Plasticity Of Mesenchymal Stem Cell

Many of us have all heard the saying that a “lizard can lose its tail,” and bizarrely enough it will grow back. This was always considered impossible for humans, an idea belonging in the realm of science fiction, but now the regeneration of tissue is an extremely realistic possibility. Despite some opinions, this process does not happen naturally, or take place as cinematically as one might imagine. Over the past decade, there have been major advances in regenerative medicine, commonly known as stem cell research. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells within the body that have the capability to specialize into any tissue. They are most commonly found in cord blood, bone marrow, organ donations, placenta, and embryos . Stem cells are seen by some as a new miracle treatment, encouraging many countries to invest in their research.

The first type of stem cell, an embryonic stem cell, is known for being able to continuously multiply, as well as for being pluripotent. They can be “derived in vitro from the blastocyst of an embryo usually left over from in vitro fertilization” (Forraz & McGuckin, 2011, p.61). Unlike other types of stem cells, embryonic stem cells have yet to be used in any kind of clinical treatment of patients. The high risks of “immune rejection” or “teratoma formation” are serious obstacles (Harris, 2009, p.182). The second type of stem cell, adult stem cells, is primarily considered to be multipotent and may be found in “specific adult human tissues” such as the skin or bone marrow, just to name a few. Over the last twenty years, the amount of scientific research and trials using adult stem cells has grown significantly, despite their lower potency than embryonic stem cells (Forraz & McGuckin, 2011, p.61). Lastly, cord blood stem cells, are technically considered to be a special type of adult stem cell, but their youthful properties give them “greater restorative and regenerative potential.” Directly following the birth of a child, these stem cells can be collected from the blood in the umbilical cord (Steenblock & Payne, 2006, p.9). Embryonic, adult, and cord blood stem cells

First of all an understanding of what a stem cell is, where it comes from, and the significance of it's medical potential is essential. Stem cells are the "master cells" that form the human body or whatever other animal it is from. Stem cells can be extracted from adult tissues, bone marrow, umbilical cord blood ( ), and embryos in the blastocyst stage. Although scientists have found ways to manipulate the stem cells from adult sources into other types of cells, they claim that they are less capable of deriving the desired tissue and are not "biologically equivalent" ( ) to stem cells extracted from embryos.

Mesenchymal stem cells are found in the bone marrow, fat, and possibly in other tissues and are responsible for rebuilding and regenerating the body. These stem cells help the body renew and heal itself. Mesenchymal stem cells are also able to differentiate into ligaments, tendons, and cartilage, and maintain a special role in the non-surgical treatment of osteoarthritis, treatment of chronic pain, and sports injuries.

“Through the isolation and manipulation of cells, scientists are finding ways to identify young, regenerating ones that can be used to replace damaged of dead cells in diseased organs. This therapy is similar to the process of organ transplant, only the treatment consists of the transplantation of cells rather than organs. The cells that have shown by far the most promise of supplying diseased organs with healthy cells are called stem cells.” (Chapter Preface)

The controversy of stem cell therapy is mainly dependent on whether its advantages outweigh the disadvantages, its plasticity and degree of differentiation, availability are also of great deal to carrying out stem cell transplantation (Habib and Gordon, 2006).One of the advantages of adult stem cells is that they can be found in a number of tissues and organs in the body, and can be acquired using a variety of techniques depending of which type of stem cells are needed to be collected (Habib and Gordon, 2006). Their high differentiation potential to regenerate the tissue or organ that they will reside in and cure is beyond the required threshold for the success of the procedure. For bone marrow stem cell transplantation, the long-term experience of performing the procedure and the familiarity

Advancements in medical technology has allowed for a new understanding of stem cells and further developments in research. The use of stem cells in regenerative medicine may hold significant benefits for those suffering from degenerative diseases. To avail such advancements in stem cell research could see the alleviation or complete cure of afflictions that take the lives of millions worldwide each year. (McLaren, 2001) A stem cell 1 is able differentiate into any somatic cell found in the human body, including those identical to itself.

Stem cell therapy, also known as regenerative medication, has been an increasingly utilized therapy in recent years. The cells added to the body interact with the surrounding body, making the regenerative process available to begin the healing process of the cells at the site (R. (2014)). These therapies are used to heal common sport injuries such as a knee injury, diseases, arthritis, and many other crippling effects that may occur in the human body (R. (2014)). Many of the stem cells that are used from the therapies can come from bone marrow, fat,and blood from the patient or even cells from more controversial areas such human embryos. Stem cell therapy has shown a lot of promising effects, not only outshining the effects of prescription medicine given out to patients from doctors, but it has also shown that the therapy has long term effects than a steroid would have had.

It is of great importance for this research to cite the example of treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee with stem cells. Faced with this issue, the regenerative therapy institute says:

Stem cells are multipotent which give rise to multiple cell types and are known for their self-renewing and tissue differentiation abilities. Research has shown SCs to have successful results in the field of skin regeneration (Duscher, 2016). SCs of interest for wound healing include adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSC’s), embryonic stem cells (ESC’s), and induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSC’s). MSCs are isolated mainly from the bone marrow and other tissues such as adipose and nerve tissues and are administered locally as well as systemically with little to no immunoreactivity (Tartarini, 2016). MSCs regenerative benefits in wound injury is not seen in its structural capabilities rather it’s seen in its escape of trophic mediators (Duscher, 2016). Bone marrow MSCs injected in wound sites produce high amounts of collagen and growth factors leading to faster healing, epithelialization, angiogenesis, and cellularity (Duscher, 2016). Studies also show that bone marrow derived MSCs injected in injury sites had decreased wound size, increased vascularity and dermal thickness (Duscher, 2016). Although MSCs for wound therapy has been proven effective and well tolerated in patients, there still seems to be limitations such as invasiveness of their harvest, cost of resources, and hazards that deal with growing cell cultures to attain healing

Stem cells have the capability of forming any body tissue or even an entire organism, they are “master cells that can grow into virtually any sort of cell in the human body” (Edwards, Wattenberg & Lineberry, 2009, p. 605). Stem cells are also repair cells, they work to maintain and regenerate cells in organs and tissues that are lost through damage, disease or normal wear and tear.

A set of standards were proposed by the Mesenchymal and Tissue Stem Cell Committee of the International Society for Cellular Therapy to define human mesenchymal stem cells. First, cells must be plastic adherent when maintained in standard culture conditions. Second, they express specific surface antigens. Third, the cells are capable of differentiation into osteoblasts, adipocytes and chondroblasts in vitro (Dominici et al.,

That is why the recent developments in regenerative medicine techniques are so exciting. There are abundant anecdotal reports as well as small studies indicating the relative success of mesenchymal stem cells derived from either bone marrow, adipose tissue (fat), or both to help with cartilage healing and possibly cartilage regeneration. While early reports that surfaced discussed positive results in animal models, there are now multiple communications indicating success in humans as well.

(Buda et al. 2010)Implantation of BMDCs seeded on an HA Scaffold, supplemented with platelet rich fibrin. 20 patients: 16 MFC and 6 LFC. 18 were traumatic and 2 OCD with 29 month follow-up We found a significant improvement in both IKDC score and the KOOS scores with each follow-up. Histologic: collagen II noted throughout repair tissue and focal proteoglycans content consistent with hyaline-like tissue. Variable signaling intensity that correlated with KOOS and IKDC. In Summary, there is tremendous interest and promise of using mesenchymal stems cells to treat patients with OA symptoms and repair cartilage damage. However, we are still in the infancy stages of understanding how these cells should be applied. There are a number of issues that still need to be addressed:In the literature, there are different methods for how the cells are being harvested, produced and

The majority of studies and clinical trials have used plastic adherent stromal cell populations expanded in culture. So the starting cell population is heterogeneous comprising progenitors and committed fibroblasts that are less efficacious. By immunoselecting clonogenic MSCs with specific surface markers by flow cytometry or magnetic bead sorting, a homogeneous population of starting cells can be obtained (Lv et al., 2014). As mentioned in section 1.1.1. MSCs are a rare population of cells in tissues, accounting for 1-4% of cells which decrease with increasing age (Stolzing et al., 2008). Due to their rarity, MSCs require extensive culture in vitro to generate sufficient numbers for clinical transplantation especially for use in adult