By Cell Therapy Foundation on Jul 05, 2014
With a wealth of research and published studies on stem cells appearing almost daily, many would say that the definition of that term is well established and commonly agreed upon.
No so much.
A new review article appearing in the July 2014 issue of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) journal entitled "Two sides of the same coin: stem cells in cancer and regenerative medicine" suggests that scientists have only begun to understand the nature, physiology, and location of these cells.
The report suggests that embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells may not be the only sources from which nerves, liver or heart and blood vessels can develop.
In the review, researchers suggested that early ADULT pluripotent stem cells are able to replace any kind of tissue in the body -- independent of where they come from in the body -- given that these cells receive the correct instructions.
When researchers extracted these cells from fat tissue, concentrated them and then injected them into diseased or injured tissue, they delivered beneficial outcomes for ailments such as heart failure, osteoarthritis, non-healing wounds, soft tissue defects, muscle, bone and tendon injuries and neurodegenerative diseases.
The review also discusses how this is basically the same process that occurs in tumors, except that instead of healing or regenerating tissue, the cells work toward building a tumor. Better understanding and manipulating how these cells communicate not only will open new therapies that heal injury (heart failure, wounds, etc.), but will allow researchers to stop many cancers before they become life-threatening.
Countless hours spent researching cancer and progenitor cells bearing fruit. As the intersection between cancer and stem cell research becomes closer and clearer, today's medical treatments may soon look as crude as Civil War medicine.
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