Stem cell research has advanced into the next level of clinical trials, with Bone disorder therapy and cardiac repairs as the focus of this article. The potential to apply stem cell research to all branches of medicine is very likely, but in this article it is stressed to practice caution and carefully understand the role of this research in medical practice.
Bone Disorder
Studies show that stem cell therapy has the potential to treat metabolic bone disease and repair bones. Although still at an early stage of study compared to cardiac repair therapy, it shows great promise, with great potential to treat musculoskeletal disorders with its capability to distinguish between cartilages to bone. For bone repair, a single cell type – mesenchymal stem cells – are used as compared to the mixed cells used to repair cardiac scarring.
Cardiac repairs
Significant progress has been made to understand the potential and further the research of using stem cells for cardiovascular diseases. There is a vast need of new ways to treat cardiac diseases and therapies for cardiac repair. But there is still considerable amount of study and work left to do to fully utilize this treatment properly.
Potential and complications of Stem cell therapy
Stem cell therapy has enormous potential to change clinical practices and how we approach treatment of diseases.
But before tissue repair application can advance, there are multiple concerns that need to be tackled first.
The therapeutic procedure must first be defined. It is initially assumed that the transplanted cell influences the rebuilding of the damaged tissues, but not enough evidence can support this claim.
A wide scope of toxicology is needed to increase trust in the use of stem cell therapies. Though it is considered safe, there is still not enough relevant information on the long term effects of stem cell transplants.
Proper measure and distinction of transplanted cells have yet to be attained. This is a consequential hindrance in the meaningful evaluation of the results in clinical studies.
Stem cell transplants and therapies are not yet part of standard clinical practice, yet patients with conditions that can’t be treated with conventional medicine are signing up for experimental stem cell procedures. This is highly discouraged as this may incur considerable expense with no proven safety or efficacy.
It is considered in the near future that stem cell therapy is part of the evolving regenerative medicine and treatments, promoting organ regeneration and repair.
