How far is stem cell therapy from us?
2020-09-01
As everyone knows, Dolly sheep was born on July 6, 1996 by Professor Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute and others through somatic cell cloning. It is the world's first adult somatic cloned sheep. Not long ago, the British Medical Journal "The Lancet" reported that in June 2008, a medical team composed of scientific researchers from multiple countries completed the world’s first artificial trachea and a complete artificial device transplant in Spain. The 30-year-old female patient has fully recovered after 5 months after the operation.
According to MatinA Ichal of the University of Bristol, the stem cell implant uterine transplantation technique can be developed into routine surgery in about 20 years. The successful implementation of this operation is a major breakthrough in stem cell technology. It is an important milestone and may change the future of surgery. The American journal "Science" listed stem cell research as the world's top ten scientific achievements in 1999, ahead of the human genome sequencing and cloning technology.
On January 23, 2009, U.S. President Obama revoked Bush’s executive order restricting embryonic stem cell research. Subsequently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA approved the world’s first human embryonic stem cell treatment clinical trial. It is reported that embryonic stem cells have been It is a research hotspot in the medical field. This cell can generate any organ or tissue. In November 2009, US President Obama visited China and signed an agreement with China to jointly develop and research stem cells.
The "miracle" cells buried by God in living organisms
The reason why the lizard's tail re-grows after being cut off, and the leech can regenerate after removing the head and tail, is because there are stem cells all over it.
Stem cells move to the severed part, and through proliferation and differentiation, the whole process of regeneration of the lizard's tail and leech is completed. Stem cells are a kind of "miracle" cells, they are simply "omnipotent", they are the "seeds" buried in our body by "God", the "Adam" and "Eve" of somatic cells. Stem cells are not dry cells. ", translated from English "Stem", meaning tree trunk and "origin". Similar to a tree trunk can grow. Tree rights, leaves, flowers and fruit, etc. Somatic cells will die due to aging or injury, the human body has about 400 - -600 trillion cells. About 230 types of cells. About 70 million die and regenerate every day. There is a stem cell bank in the body to produce their substitutes at any time. The charm of stem cells is: Once the body needs these stem cells Differentiated mature somatic cells can be produced through division according to the developmental pathway. Perhaps one day, people suddenly discovered that human organs can be produced in the laboratory according to needs and processes. Blood cells, brain cells, bones, cardiomyocytes, liver, nerves, etc. It’s not a problem to replace it, even with incurable diseases such as leukemia, Parkinson’s disease and cancer, you can survive.
How far is stem cell therapy from us?
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation has been used clinically for nearly half a century and has cured tens of thousands of leukemia patients. Recently, the bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell preparation developed by Osiris in the United States will soon enter the market after obtaining the approval of the US FDA after phase III clinical trials. Chinese scientist Professor Han Zhongchao led a scientific and technological team to find a very ideal source of stem cells. In 2006, he obtained a pluripotent stem cell called umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell (UC-MSC) for the first time from discarded umbilical cord tissue of newborn babies. UC-MSC not only has the similar proliferation ability and multidirectional differentiation potential of embryonic stem cells, it is rich in sources, convenient to obtain materials, low virus infection rate, no ethical obstacles, and there is no teratoma problem caused by embryonic stem cells, and the antigenicity is very low and does not produce immunity Rejection, the use of allogeneic does not require HLA matching. Cord blood stem cells have become an effective means of stem cell therapy. Such simple, effective and cheap stem cell therapy will soon appear beside you and me.
Xinghuo Liaoyuan
At present, stem cells plus intervention have been used in many hospitals to regenerate myocardium for cardiac insufficiency, cardiomyopathy, and myocardial infarction. Stem cell plus interventional liver cell transplantation has an 88% curative effect on liver cirrhosis. This cell transplantation technique is expected to replace organ liver transplantation, and combined with TIPSS (transjugular intrahepatic shunt) can clinically cure liver cirrhosis. The treatment of diabetes and ulceration has achieved initial results. Severe COPD and rheumatism have been effective. Especially in neurology, cerebral infarction, cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral palsy, and spinal cord sclerosis have achieved remarkable results. Femoral head necrosis, diabetic limb necrosis, and traumatic paraplegia have special effects. As for beauty, anti-aging, and youth preservation, it has become fashionable in Taiwan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and the South.
confused
Embryonic stem cells are called universal cells. They can differentiate into various human cells and are expected to fundamentally treat a variety of modern intractable diseases. However, totipotent stem cells can only be obtained from embryos, which has led to a wide range of stem cell research. Questioning ethical issues. The church and conservatives believe that early human embryos are sacred and inviolable life. It is unethical to create a life and then destroy it in order to obtain embryonic stem cells. The main concern lies in embryonic stem cell research. It will cause someone to secretly clone lives, and may lead to the emergence of human cloning. Moral controversy has become a bottleneck restricting stem cell research, and science and ethics have once again become two opposing parties. In addition, it is not clear whether it causes cancer or infectious diseases. The place.
Recently, some scientists predict that stem cell transplantation can replace organ transplantation. It is another milestone in medicine, surgery, and post-interventional medical treatment. Medical treatment in this century should be the era of cell therapy.
