Stem cells are the master cells of the human body, according to the Mayo Clinic. They are the cells from which all of the different types of cells in the body arise. Stem cells do not perform a specific function in the body, but they can differentiate into cells of the heart, blood, liver, nerve, or of any other tissue that the body needs. Stem cells are found in 4 or 5 day old embryos and in nearly all the tissue types present in the adult and child body.
Stem Cell Therapy
It is possible that adult or embryonic stem cells may be used to replace diseased or injured cells in various organs in the body, says the Mayo Clinic. Organ transplant procedures will not be used as frequently as they are at this time when this technique of stem cell therapy or regenerative medicine is perfected. Doctors will be able to repair your diseased heart tissue by growing adult stem cells in the laboratory, converting them into heart muscle cells and then injecting the cells directly into your diseased heart. These healthy cells would then multiply and repair the damaged area of your heart. A heart transplant procedure would not be necessary. Doctors are working to develop stem cell therapies for a number of other degenerative diseases throughout the body, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Testing New Drugs
Stem cells that are capable of differentiating into many different types of tissue could potentially be used to assay the safety of investigational new drugs, according to the National Institutes of Health. The use of stem cells in this way would reduce the need for human clinical trials for the safety and tolerance of a new drug. The stumbling block to the use of stem cells for this purpose is the inability of doctors to precisely control the differentiation of the stem cells into the tissue type needed to test the drug, says the National Institutes of Health. This would mean that a group of new drugs for the treatment of a nerve cell disease like Parkinson's disease could not be tested using identical nerve tissue for each drug. The nerve tissue generated from each stem cell differentiation process would be different from drug to drug.
Clarify Role of Genetics in Cell Development
Doctors may be able to learn more about how genetics governs the cell development process by observing stem cells as they become specific cell types, says Medline Plus. This may lead to a better understanding of problems such as birth defects and cancer which occur because the cell development process goes awry. A better understanding of the genetic basis of these problems could help doctors to devise ways to prevent them from occurring.
