Stem Cell Therapy

“The pessimistsees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty”

What are stem cells

Stem cells are relatively primitive cells that can be stimulated to produce large families of cells that can then be instructed by chemical cues to produce various types of specialised cells, e.g. kidney tubular cells.

 How it is started

• 1800s – Cell propagation and differentiation discovered.
• Early 1900’s – Noted that a particular ‘stem cell’ gives rise to the various type of blood cells.
• 1950’s – bone marrow transplants have been used in patients.
• 1963 – the first quantitative descriptions of the self-renewing activities of transplanted mouse bone marrow cells.
• 1998 – James Thomson, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, successfully removed cells from spare embryos at fertility clinics and grew them in the laboratory.

Uniqueness of Stem Cells

• Unspecialized cells.
• Capable of renewing themselves through cell division.
• Possess the potential to become tissue or organ-specific cells.

Classification  (based on origin)      (based on function)

                 

        

Sources of Stem Cells

Formation of Specialized Cells

Uses of Stem Cells

Stem Cell possibilities