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.
Why is this a stem cell therapy?
Leukemia is a cancer of white blood cells, or leukocytes. Like other blood cells, leukocytes are made in the bone marrow through a process that begins with multipotent adult stem cells. Mature leukocytes are released into the bloodstream, where they work to fight off infections in our bodies.
Leukemia results when leukocytes begin to grow and function abnormally, becoming cancerous. These abnormal cells cannot fight off infection, and they interfere with the functions of other organs.
Successful treatment for leukemia depends on getting rid of all the abnormal leukocytes in the patient, allowing healthy ones to grow in their place. One way to do this is through chemotherapy, which uses potent drugs to target and kill the abnormal cells. When chemotherapy alone can't eliminate them all, physicians sometimes turn to bone marrow transplants.
In a bone marrow transplant, the patient's bone marrow stem cells are replaced with those from a healthy, matching donor. To do this, all of the patient's existing bone marrow and abnormal leukocytes are first killed using a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. Next, a sample of donor bone marrow containing healthy stem cells is introduced into the patient's bloodstream.
If the transplant is successful, the stem cells will migrate into the patient's bone marrow and begin producing new, healthy leukocytes to replace the abnormal cells.
Source: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/units/stemcells/sctoday/
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