Stem cells

The adult stem cell category refers to undifferentiated cells that are present in all the body parts and tissues, for the only purpose of renewal and transformation into differentiated cells with a specialized role in the body functions. While an embryonic stem cell originates in the blastocyst, the initial cellular organization out of which the embryo evolves, scientists still don’t know anything about the origin of an adult stem cell as part of mature tissues. The moment when scientists realized that we all carry stem cells throughout our entire lives, was revolutionary in the medical history.

The great discovery is that a single adult stem cell can evolve in different specialized categories, according to individual conditions. Research has gone so far that we presently know there are adult stem cells in the heart and in the central nervous system. The beginning of all studies goes fifty years back when the first bone marrow researchers were ready to understand the presence of two types of stem cells in the spinal cord. A first group is responsible for the formation of all the blood cells necessary to the body, while a second one works to produce fat, bone, cartilage and connective tissues.

Discoveries are undoubtedly amazing, but adult stem cell research has had difficulties in creating laboratory cultures on the basis of samples taken from adult tissues. Although stem cells are present in a small number in all tissues, their capacity to proliferate is limited, which leads to the difficulty to create large quantities in the laboratory. An adult stem cell is believed to remain inactive in tissues, and it only activates when necessary because of some physical trauma or body failure. The major challenge at present is how to start cell culture and manipulate cells to treat diseases.

If control became possible over adult stem cell categories, medicine would be able to replace the dopamine-producing cells in the brains of Parkinson’s disease sufferers, or grow the insulin generating cells that would cure diabetes. The same goes true for the prevention of heart attacks by the regeneration of the cardiac muscle tissues. Various genetic experiments are further develop to find and separate adult stem cell groups as a means of creating more powerful and effective disease treatment.