Stem Cells and Cord Blood

What are Stem Cells?

The definition of a stem cell - An undifferentiated cell whose daughter cells may differentiate into other cell types, such as blood cells. After twenty years of research, there are currently no approved treatments or human trials using embryonic stem cells. Stem cells in general term refers to the fertilized human embryo that has an ability to develop into any other 220 types of cells present in an adult human body.

Stem cells can now be grown and transformed into specialized cells with characteristics consistent with cells of various tissues such as muscles or nerves through cell culture. Highly plastic adult stem cells from a variety of sources, including umbilical cord blood and bone marrow, are routinely used in medical therapies. Embryonic cell lines and autologous embryonic stem cells generated through therapeutic cloning have also been proposed as promising candidates for future therapies.

Stem cells are cells found in most, if not all, multi-cellular organisms. They are characterized by the ability to renew themselves through mitotic cell division and differentiating into a diverse range of specialized cell types.

The two broad categories of mammalian stem cells are embryonic stem cells, derived from blastocysts, and adult stem cells which are found in adult tissues. The term adult stem cell refers to any cell which is found in a developed organism that has two properties: the ability to divide and create another cell like itself and also divide and create a cell more differentiated than itself.

Embryonic stem cell lines are cultures of cells derived from the epiblast tissue of the inner cell mass (ICM) of a blastocyst or earlier morula stage embryos. A blastocyst is an early stage embryo, approximately four to five days old in humans and consisting of 50 - 150 cells. ES cells are pluripotent and give rise during development to all derivatives of the three primary germ layers: ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm. In other words, they can develop into each of the more than 200 cell types of the adult body when given sufficient and necessary stimulation for a specific cell type. They do not contribute to the extra-embryonic membranes or the placenta.

Adult stem cell refers to any cell which is found in a developed organism that has two properties: the ability to divide and create another cell like itself and also divide and create a cell more differentiated than itself. Also known as somatic stem cells and germline stem cells, they can be found in children, as well as adults. Pluripotent adult stem cells are rare and generally small in number but can be found in a number of tissues including umbilical cord blood. A great deal of adult stem cell research has focused on clarifying their capacity to divide or self-renew indefinitely and their differentiation potential.

There is also another from of stem cell capable of generating specific types of new cells that are required for someone suffering from any cell degeneration disease. While adult stem cells hardly raise any controversial issues the former cells obtained from fertilized human embryo is a topic for hot debate among people with different mind sets.

While the possible treatment by stem cells has been good news, its origin from a fertilized human embryo has led to hot debates. A fertilized embryo is often referred to as a living being and harvesting it for the purpose of medicinal use leads to an end of embryonic life. Hence it raises a question of ethics that should one life be sacrificed for saving another.

People in the field of medical advancements strongly support research based on stem cell theory. Stem cell advancement has been a light of hope for people suffering from diseases that were supposed to be incurable until now. Medical scientists have done experiments to establish the fact that fertilized embryos of human origin can be used for successful treatment of diseases in which the present damaged cells in any person's body were incapable of regenerating themselves.

Many people especially certain religious organizations and the catholics stand very opposed to this form of medical research and have boycotted it since it's beginning. Those who are in favor of rearing stem cells say that such research is carried on embryos that were never meant to develop into humans.

A number of adult stem cell therapies already exist, particularly bone marrow transplants that are used to treat leukemia. In the future, medical researchers anticipate being able to use technologies derived from stem cell research to treat a wider variety of diseases including cancer, Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injuries, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and muscle damage, amongst a number of other impairments and conditions. Medical researchers believe that stem cell therapy has the potential to dramatically change the treatment of human disease.

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Further Information Regarding Stem Cells and Cord Blood

Bioethicists Lead Call for Public Debates on Future Uses of Stem Cells
More than 40 scientists, bioethicists, lawyers and science journal editors are calling on their colleagues, policy makers and the public to begin developing guidelines for the research and reproductive use of stem cell-derived eggs and sperm, even though such use may be a decade or more away.

Enhancing Stem Cells to Stimulate Muscle Regeneration
New way to stimulate muscle regeneration paves the way for new treatments for debilitating conditions such as muscular dystrophy.

Stem Cell Research Pushing Forward - MSers Look To Mice For Cure
Stem Cells and human testing have not been popular topic for many Americans although as of March 9th 2009 White House administration has given go ahead to push stem cell research to next level.

Stem Cell Research and the Disability Community
Recently, Ryan K. approached Disabled World concerning stem cell research and the potential effects it may have on the Disability Community. Ryan had read an article at Disabled World on the subject of Stem Cell Research and was interested in my opinion regarding any potential effects on the community.

Stem Cells Offer Hope for MS Treatment
A preliminary study on the use of stem cells obtained from a patient's own adipose tissue in the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) has shown promising results. The three case studies, described in BioMed Central's open access Journal of Translational Medicine support further clinical evaluation of stromal vascular fraction (SVF) cells in MS and other autoimmune conditions.

Proposed NIH Stem Cell Guidelines Dismay - Stanford Researcher
The director of stem cell research at the Stanford University School of Medicine says he is troubled by draft guidelines issued today by the National Institutes of Health that would prohibit federal funding for research on stem cell lines created through a technique sometimes referred to as “therapeutic cloning” or somatic cell nuclear transfer.

Stem Cells Promote Healing of Diabetic Ulcers
Treatment of chronic wounds is a continuing clinical problem and socio-economic burden with diabetic foot ulcers alone costing the NHS £300 million a year. Scientists in Bristol have found that human foetal stem cells can effectively be used to treat back leg ischaemic ulcers in a model of type 1 diabetes.

How Stem Cells Form
An Emory University study shows some of the first direct evidence of a process required for epigenetic reprogramming between generations – a finding that could shed more light on the mechanisms of fertilization, stem-cell formation and cloning.

Stroke Patient uses Own Stem Cells
For the first time in the United States, a stroke patient has been intravenously injected with his own bone marrow stem cells as part of a research trial at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

Stem Cell Therapy has Enormous Potential for Bone Injuries
Rarely will physicians use the word "miraculous" when discussing patient recoveries. But that's the very phrase orthopaedic physicians and scientists are using in upstate New York to describe their emerging stem cell research that could have a profound impact on the treatment of bone injuries.

Stem Cells Help People with Diabetes become Insulin Free
The majority of patients with type 1 diabetes who underwent a certain type of stem cell transplantation became insulin free, several for more than three years, with good glycemic control, and also increased C-peptide levels, an indirect measure of beta-cell function.

UCSF Closer to Creating Safe Embryonic like Stem Cells
A team of UCSF researchers has for the first time used tiny molecules called microRNAs to help turn adult mouse cells back to their embryonic state. These reprogrammed cells are pluripotent, meaning that, like embryonic stem cells, they have the capacity to become any cell type in the body.

Stem cell Therapy Makes Cloudy Corneas Clear
Stem cells collected from human corneas restore transparency and don't trigger a rejection response when injected into eyes that are scarred and hazy, according to experiments conducted in mice by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Stem Cell Therapy Grows New Blood Vessels
Research led by David Hess of the Robarts Research Institute at The University of Western Ontario has identified how to use selected stem cells from bone marrow to grow new blood vessels to treat diseases such as peripheral artery disease.

Human Embryonic Stem Cells Source of Oral Mucosal Tissues
Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) provide a potentially unlimited source of oral mucosal tissues that may revolutionize the treatment of oral diseases.

Cancer Stem Cells Generated by Cancer Outgrowth
Scientists have discovered that growing mouse skin cells in spheres can lead to generation of cells with properties of cancer stem cells, even without genetic manipulation of stem cell genes.

Amniotic Fluid May Provide Stem Cells for Future Therapies
For the first time, scientists have shown that amniotic fluid (the protective liquid surrounding an embryo) may be a potential new source of stem cells for therapeutic applications.

Blood Stem Cell Attachment Communication Deciphered
An understanding of the factors that govern migration of blood stem cells might lead to improved treatment of leukemia, a cancer that affects circulating white blood cells. The findings also have implications for culturing infection-fighting immune cells outside the body, where they could be temporarily held in storage during chemotherapy and other treatments which suppress the immune system.

Stem Cell Therapy May Lead to Treatment for Deafness
A new study led by Dr. Marcelo N. Rivolta of the University of Sheffield has successfully isolated human auditory stem cells from fetal cochleae (the auditory portion of the inner ear) and found they had the capacity to differentiate into sensory hair cells and neurons.

Stem Cells Crucial to Diabetes Cure
More than five years ago, Dr. Lawrence C.B. Chan and colleagues in his Baylor College of Medicine laboratory cured mice with type 1 diabetes by using a gene to induce liver cells to make insulin.

Stem Cells could Halt Osteoporosis and Promote Bone Growth
While interferon gamma sounds like an outer space weapon, it's actually a hormone produced by our own bodies, and it holds great promise to repair bones affected by osteoporosis.

From Stem Cells to New Organs
By now, most people have read stories about how to "grow your own organs" using stem cells is just a breakthrough away. Despite the hype, this breakthrough has been elusive. A new report published in the March 2009 issue of The FASEB Journal (www.fasebj.org) brings bioengineered organs a step closer...

Stem Cells Provide New Model for Lou Gehrig's Disease
Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles developed an optimized protocol to generate motor neurons from human embryonic stem cells (ES cells), which express normal or mutant forms of the SOD-1 gene, which is linked to inherited, familial ALS.

Stem cells Awakened by Interferon
Scientists were still puzzling over which signaling molecules actually wake up stem cells from their dormancy. Andreas Trumpp and Marieke Essers from his team have now reported in Nature that interferon-alpha, a messenger substance of the immune system, acts like an alarm clock for hematopoietic stem cells. The scientists have thus shown for the first time that interferon-alpha can have a direct influence on the function of stem cells.

Leukemia Stem Cells more like Embryonic Stem cells than Adult stem cells
Research using a mouse model of human leukemia has provided critical insight into the genetic factors related to the generation and maintenance of myeloid leukemia stem cells. The study, published by Cell Press in the February 6th issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, is likely to have a profound impact on the future design of therapeutic approaches targeted against cancer stem cells.

Adult Stem Cells Convert into Embryonic-like Stem Cells
The simple recipe scientists earlier discovered for making adult stem cells behave like embryonic-like stem cells just got even simpler. A new report in the February 6th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, shows for the first time that neural stem cells taken from adult mice can take on the characteristics of embryonic stem cells with the addition of a single transcription factor. Transcription factors are genes that control the activity of other genes.

Cancer Stem Cells Resistance to Radiation
Much to the dismay of patients and physicians, cancer stem cells, tiny powerhouses that generate and maintain tumor growth in many types of cancers, are relatively resistant to the ionizing radiation often used as therapy for these conditions. Part of the reason, say researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine, is the presence of a protective pathway meant to shield normal stem cells from DNA damage. When the researchers blocked this pathway, the cells became more susceptible to radiation.

Accelerated Bone Growth Method Uses Stem Cells and Nanotubes
Engineers at the University of California at San Diego have come up with a way to help accelerate bone growth through the use of nanotubes and stem cells. This new finding could lead to quicker and better recovery, for example, for patients who undergo orthopedic surgery.

Stem Cell Transplant Reverses Early Multiple Sclerosis
Researchers from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine appear to have reversed the neurological dysfunction of early-stage multiple sclerosis patients by transplanting their own immune stem cells into their bodies and thereby "resetting" their immune systems.

Embryonic Stem Cell Trials Approved by FDA
The Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of embryonic stem cells in human trials for the first time. While the trials involve controversial embryonic cells that have problems with tumors and immune system rejection, the use of adult stem cells has already proven safe for spinal cord patients.

Engineered Virus Targets and Kills Cancer Stem Cells in Neuroblastoma
Treatment blocked deadly nerve cancer in study led by Cincinnati Children's. After identifying an apparent population of cancer stem cells for neuroblastoma, researchers successfully used a reprogrammed herpes virus to block tumor formation in mice by targeting and killing the cells.

StemEnhance Facts
StemTech Health Sciences was founded in 2005 in order to bring a new breakthrough product technology to the marketplace. This Product is called StemEnhance and is the beginnings of a natural, phytoceutical dietary supplement started as a conceptual theory in the mind of a research scientist at the turn of the century.

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Regenerate Skin
A new study suggests that adult bone marrow stem cells can be used in the construction of artificial skin. The findings mark an advancement in wound healing and may be used to pioneer a method of organ reconstruction.

Testes Stem Cells can Change into Other Body Tissues
Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine The Turek Clinic in San Francisco have succeeded in isolating stem cells from human testes. The cells bear a striking resemblance to embryonic stem cells - they can differentiate into each of the three main types of tissues of the body.

New Stem Cell Research for Hearing Impairment
Adult stem cells, which exist in mature body tissue and organs, continuously renew their numbers as needed throughout an individual's life, replacing damaged cells as needed. It is this fact that caused researchers to wonder if these stem cells could correct hearing loss.

International Stem Cell Summit - India
The conference intended for all Stem Cell researchers and clinicians providing an overview of unanswered questions, new research directions and resources for Stem Cell research shed the light on the ever-growing and exciting research occurring in India in the developing area of Stem cells and the stem cell market all over the world.

Stem Cell Panakea provides treatment for Rheumatoid Arthritis Multiple Sclerosis and Cancer
A new form of regenerative treatment is now available for those who suffer from conditions beyond the reach of conventional medicine. It is known as the SCP- Stem Cell Panakea and is the brain child of Dr. Omar Gonzalez.

Stem Cell Treatment for Degenerative Diseases
Sci-fiction turns Sci-fact as Dr. Omar Gonzalez performs 'miracles' in 30 minutes to provide effective and economical biological solutions with stem cell transplantation therapy.

Cord Blood and Stem Cell Research
Stem cells from fetuses and cord blood are particularly interesting to medical research. This is because stem cells are vital and effective treatments in combating many forms of human disease, particularly those that affect the body at the cellular level.

Stem Cells Could Make the Paralyzed Walk Again
The paralyzed could walk again and those who suffer from cancer and Parkinson's disease would be among the many who could return to a life free of disease. People with leukemia are already being healed.

Doctor is Patient for Stem Cell Treatment
A doctor from Hawaii traveled all the way to Thailand to become a patient to treat his heart disease. Dr. George Smith was treated for his heart condition with adult stem cell therapy for the 2nd time.

New Guidelines for Stem Cell Research
The stem cell controversy has ruffled the Congress, State Legislatures, President Bush, and the whole of United Nations. It has resulted in the proposal of new guidelines for stem cell research by the National Academy of Sciences, which is a non-profit group and an advisory to the government.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Cord Blood Treatment
With cord blood becoming the talk of town, let’s have a look at the bright as well as the dark sides of this miracle blood that promises to treat many life-threatening diseases in the near future.

How Important is Umbilical Cord Blood?
Umbilical cord blood is the blood that is found in the umbilical cord and the placenta. It is extracted immediately after the delivery of the baby. This blood is rich in stem cells. Stem cells are the architects of your body. They have the capability of creating new blood cells, brain cells, etc. They can adjust to the body anytime and start repairing or replenishing the old cells.

Cord Blood Stem Cells - Diabetes
Stem cell technology has been advancing forward in leaps and bounds. The breakthroughs in cord blood stem cell research can substantially speed up the development of treatments for life-threatening diseases and debilitating conditions.

Cord Blood Stem Cells: Lung Disease Kidney and Lupus
Umbilical cord blood from newborn babies can be used to produce embryonic-like cells that can potentially treat diseases and debilitating conditions.

Researchers Unlock Molecular Origin of Blood Stem Cells
A research team led by Nancy Speck, PhD, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has identified the location and developmental timeline in which a majority of bone marrow stem cells form in the mouse embryo.