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STEM CELLS
"The future and the revolution of medicine is here.
Mesenchymal Stem Cells
The human body is made up of different types of cells, each of which has a specific function for the body to function properly. The cells that originate all these types of specialized cells are stem cells.
Stem cells can divide endlessly and self-renew by producing more stem cells without losing their potential or giving rise to different types of specialized cells.
What are mesenchymal stem cells?
Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) are undifferentiated adult stem cells that have the ability to divide indefinitely without losing their properties and to produce specialized cells depending on the environment in which they are found. Naturally, they repair and regenerate organs, bones, cartilage, tissues, skin and hair, are highly migratory and are attracted to injured areas.
The most important properties of MSCs can be catalogued under 3:
- Regeneration:
They promote the formation of new blood vessels, inhibit cell death caused by damage, activate the growth and reproduction of the progenitor cells of each tissue, allowing self-repair.
- Immunomodulation:
They increase the potential of the immune system and regulate inflammation by secreting various biomolecules that activate and regulate immune cells. Because of this, they are excellent aids for autoimmune and allergic diseases.
- Histocompatibility:
Anyone can receive them as they do not generate allergic reactions or tumors. These cells do not express the membrane markers responsible for incompatibility between patients, so any healthy person is suitable to donate to any patient.
Mesenchymal stem cells act in the regeneration or repair of damaged tissues and replace cells that die routinely.
Thus, when an individual has developed, a small part of the stem cells remains residing in most of the different tissues, to be activated when it is necessary to repair or regenerate them, thus keeping the organism healthy.
Therefore their characteristics confer them a great potential for application in regenerative medicine:
Great capacity for expansion and differentiation: they are easily renewed and can give rise to various cell types, such as bone cells, adipose cells and cartilaginous cells.
High capacity for tissue regeneration: helps healing, prevents cell death and facilitates the formation of new blood vessels.
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It has also been observed that they modulate adverse reactions in different diseases, especially in degenerative and autoimmune diseases.
Types of Stem Cells
Not all stem cells come from the early embryo. In fact, we have stem cells in our bodies throughout our lives. Stem cells can be divided into three categories:
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Embryonic stem cells: these are those that are cultivated in the laboratory and that come from early embryos.
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Induced pluripotent stem cells or "reprogrammed" stem cells: these are similar to embryonic stem cells but come from specialised adult cells and are converted into such stem cells by means of an innovative technique in 2006.
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Adult or tissue-specific stem cells: these are found in our bodies throughout our lives.
Stem cells can be used to study development
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Stem cells help us understand how a complex organism develops from a fertilized egg. In the laboratory, scientists can track stem cells as they divide and become increasingly specialized, resulting in skin, bone, brain, and other cells. Identifying the signs and mechanisms that determine whether a stem cell chooses to continue replicating itself or differentiate into a specialized cell, and in what type of cell, will help us understand what controls normal development.
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Some of the most serious medical problems, such as cancer and birth defects, are due to abnormal cell division and differentiation. A better understanding of the genetic and molecular controls of these processes can provide information on how diseases arise and propose new treatment strategies. This is one of the most important objectives of stem cell research.
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Stem cells have the ability to replace damaged cells and treat disease.
This property is already used in the treatment of extensive burns and to restore the blood system in patients with leukemia and other hematological disorders.
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Stem cells may also be the key to replacing cells that are lost in many other diseases that currently lack viable treatments. Today, donated tissues and organs are often used to replace damaged tissues, but the need for transplantable tissues and organs far exceeds the available supply. If stem cells could be targeted to differentiate into specific cell types, they would provide a source of renewable replacement cells to treat diseases such as Parkinson's, stroke, heart disease and diabetes. This perspective is fascinating but significant technical hurdles remain to be overcome that will only be overcome with years of intensive research.
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Stem Cells May Be Used to Study Diseases
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In many cases it is difficult to obtain the cells that are damaged during a disease and study them in detail. Stem cells, whether they carry the defective gene that causes disease or are manipulated to contain the genetic defects genes that cause disease, offer a viable alternative. Scientists could use stem cells to model disease processes in the laboratory and to better understand what's not working.
Stem Cells May Become Resource for Testing New Medical Treatments
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The safety of new drugs in specialised cells generated in large quantities from stem cell lines could be analysed, thus reducing the need for animal experimentation. In this sense, other types of cell lines are already in use. For example, cancer cell lines are used to analyse possible anti-tumor drugs.
How are they obtained?
These cells can be obtained from various tissues, including: fatty tissue, bone marrow, endometrial tissue, placental and umbilical cord. The methodology to obtain these cells does not represent any risk for the patient or the donor. Due to their ability to proliferate, the number of cells that can be obtained in the laboratory is sufficient for long-term treatment of one or more patients.
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Donors go through a selection process that includes: medical examination, follow-up of their medical and family history, as well as their periodic clinical studies. We only select healthy donors with no history of hereditary pathologies.
The tissue obtained is also subjected to a series of specialised studies by authorised third party laboratories in order to guarantee its safety, sterility and quality. The MSCs are selected and expanded based on the criteria of the International Cell Therapy Society, taking special care to determine their identity based on the markers they express on their membrane.
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In addition, all harvested MSC batches are quality certified by the Mesenchymal Stem Cell Bank, providing assurance to patients that the cells they receive have passed through the necessary filters and reach them with the highest quality.
Below is a brief introduction to the use of MSCs in the treatment of some musculoskeletal disorders, as well as some scientific articles that support it.
How are these cells preserved?
CRYOPRESERVATION OF CORD TISSUE,
FUTURE SOURCE OF MESENCHYMAL CELLS:
In the tissue storage, once the sample arrives at the laboratory, multiple sections are carried out obtaining fragments, with the necessary thickness to increase the contact surface with the cryoprotective medium.
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The purpose of this procedure is to facilitate that the whole fragment is in as much contact as possible with the cryoprotective solution.
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If the cryopreserved sample is to be used, the fragments are removed from the cryogenic state and a subsequent process must be carried out to separate, culture and wait for the mesenchymal cells to grow and try to reach an ideal number for their use.
The storage of unprocessed tissue stores many cell types present in it, with a limited amount of mesenchymal cells.
Mesenchymal Stem Cell applications
Regenerative medicine is in full expansion and development and its fields of application are unlimited.
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The increasing knowledge of the cellular and molecular biology of mesenchymal stem cells, as well as their behaviour in vitro and in vivo, makes it possible for more and more clinical applications to be based on the use of this cellular population.
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The main applications can be summarized as follows: osteo-articular diseases, cardiac diseases, hepatic diseases (hepatic cirrhosis, for example), neurodegenerative diseases (multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's, among others), gastrointestinal diseases (Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, fistula, etc.), type I and II diabetes, transplant rejections, lung diseases, scar defects and cancer.
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The new regenerative medicine aims to repair damaged tissues using mechanisms similar to those naturally used by the body for the renewal of cell populations that are aging and must be replaced by others that supplement their function. The organism's mechanisms of regeneration, repair and renewal of tissues are limited and depend on the speed at which damage or degeneration occurs. In this way the death of large quantities of tissue in an acute manner - for example in myocardial infarctions, cerebral - are not susceptible to be repaired by the natural mechanisms of the organism.
The new therapies with stem cell culture and transplantation, using their natural capacity for regeneration, and with the help of transplant techniques developed in recent years, open up as a possibility for the treatment of this type of disease.
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