in many different ways. People have recently injected stem cells in patients who have had heart attacks and found that this made the heart beat stronger – so that’s pretty promising. In fact, the British Heart Foundation just got something like £50 MILLION (!!) to look into how they can help in heart disease. I myself am looking at how stem cells can help broken bones heal quicker because that can help the millions of people worldwide who have fractures and may never be able to walk or work again. Others are working on lots of other diseases like dementia and multiple scleorsis, all sorts of cancer. I even know a guy in the US who is trying to make entire organs, like the liver, using stem cells! So, I think we’ll find out more and more how useful it is as we begin to use this technology on real patients. at the moment, most of this research is still on animals and happening in the labs. Come join us!

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