Stem cell therapy is gaining popularity in India to treat a wide variety of medical conditions including Leukaemia, Thalassemia, damaged cornea and severe burns. Describe briefly what stem cell therapy is and what advantages it has over other treatments ?

Defining property

Stem cells are unspecialised cells that renew themselves and differentiate into specialised blood, skin or corneal cells; the therapy harvests, grows and transplants them to replace damaged tissue.

Types

Embryonic cells are pluripotent, bone marrow and cord blood cells are multipotent, and induced pluripotent cells, made by Shinya Yamanaka in 2006, avoid embryos.

Uses

Haematopoietic stem cell transplants rebuild the blood system in leukaemia and thalassemia, limbal cell transplants restore the cornea, and cultured skin covers severe burns.

Cure, not management

A successful transplant can free a thalassemia child from lifelong monthly transfusions and iron-chelation drugs, which only manage the disease.

Less rejection

Autologous cells, such as a tiny limbal biopsy from the healthy eye, restore the injured eye without a donor cornea or long immunosuppression.

Beyond donor shortages

Laboratory-expanded cells and cord blood banks ease the scarcity of donor corneas and matched marrow.

Faster healing

Cultured skin grafts cover large burns where too little healthy skin remains, cutting infection and scarring.