An adult stem cell is an undifferentiated cell, found among differentiated cells in a tissue or organ that can renew itself and can differentiate to yield some or all of the major specialized cell types of the tissue or organ. The primary roles of using adult stem cell therapy in a living organism are to maintain and repair the tissue in which they are found.
Adult stem cells have been identified in many organs and tissues of the human body. These includes the brain, bone marrow, peripheral blood, blood vessels, skeletal muscle, skin, teeth, heart, gut, liver, ovarian epithelium, and testis. They are thought to reside in a specific area of each tissue. Stem cells may remain non-dividing for long periods of time. This is until the time arrives for them to start working towards generating new tissues and cells when the body needs them. Adult Stem cell therapy makes use of this fact!
Read on For Adult Stem Cell Therapy
Unlike embryonic stem cells, the origin of adult stem cells in some mature tissues is still under investigation and remains unknown. Scientists have found adult stem cells in many more tissues than they once thought could be possible. This finding has led researchers and clinicians to ask whether adult stem cell therapy could be used for transplants. If the differentiation of adult stem cells can be controlled in the laboratory, then it is very much possible for using adult stem cell therapy as the basis of transplantation-based therapies.
Typically, there is a very small number of stem cells present in each tissue. Once removed from the body, their capacity to divide is limited, making generation of large quantities of stem cells difficult. Scientists in many laboratories are trying to find better ways to grow large quantities of adult stem cells in cell culture. They also try to manipulate them to generate specific cell types so they can be used to treat injury or disease. This is the basis of adult stem cell therapy. Some examples of potential treatments include regenerating bone using cells derived from bone marrow stroma, developing insulin-producing cells for type 1 diabetes, and repairing damaged heart muscle following a heart attack with cardiac muscle cells.
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