Stem Cell 101

What Are Stem Cells?
Stem cells are the parent cells for all tissues and organs of the body. They exist mainly to maintain and repair cells in the areas where they are found. Stem cells are found in the blood, bone marrow, skin, muscle, and organs like the brain and liver. Scientists work with different kinds of stem cells: animal and human, embryonic stem cells, and adult stem cells.

Umbilical Cord Blood and Placental Stem Cells
Stem cells are present in umbilical cord blood and the placenta. Once a baby is born, these cells can be extracted from the discarded tissue and preserved for the benefit of children and adults who suffer from devastating bone marrow and blood diseases. These stem cells are obtained after the baby is born. There is no harm to the mother or child.

Embryonic Stem Cells
Embryonic stem cells are generated from fertilized, frozen eggs from in-vitro fertilization clinics. Donors, fully informed of the consequences, donate these embryos to research because they no longer desire additional children, do not wish to continue storage, or do not want to give them up for adoption. The stem cells are not derived from eggs fertilized in a woman’s body. A potential advantage of using embryonic stem cells is that they can truly become all cell types of the body, and may therefore be more versatile than adult stem cells. A disadvantage is that they are derived from embryos that are not a patient’s own and the patient’s body may reject them.

Adult Stem Cells
Multipotent adult stem cells can form cells of many kinds of tissue. An important potential advantage of using adult stem cells to treat disease is that a patient’s own cells could be used to treat a patient. Risks would be reduced because patients’ bodies would not reject their own cells. A disadvantage of most adult stem cells is that they are pre-specialized, that is, blood stem cells make only blood, and brain stem cells make only brain cells. However, investigators at the University of Minnesota have shown that some adult stem cells in bone marrow can, under the right laboratory conditions, develop into other kinds of cells, and may therefore be much more potent. Researchers at the University of Minnesota receive adult stem cells from people who donate bone marrow for research.

Although treatments using stem cells are not yet available, in the next five to ten years researchers expect to be able to test potential treatments on humans in clinical trials.

Some day, doctors might be able to use stem cells to treat those suffering from genetic diseases, tissue injuries, and degenerative diseases including:

• Spinal cord injury
• Parkinson’s Disease
• Stroke
• Diabetes
• Liver disease
• Heart disease
• Poor circulation
• Hemophilia
• Muscular dystrophy
• Sickle cell disease
• Fanconi anemia