HEALTH SPECIAL
New
Delhi, 14 November 2008
Stem Cell Research
BOON FOR DISEASE CURE
By Radhakrishna Rao
The election of Barack Obama as the American
President holds out hope of clearing the hurdles in the way of stem cell
research which has the potential to evolve innovative treatment strategies for
many of the hitherto incurable diseases afflicting humanity.
For the much-despised Bush Administration,
out to please the fanatical Christian fundamentalist groups in the USA, had put roadblocks
in the way of the highly beneficial stem cell research. His autocratic decision
to provide federal funding only to stem cell lines created from the human
embryo before August 2001 was a reflection of his right-wing ideology steeped
in obscurantist religious beliefs.
Certainly, morality and ethics had
little to do with Bush’s decision on stem cell research. However, with a down-to-earth
Obama in the White House, stem cell researchers are hoping for better and
brighter days ahead. For Obama has made his commitment to remove obstacles in
the way of stem cell research which
holds the hope of alleviating human suffering.
Meanwhile, American researchers have
zeroed in on a new group of stem cells capable of differentiating into heart
muscle known as cardiomyocytes. These stem cells located in the outermost layer
of the heart have the potential to play a crucial role in regenerating injured
heart tissues. “In heart failure, you lose cardiomyocytes. So the only way to
reverse heart failure is to make more of these cells,” says a researcher at
Children’s Hospital in Boston
who is also a pediatric cardiologist
On another front, a US-based bio-technology
company has evolved a novel technique to create stem cell lines without
destroying the human embryos. This path-breaking development, claims the
company could be an effective solution to the controversy over the ethical and
moral issues involved in various aspects of stem cell research. “This will make
it far more difficult to oppose the ongoing stem cell research” asserted a
researcher of the Advanced Cell Technology based in California.
Besides, the company revealed that it
had been successful in turning the clock back on skin cells and transforming
them into stem cells, the building blocks of human tissues and organs. It
elatedly observed that this is the Holy Grail ---- to be able to take a few
skin cells from a patient’s cheek and turn them into stem cells in the
laboratory.
Interestingly, the use of the skin will
ultimately allow doctors and medical researchers to create stem cells with a
specific patient’s genetic code. Indeed, this technique would eventually
obviate the risk of the body rejecting transplanted tissue or organs.
Further, it could also result in the
easy and abundant availability of research material used to test new drugs and
understand the dynamics of diseases and disorders like cancer and diabetes. Moreover,
stem cells are not only capable of
replicating endlessly but also get transformed into one of the more than 200
cell types found in the human body.
In India, the Hyderabad-based LV Prasad
Eye Institute has pioneered an innovative stem cell therapy for treating visual
disorders. This unique treatment regimen involves extracting a piece of limbal
tissue from the healthy eye of the patient and grafting it into the diseased
eye. Significantly, the Institute has over 400 limbal stem cell transplant
surgeries to its credit, a world record. “Even after so many cases, we consider
the process as an extended treatment,” stated a medical researcher at the
institute.
On its part, the New Delhi-based All
India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has successfully used stem cell
lines for treating damaged heart muscles of those affected by one of the many
cardiac disorders. In Bangalore’s Manipal Hospital stem cell treatment has been
tried to set right spinal cord injuries with some degree of success. The Chennai-based
Lifeline Institute of Stem Cell Therapy and Research too has reported success
in treating spinal cord injuries with stem cell treatment.
All said and done, putting stem cell
therapy to large scale use would need further trials and fine-tuning of the
procedures. Specially, as in most cases
researchers prefer what is called an autologus mode where stem cells are taken
from the patient themselves with a view to avoid rejection involved in
transplantation procedures.
In addition, the concept of stem
cell banking is catching on in India,
wherein the stem cells of a new born child are stored for possible future use.
The Chennai-based Life Cell is a pioneer in the umbilical cord blood stem cell
banking. Pointed out its Director, “Cord blood stem cells can be used to treat
more than 70 diseases. The research is at a point where if we can include
diabetes and heart diseases also where the chance of them being used could be
as high as one in one hundred.”
Given that the stem cells, described
as the versatile building blocks of the human body, remain undifferentiated in
the embryonic stage. However, they later develop and evolve into specialized
tissues that go on to form the blood, bone and muscles. Because they are
endowed with a tremendous potential to replicate themselves, stem cells are
considered ideal for fixing various disorders in a patient.
In distinct contrast to the
situation in US, Britain
continues to encourage research into the human embryonic stem cell under a
tightly regulated environment. The latest instance of this is the permission
granted for using animal eggs to produce hybrid embryos.
In a major breakthrough, researchers
have been able to demonstrate that mouse embryonic stem cells can be deployed
to predict human breast cancer risk with a high degree of success. In the US researchers
have been able to coax human embryonic stem cells to transform themselves into
three specific heart cell types.
In India, a number of research
institutions including the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and the
Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology are active in stem cell research and
its application in health care. Sources in the New Delhi-based Indian Council
of Medical Research (ICMR) pointed out that stem cell research and its clinical
applications would be promoted in the country in view of its tremendous
potential in modern therapeutic and bio-medical research.--- INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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