By now, you must have surely heard of ‘Stem cells’ as they are creating such a buzz in the healing and treatment sector of the medical science. You might be wondering, what makes them so special, how they are utilised for treatment of various diseases and injuries and why they are creating such vigour among debates.

To start with the definition, stem cells are the simplest form of raw materials which are used to make all living things. Cells are the foundation bricks of all other cells and tissues that generate various specialised functions. In specific conditions, stem cells go through division to brew daughter cells. These so-called daughter cells then go on to become stem cells or specialised cells like bones, tissues, heart muscles, blood cells etc. No cell in the body, other than stem cells have the capability of generating cells with specialised cells. Stems are used for repairing of damaged cells and tissues in a disease or injury. This process is called stem cell therapy. Storing and preserving stem cells for use in stem cell therapy is called stem cell banking. All these points will be discussed and defined ahead in this article.

Stem cells come from various other sources as discovered by researchers. Stem cells which come from embryos that are 3 to 5 days old are called Embryonic stem cells. They are also called Pluripotent stem cells, which means they can multiply themselves into more stem cells and further transform into any kind of specialised cell. Such versatility let embryonic stem cells to act as regenerators or menders for ruined tissues and organs. However, to this date, their use of regenerative abilities has been kept limited to eye-related ailments like macular degeneration. Researchers are working on the further implementation of these abilities which will open new roads to the treatment of more complex diseases.

Adult stem cells can be found in small quantities in adult tissues such as fat, bone marrow etc. Adult stems have limited abilities like producing many different cells in the body, compared to embryonic stem cells. For a long time, the researchers thought that adult stem cells can only produce similarly specialised cells. As for instance, stem cells in the bone marrow can only produce blood cells. After prolonged research, it was found that these stem cells may create unrelated specialised cells. Like, stem cells from bone marrow may be able to create heart muscle cells or bone cells.

Stem cell therapy is the process of repairing damaged cells in a disease or of an injury by replacing the stem cells with regenerative ones. By definition, stem cell therapy or regenerative medicine is the process of promoting the reparative response of a tissue, which is diseased, non-functional or damaged beyond healing on its own, by the use of stem cells or its derivatives. This is termed as the next step of organ regeneration with the use of cells, instead of donated organs, which are scarce in the first place. Stem cells developed in labs, are manipulated with, by the researchers to be specialized into certain kinds of cells which are heart muscle cells, bone cells, or nerve cells.

Stem cells which are present in the umbilical cord are pure and unaffected by the environment. These stem cells are very efficient and potent of regenerating into various other cells of the body. The process of extraction and preservation of these cells is called stem cell banking.

Stem cells are the future of repairing and regeneration and in the near future, it will outshine all other methods of regeneration of diseases, dysfunctions and injuries.