Stem Cell Therapy

The body has about three trillion cells, creating and destroying millions every second. There are several thousand different types of cells, like the leaves of a tree. All of them get their start from stem cells. Therefore, stemcell therapy has the potential of replacing any tissue. People with neurological diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and spinalcord injuries have few options, and their illnesses are generally regarded as incurable. Stem cells promise to change that. Already, people with certain kinds of cancer can be cured by being given a bone marrow transplant to provide the stem cells needed to restore healthy blood cells. In a few years, it will be possible for persons with diabetes to have stem cells injected into the pancreas, enabling it to once again produce insulin. Already, stem cells are being used in racehorses to replace wornout knee cartilage — a technique that has tremendous potential for football players and other athletes whose knees are often destroyed before they reach middle age. Currently, stemcell therapy is not available on a commercial basis in the United States Largely because of ethical concerns, it is unlikely to be approved for many years to come. On the other hand, several countries are now actively promoting stem cell therapy. India leads the way, with many stateoftheart facilities that operate with American physicians, and some are even guided by U.S. university research centers that are not allowed to pursue this practice at home. An entire hospital devoted to stem cells is being built in Chennai. LifeCell, a pioneer company in cordblood stemcell banking in India and Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre, a tertiary care multispecialty university hospital, have entered into a joint venture to create a facility that is “exclusively for stemcell transplants and will be conducted by experienced and renowned stemcell transplant specialists from around the world.” Theravitae is a multinational company with facilities in the United States, Israel, and Thailand. It claims to have found a way to extract stem cells from the peripheral blood of a person — the blood is routinely taken from the arm or elsewhere. It is already treating medical tourists in Bangkok (see Thailand).