Stem Cell Application In Stroke Treatment
The American Heart Association states that stroke is the major cause of serious long-term disability in the U.S. As per the association’s Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics, 2009 Update, 795,000 people experience a stroke every year. It implies that in the U.S, a new stroke case is recorded every 40 seconds.
Strokes are of two types, namely ischemic strokes (resulting from a blood clot or blocked artery) and hemorrhagic strokes (resulting from a burst blood vessel). People, who survive a stroke, can suffer from different degrees of disabilities based on the part of the brain that has been damaged.
Currently, no effective stem cell stroke therapy exists. Hence, the prospect of stem cell stroke treatment offers some respite and seems promising.
Although there are reservoirs of stem cells in the adult human brain, their amount is insufficient to restore the neurological function. The umbilical cord blood consists of stem cells that are pluripotent in their ability to be transformed into a number of precursor cells of various body organs including he brain.
When Umbilical cord blood stem cells are placed in the culture with nerve growth factor, nutrients and brain neurotrophic factor tend to form precursor progenitor brain stem cells. Patients having post stroke syndrome, can be provided intravenous brain stem cells with stem cell therapy.
Research on stem cell stroke treatment essentially focuses on repairing the brain by restoring or replacing neurons. Inadequate blood flow to the brain and the consequent loss of nutrients and oxygen the blood transports, are the factors that cause neurons or brain cells to die in the course of a stroke.
To save a life, it is necessary to administer clot-busting drugs at the earliest. However, by the time a diagnosis is done, it is often too late. Stem cells can help doctors to extend this window of opportunity to support dying neurons and reverse the series of events caused by stroke.
Until recently, there was a wide belief that it is impossible to replace damaged brain cells. However, clinicians and researchers have now proved that the brain has the capacity to reorganize itself and compensate for the disease, injury or surgery. This is where stem cell stroke therapy comes into the picture.
Stem cell stroke therapy can be carried out in two ways, namely endogenously and exogenously.
Endogenous repair or ‘in-vivo stimulation’ mobilizes the brain to treat itself. Adult stem cells in the brain have the ability to restore the brain cells damaged in the course of a stroke.
As per exogenous ‘in-vitro’ procedure of stem cell stroke therapy, stem cells are created outside your body in vitro (a laboratory dish) and then transplanted inside your brain. The objective is to multiply or either completely or partially differentiate the cells to required nerve cells.
Signals coming from the damaged brain cells act as a distress call to beckon the transplanted cells. Subsequent signals then help the stem cells to differentiate into neurons and the other cells supporting the brain.
Stem cell stroke therapies have proved successful in rodents such as rats and it is only a matter of time that stem cell stroke treatments will prove effective in humans too.
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