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Saturday, 15 December 2018

Stem Cell Research Facilities May Just Change The Future Of Medicine

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By Martha Ward


Nobody will argue the fact that progress in the medical filed over the past few decades have been nothing but astonishing. Diseases that used to be a certain death sentence can now be managed and new medication can add years to the lives of very ill patients. And still research continue and there is no reason to doubt that scientists will conquer many more diseases in times to come. One such field of research that shows much promise is performed in stem cell research facilities.

Bone marrow transplants have been performed for a number of years, almost exclusively on patients suffering from blood related cancers. These patients receive chemo therapy that kills all blood cells indiscriminately. With the transplants, physicians hope that the growth of new cells will be encouraged in order to replace to dead and damaged blood cells.

Bone marrow transplants are not curing any condition yet, least of all cancer. There are some indications, however, that they can add a significant number of years to the lives of seriously ill cancer patients. Researchers believe that further improvements are round the corner and that this technology will eventually be used to cure some forms of cancer. Progress is slow and actual testing of new theories on humans are still a few years away.

Researchers do not focus on the use of bone marrow transplants for curing cancer exclusively. An entire separate avenue of research are looking at the potential of this therapy to replace damaged brain cells. If this research ever bear fruit, damaged brain cells will be replaced with healthy ones after a transplant. In this way the debilitating effects of Alzheimers and physical injuries to the brain will be reversed.

The use of bone marrow transplants to cure many types of heart disease is also very high on the agenda. Once again, the new transplanted bone marrow will stimulate the growth of new cells inside the heart and replace the damaged ones. Since heart disease is still one of thee biggest killers on the planet, a breakthrough in this field will change the face of medicine forever.

Make no mistake. Bone marrow transplants have numerous enemies. They say that this type of therapy is dangerous and that there is no evidence that it has worked thus far. They also site the fact that the transplanted cells are now often harvested from the umbilical cords of unborn babies. This, they say, opens the door to widespread abuse and seriously unethical behaviour.

Critics also say that researchers in this field are creating false expectations. They say that real results are still decades away but that researchers are raising funds for their work by making sponsors think that major breakthroughs are just around the corner. Then there is the fact that this type of therapy is extremely dangerous. It can actually kill patients rather than help them.

Dread diseases kill millions of people every year and anything that gives hope is welcomed. Whether the transplant of bone marrow cells will prove to be a medical miracle or not remains to be seen. In the meantime, some cancer patients live longer than expected precisely due to bone marrow transplants. Perhaps a miracle will occur after all.




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