How Stem Cells Can Help Treat Various Disorders

Stem cell research in India has led to new treatment options for various blood-related disorders, leukemia and also some autoimmune disorders, and increased survival rates. In fact, an eleven-year survey of the European Bone Marrow Transplantation database conducted in 2010 shows that stem cell transplants in patients with auto-immune disorders has led to an impressive five-year survival of 85%. In order to understand how stem cells can be used to treat blood-related and auto-immune disorders, we need to first understand what stem cells are.

Stem cells are different from all the other cells in the human body. They have three key characteristics; they are unspecialized cells, they can renew themselves and divide to form new cells, even after long periods of time, and they can be induced to form tissue or organ-specific cells with specific functions. Stem cells present in an embryo become the many different types of cells needed for the baby’s development and growth. Stem cells can also be found in adults. They serve as a sort of internal repair mechanism in many tissues; they can divide without limit, forming either new stem cells or the requisite tissue-specific cell.

Stem cells that form the blood and immune cells are called hematopoietic stem cells (HSC). They are responsible for the production of new blood cells. They can be found in the embryo, bone marrow, the peripheral blood surrounding the bone marrow tissue, and umbilical cord blood. Stem cell transplants can therefore be done either from the umbilical cord blood (if it was collected and stored during the patient’s birth), the patient’s own bone marrow and blood, or from a donor who is a genetic match to the patient. Brothers or sisters are usually the best match. Embryonic stem cells re not used for transplants due to the various moral and ethical issues involved.

Stem cell research in India has shown that transplanting HSCs can help to treat blood disorders, cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma, and auto-immune disorders. Essentially, the stem cell transplant helps to renew blood or immune cells, which can then fight against the disorder the patient is suffering from.

Stem cell research in India is an expanding field. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is currently focusing on cures for spinal muscular atrophy and Duchenne muscular dystrophy, among other studies, at its Centre for Stem Cell Research: Basic and Translational, Department of Biotechnology.[1]