Stem Cell History
Stem Cell Therapies | Future Treatments | Uncurable Diseases Given Hope
The history of stem cell research had a benign, embryonic beginning in the mid 1800's with the discovery that some cells could generate other cells. Now stem cell research is embroiled in a controversy over the use of human embryonic stem cells for research. In the early 1900's the first real stem cells were discovered when it was found that some cells generate blood cells. Science and clinical research teams have spent more than 20 years doing meticulous evidence-based research focused on the goal of improving the quality of life for the millions of people who look up at the world each day from their wheelchairs.
Stem cells are how we all begin: undifferentiated cells that go on to develop into any of the more than 200 types of cell the adult human body holds.
Few quarrel with predictions of the awesome potential that stem cell research holds. One day, scientists say, stem cells may be used to replace or repair damaged cells, and have the potential to drastically change the treatment of conditions like cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease and even paralysis. But the divisions over how to conduct that research have been deep and bitter. Most research has been conducted on embryonic stem cell lines -- cultures of cells derived from four- or five-day-old embryos, or fertilized cells. Opponents of embryonic stem cell research, which often uses embryos discarded by fer
Why don't we live forever?
Because we get sick?
Because we get old?
Because we get hurt and can't heal?
All of these are correct. Each one results from a failure of the body's ability to grow, maintain or repair itself - functions that depend on our stem cells.
In What are Some Different Types of Stem Cells?, we saw how stem cells form the basic building materials for the human body. This makes them good candidates for restoring tissues that have been damaged by injury or disease.
For decades, researchers have been studying the biology of stem cells to figure out how development works and to find new ways of treating health problems.
Did you know that several stem cell therapies are routinely used to treat disease today?
These include:
- Adult Stem Cell Transplant: Bone Marrow Stem Cells
- Adult Stem Cell Transplant: Peripheral Blood Stem Cells
- Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplant
- Adult Stem Cell Transplant: Bone Marrow Stem Cells
Perhaps the best-known stem cell therapy to date is the bone marrow transplant, which is used to treat leukemia and other types of cancer, as well as various blood disorders.
Human stem cells could also be used to test new drugs. For example, new medications could be tested for safety on differentiated cells generated from human pluripotent cell lines. Other kinds of cell lines are already used in this way.
Cancer cell lines, for example, are used to screen potential anti-tumor drugs. But, the availability of pluripotent stem cells would allow drug testing in a wider range of cell types. However, to screen drugs effectively, the conditions must be identical when comparing different drugs. Therefore, scientists will have to be able to precisely control the differentiation of stem cells into the specific cell type on which drugs will be tested.
Current knowledge of the signals controlling differentiation fall well short of being able to mimic these conditions precisely to consistently have identical differentiated cells for each drug being tested. Perhaps the most important potential application of human stem cells is the generation of cells and tissues that could be used for cell-based therapies. Today, donated organs and tissues are often used to replace ailing or destroyed tissue, but the need for transplantable tissues and organs far outweighs the available supply. Stem cells, directed to differentiate into specific cell types, offer the possibility of a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat diseases including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Research on stem cells is advancing knowledge about how an organism develops from a single cell and how healthy cells replace damaged cells in adult organisms. This promising area of science is also leading scientists to investigate the possibility of cell-based therapies to treat disease, which is often referred to as regenerative or reparative medicine.
Stem cells are one of the most fascinating areas of biology today. But like many expanding fields of scientific inquiry, research on stem cells raises scientific questions as rapidly as it generates new discoveries.
- Parkinson's Disease
- Stem Cell Activities by Institute
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
- Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research
- National Institute of Dental Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)
- Skeletal Biology
- National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
- Investigator's Guide to Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
- Stem Cell Initiatives
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
- Stem Cell Information
- Alzheimer's disease
- Heart disease
- Cancer
- Spinal cord injuries
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Lupus
- Scleroderma
- Diabetes
- Parkinson's disease
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