What is Cell Medicine?
What is cell medicine?
Cell medicine is the application of cells to grow, replace or repair damaged tissue. It
includes the use of stem cells, specialized immune system cells thinkbusinesstoday, iPS cells, dendritic
cells and other cell types to treat a disease or injury.
Stem cells are the building blocks of all cells in the body. They can differentiate into
almost any type of cell in the body, including a variety of blood and tissue cells.
In some cases, they can even help promote the healing response in injured cells.
This is called regenerative medicine, and it can help restore normal functions for
people who have lost them.
A patient with leukemia may receive a bone marrow transplant, which replaces their
unhealthy blood cells with healthy ones from a donor’s marrow. In this way, the
marrow can help their body fight off the cancerous cells. This type of therapy is the
oldest form of cell medicine.
Doctors also use hematopoietic stem cells or blood stem cells, from bone marrow
and umbilical cord blood, to treat certain types of blood-related diseases such as
leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma. They can also be used in experimental
ways to treat a number of degenerative conditions such as heart failure.
Hematopoietic stem cells are the precursors of all circulating blood cells and can be
harvested and transferred to patients by bone marrow transplant, also called
allogeneic or autologous. Researchers have been using these cells to treat cancers
and other hematologic (blood-related) diseases for more than 40 years.
Many studies are also exploring the potential of other types of stem cells, such as
mesenchymal stem cells or bone marrow-derived stem cells, to treat a wide range of
diseases and injuries. Examples include repairing or rebuilding damaged cartilage in
joints, restoring function in organs such as the kidney and liver, reducing symptoms
of autoimmune diseases and helping patients with neurological disorders.
Scientists have been developing new stem cell lines to make research more
effective and safer. Compared to stem cell lines created nearly a decade ago, these
new cells are more flexible and easier to work with. They are also less likely to
become “contaminated” by other cells as they grow in the lab.
In addition, scientists are learning how to control the cell’s ability to proliferate. This
allows them to create “tissue-specific” or regenerative cells, such as cardiomyocytes
that can repair damaged heart tissue, pancreatic islet cells that can help regulate
insulin levels in diabetics and chondrocytes that can support the production of
cartilage in joints.
Some researchers are also testing the use of these cells to stimulate a patient’s own
immune system to kill cancerous cells in the body. This approach is known as
immune cell therapy or adoptive immunotherapy.
The National Institutes of Health funds research to develop new treatments for a
variety of diseases, but most of the cell therapies are still in their infancy. This is
because of the number of obstacles that need to be overcome before these cell
therapies can reach patients.