After we heard a lot of news recently about the importance of stem cells and their role in treating many diseases, it is time to get to know them more, know them and their benefits!
We often hear about Stem cells, their importance and role in many different healthy aspects, but do you really know what these stem cells are? What is its role and benefits? We present all this and more in the following article.
What are stem cells?
They are cells that are able to develop themselves for any type of cell in the human body, during the early stage of life and development, and these cells also act as an internal repair system in the body's tissues.
Stem cell features
Stem cells differ from other cells in the body in several ways, perhaps the most important of which are:
- It can divide and renew itself over time
- They are non-specialized cells and therefore cannot perform certain functions in the body
- It has the ability to develop itself into specialized cells such as muscle cells, blood cells, or even brain cells.
Stem cells are divided into two types:
Embryonic stem cells: cells from human embryos that are four or five days old. When the sperm fertilizes the egg, it form what is known as Zygote, To start dividing. After four or five days after this process, and before the fertilized egg implants in the uterine wall, these cells are called a blastocyst, and from here Embryonic stem cells appear.
Adult stem cells: This type of cell is found in the tissues of the brain, bone marrow, blood, blood vessels, skeletal muscles and skin down to the liver.
These cells remain in a state of silence and without dividing for several years until they are activated by disease or damage to tissues, knowing that they can divide and renew themselves, as well as be able to generate a group of cells from the primary organ or even to completely regenerate the organ.
Researchers believe that studying stem cells and knowing their properties in particular will help them in various health and scientific aspects, as it is able to explain the occurrence of serious health problems such as birth defects and cancer, in addition to its use in treating many other health diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, heart diseases and diabetes.
What are the benefits of stem cells?
There are many hopes that are built on stem cells and the possibility of using them in the treatment of many diseases, The researchers and doctors hope that:
- Understanding how to get some diseases by studying stem cells.
- Using healthy cells instead of those affected and injured, where stem cells can form any type of cells as mentioned earlier, which can be used to renew and repair damaged tissues and cells in the human body.
- People with spinal cord injuries, type 1 diabetes, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, stroke, burns, cancer and osteoarthritis may benefit from stem cell therapy.
- Stem cells can be used to develop some tissues for use in organ transplantation and what is known as regenerative medicine.
- Examining the safety and effectiveness of new drugs before they are used in humans using stem cells.
The researchers ’success in using stem cells In the treatment means that they can treat the following diseases:
- cancer
- Alzheimer's
- Parkinson
- Birth defects
- Spinal cord injuries
- Renewing and repairing damaged body parts
- Hair regrowth for those who suffer from baldness
- Autism
- Improve symptoms of stroke
- Treating eye problems
- Treating scars and burns.
All of these things indicate that there is a great and brilliant future that will enable us to harness the use of stem cells for the human interest and treatment of some difficult and incurable diseases.
Although we are at the beginning of the road so far, it is expected that stem cells will be the new future of the medical world!