Stem cell technology is a rapidly developing field with immense potential to treat a variety of malignant and non-malignant diseases. The technology is all about stem cells- cells which are non-specific, capable of self-renewal and multilineage differentiation. Stem cells survive well and show stable division in culture, making them ideal targets for in vitro manipulation.
There are many different types of stem cells that arise from different parts of the body or formed at different time points during development. They include embryonic stem cells that are present only during the early development of the fetus and different tissue-specific stem cells that exist in the body even during adulthood.
All stem cells can make copies of themselves as well as differentiate into more specialized cells.
They can be classified into different groups based on the source and potency.
Stem cell potency refers to its ability to differentiate into specialized cells. The potency reduces with each step of division and differentiation naturally in vivo.
According to the descending order of potency, stem cells can be organized as :
totipotent > pluripotent > multipotent > oligopotent > unipotent.
The potency reduced with each step of division and differentiation naturally in vivo.
There are nearly 220 types of cells in an embryo. A totipotent stem cell can differentiate into any of these cells as well as into extra-embryonic cells like those found in the placenta, while a pluripotent stem cell is only capable of giving rise to embryonic cells. And a multipotent stem cell can differentiate into a limited number of cell types in a particular lineage. The potency further reduces when it comes to oligopotent and unipotent cells.
The sources for high potency stem cells are usually embryo and lower potency cells are adults. But pluripotency can also be induced into a differentiated cell by genetic reprogramming. There lies the true potential of stem cell technology that combines the efforts of cell biologists, geneticists, and clinicians.
Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are the reprogrammed tissue-specific cells like the skin cells that behave more like embryonic stem cells. IPS cells are useful in testing new drugs and therapies and to study the normal development of an organism and disease progression.
The Approach
As the technique involves special cells, there are diverse approaches to study it. The study could be at the cellular level, molecular level, and genetic level. The application of these cells also requires an understanding of the diversified tools, techniques, and newer research developments. Knowledge of diseases, their cause, and progression, etc. are equally necessary along with ethics and legal aspects associated with such technology.
Applications of Stem Cell Technology
Stem cells’ ability to turn into other types of cells is being extensively exploited in the field of medicine. Stem cells can help scientists in understanding how a complex organism is developed from a fertilized egg. Stem cells facilitate the study of signals and mechanisms underlying the precise development of an organism as well as the related medical conditions like cancer and birth defects. Many scientists around the world are interested in identifying those signals and proteins that lead to the differentiation of stem cells into specific cell types.
The ability of stem cells to replace the damaged cells is already being used to restore the blood system in patients with leukemia and for the treatment of extensive burns. Stem cells also hold the potential to in replacing the cells lost in many other devastating diseases. By engineering the stem cells with disease genes, they can be used to model disease processes in the laboratory, and better understand what goes wrong.
Few other application of stem cells include;
- Drug testing for safety and efficacy
- Treat diseases by replacement therapy – regenerative medicine
- Understanding cancer – developing models, treatment, etc.
- Understanding the cause of many genetic defects
Are stem cells already being used in the medical field?
Doctors are already using stem cells to replace those cells damaged during chemotherapy or to boost the immune system to fight some types of cancer and blood-related diseases like lymphoma, leukemia, multiple myeloma, and neuroblastoma. Umbilical cord stem cells or adult stem cells are used for this purpose.
Researches are ongoing to use stem cells for treating many other degenerative diseases like heart failure.
In conclusion, stem cell technology holds great potential in treating various illnesses and genetic disorders. Different stem cells have specific advantages in the field of medicine and many discoveries exploiting stem cells are in Phase I and II clinical trials. However, much more is yet to be understood about stem cells and hence the field of stem cell technology comes with immense scope and career opportunities.
Well, this was just to give you a brief idea about Stem Cell Technology As a Whole, Dive into the course to study about each aspects in details.