Understanding Stem Cells

For my first post on my blog I wanted to address the understanding of Stem Cells. Stem cells being a niche area  even among biologist is a very specialized field which not many understand clearly and have a lot of misleading information. Hence, in this post I have tried to simplify the concept of Stem Cells for the layman and alike.

A cell is basically the most fundamental unit that artistically constructs a human body. There are approximately 37 trillion cells making various distinct organ systems. There are about 200 different types of cells in each and everyone of us with distinct identity and function. One should not be surprised when we say that a cell has a unique identity and function for example our blood is red because of red blood cells, these cells carry oxygen to every part of our body and our bones are made of special cells called osteoblasts, which make them strong. Then what are stem cells?

The word stem cell has been around since late 1800’s but the first real discovery of stem cells was in late 1970’s. Since then scientists across the world have been very excited and have been exploring stem cells relentlessly for their amazing potential in tissue repair and regeneration. Now, to understand stem cells, the best analogy would be a tree. The stem of the tree actually bears the weight of sustaining its branches and its leaves. New branches grow from the tree stem upon which new leaves, flowers and fruits come up. Also, when a tree is cut, new branches and leaves grow from its stem. Similarly, our body cells undergo normal wear and tear, these worn out cells are then replaced with new cells. The question is what replaces these worn out cells or where does the new cells arise from? The answer is Stem Cells. There are three broad categories of stem cells. First are found in embryos and are called embryonic stem cells. Second type of stem cells is present in each and every organ system of the human body and as these cells are present in adult human body they are categorized under adult stem cell population. Although, they only comprise of about 0.1 to 0.01 percent total population but they bear the weight of sustaining our cellular system. These cells in our body remain quiet and functionally naïve with a very specific identity, which makes it easy for them to give rise to cells of various identities and functions. They are like mother cells ready to give out daughter cells whenever our body requires a fresh supply of cells. The third type is induced pluripotent stem cells, where scientists induce normal cells with many factors to become or act like embryonic stem cells. This is done mostly for research purpose as there are several ethical issues for the use of embryonic stem cells. 

Today many fantastic and promising advances have been made in this area of research viz. repairing injured heart, in wound healing, in skin repair, in diabetes etc. The list just goes on. The era of Understanding Stem cells have ended and a new era has begun where we are trying to modulate and control them as per our requirement to create more effective therapies. The future with stem cells is indeed promising and it wouldn’t be surprising if we soon see new stem cell therapies given to patients in local hospitals but with extreme care while monitoring all the ethical and clinical guidelines. 

Thank you for reading. Do leave your comments. I have just begin writing...