Several stem cell researchers have been debating long and hard over the issue around cell therapy and its applications. While many of us do not have a conclusive answer to this yet. But just as every coin has two sides and so does this discussion. This article is all about the pros and cons of cell therapy. Let us first try to know something on stem cells.
What are stem cells?
Stem cells are those kinds of human cells that have not yet developed fully. The research on stem cells has been done for years together now. Let us look into the three types of stem cells. They are embryonic stem cells, pluripotent stem cells and adult stem cells.
Now we look into the pros of cell therapy.
Pros of Cell Therapy
Firstly cell therapy offers many medical beneficiaries in the remedial sectors of regenerative medicine. It helps in the treatment of a number of neurological disorder conditions like spinal cord injuries, autism, cerebral palsy, dementia, motor neuron disease, muscular dystrophy, intellectual disability, and stroke and head injury. Apart from that, it is also known to be a curative for diseases like Alzheimer, schizophrenia, diabetes and cancer. Researchers can learn more about the overall growth and development of human cells.
A stem cell is derived from the patient’s own body cells so the risk of rejection is less as the cells come from the same body. Another advantage that comes with stem cell research is it prolongs the reversing effects of ageing and our lives. It has discovered several treatments that help in slowing down the ageing process. The next thing is that it centers around the usage of neural stem cells, adult stem cells and cord blood stem cells each with benefits of its own.
In the coming years, scientists will be allowed to test a number of drugs directly over the cells population instead of testing the same on animals and humans through the research of cell therapy. Through cell therapy, scientific researchers are allowed to study the developmental stage and it can help in the treatment of birth defects, infertility problems and pregnancy loss. To fully comprehend the abnormalities of human body treatment, a higher understanding is needed.
Another important thing to note about adult cell therapy is that there are no moral or ethical questions revolving around the use of the adult cells. Researchers are of the belief that stem cells only generate progress and medical findings for everyone to lead a healthier and longer life.
Embryonic stem cell research increases the chances of curing diseases as it is the lone totipotent stem cells. In addition, there are more chances of a lower rate of rejection when these young stem cells are used for the treatment.
Cons of Cell Therapy
Use of cell therapy may result in the destruction of blastocytes which gets formed in the laboratory from the fertilization of the human egg. Along with that, the long term side effect that comes with cell therapy is yet to be discovered. Another downfall surrounding adult cells is that the cells of a certain origin would produce cells of that type alone. For example, brain cells would produce brain cells alone and vice versa. There are a number of researches that need to be done on cell therapy that would establish that it can be used as a form of treatment line. Some researchers are of the opinion that the extraction of embryonic stem cells is misleading and questions the value of human life.
The focus of research is slowly migrating towards studies on adult stem cells. And these are some drawbacks to the cell therapy but the fact of the matter remains that in this case, the pros seem to outweigh the cons. cell therapy has answers and cures to ailments that left people helpless sometime back. It is a ray of hope for many.
