Stem cell research and therapy takes up a huge quantum of talk in terms of medical advancements today. It is considered the future of treatment of many diseases and disorders that have till date been considered incurable. Various heart and neurological disorders that traditional medicine had no cure for is being treated by stem cell therapy today and more advancements are on the way. Today, we know that stem cells are the undifferentiated cells in the body that upon differentiation build the different cells in the body. These cells form the very basis of the development of the human cells and can remain undifferentiated to give rise to more stem cells or turn into tissues or organs. But it took many years of research to actually get us where we are today.
But how was the stem cell discovered? Was it one person, a group, or many different people who contributed to it?
First, let’s talk about the scientists who currently credited for discovering stem cells, scientists Drs. James Till and Ernset McCulloch, from Canada who pioneered the study in hematopoietic stem cells research. In Canada, they are named as the scientists that discovered tem cellss period. But that is not entirely true. What they published is a stupendous paper that has brought stem cell research so far, they did publish the first assay ever on clonal colony formation capabilities that indicated multi-potency. What was the first sign to many that studied the history of stem cell research that made them dive further? Before we get into that, read this very first para in the paper published by Till and McCulloch.
IN normal mouse hematopoietic tissue, there is a class of cells which, on being transplanted into heavily irradiated mice, can proliferate and form macroscopic colonies. In the spleen, the colonies formed in this manner are discrete and easy to count. Microscopically, each colony appears as a cluster of hematopoietic cells, many of which are dividing; and often, within a given colony, the cells which are observed indicate that differentiation is occurring along three lines, into cells of the erythrocytic, granulocytic, and megakaryocytic series, respectively.
Notice how they never use the word stem cells here even though it was a well-known term in the field by then? Now let’s get into the when and where was the term first heard.
We, of course, spent quite a bit of time studying the history, we found that the first time the word stem cell was ever used in history was way back 1908 by a Russian histologist Alexander Maksimov. He deserves the first credit to the discovery. Born on the January 22nd, 1874 in Russia, he made a name for himself in the field quite quickly. He started off studying histology but by 1902, his curiosity brought him to the study of blood and connective tissues. He was the first to propose the existence of hematopoietic stem cells and hematopoiesis as a cellular event. Following this discovery, many scientists continued the work along the same lines to further the research that has brought us as far ahead as we are today!
It is impossible to say that one person or a team of scientists can be given credit for the discovery to further advancement of the research. Without a combined effort that came from every single one of them, we would be nowhere today.
