Thursday 20 October 2016

Stem Cells- The future medicines



When I was reading an article in a journal I read about the importance of umbilical cord blood and thinking of the methods that can help store this valuable blood. I was even thinking that storing these data could definitely revolutionize the stem cell therapy as one of the pioneering field in health care and the Question in mind, of how 101 Kauravas born with just a fluid added in a pot, It was a pot of stem cells that have made 101 humans grow in a pot. I even felt proud of the think whether it is fiction or else a myth or even truth, whatever, but our ancestors were genius minds.


Then I went on studying the importance of stem cells.

Stem cells are the class of undifferentiated cells that on can differentiate to any specialized cell of our body. In fact, life arouses because of the differentiation of these stem cells. Stem cells are of two types
1. Embryonic stem cells: These are derived from 4- 5 days old embryo in the phase of development. When Egg and sperm cells fuse to form a zygote, single zygote cell then divides to form up to 32 cells for 4-6 days where this mass of cell is implanted into the uterus of the mother. This cell stage is called as blastocyst and the blastocyst has several layers in it, different layers in blastocyst gives rises to placenta and inner cell mass, this inner cell mass makes stem cells and stem cells eventually make an organism to develops and entire tissues, organs, organ system, I think this is why I said in the beginning; life arouses because of stem cells the product of fertilization process.

2. Adult stem cells are those which are formed after embryonic stages, these are also called as somatic cells whose division results in growth, development, repair mechanism of an organism. These are present in various organs and tissues such as bone marrow, skeletal muscles, skin, liver, blood, blood vessels.

Apart from these natural developmental importance stem cells have a greater potential as a therapeutic agent artificially. Because they can divide indefinitely, these cells can create any part of the body when grown in a cell line which is becoming popular as stem cell therapy.

Stem cells are very helpful in revolutionizing the tissue implantation which layman call it as plastic surgery unknowingly, it is a method in which kidney, skin, heart of one person can be transplanted to other humans, but the problem with this type of transplantation is the graft rejection i.e. the organs of one human may be antigenic (foreign) to the receiver   because of this rejection the transplantation success rate will be very low except in the case of identical twins.

The stem cells can be used to produce the faulty genes and replace them as a part of gene therapy, thereby it can be very helpful in tackling genetic diseases, autoimmune diseases,  juvenile diabetes, cardiovascular diseases that wrack the human population.

Stem cells can also be used to administer the immune cells and can be helpful in controlling immune-related diseases like AIDS, can be used to treat cancers as well. Stem cells also play a pivotal role in the modern research that mainly manifests new drugs and tackling various diseases arouse day today.

Why store umbilical cord blood
There are many myths knitted around the umbilical cord blood, but Umbilical cord blood is the chief and cheapest source of stem cell, this blood is very rich in stem cell and easy to store by cryopreservation and other methods.


It is the best method that can ensure future health for a child, there are many organizations that educate on umbilical cord blood and store it. Here are some of them located in India.






Problems associated with cord blood
Cord blood storage has many advantages which are infinite but for the Indian context the storage of cord blood looks expensive.

Lack of facilities in a small town, villages that can make ensure the sterile the condition required for the collection of cord blood.

Myths about the storage of cord bold in people’s mind.

Lack of awareness in people and ethical issues.

Whatever the problems are, hope for the best to happen, hope the cost of cord blood storage reduces and let every child gets its future safe secured.




To read about please visit here<a href="http://bio-perceptions.blogspot.in/" title="Japanese Encephalitis">Japanese Encephalitis</a>



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