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How Can Stem Cells Advance Medicine? - Abigail Musick

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How Can Stem Cells Advance Medicine? - Abigail Musick

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Stem cells can be used to replace or resuscitate damaged tissues. They can use stem cells to make special tissues that are lost during injuries. Stem cells could also be used in drug discovery. Stem cells can be grown into more complex cells that can be used for screening drugs. Researches are also looking to use stem cells to treat things diseases, hearing and vision loss, and diabetes.

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The latest news, comment and analysis on stem cell research and its implications.

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Stem cells can be used to replenish injured cells.These cells are the cellular foundation for human life.Stem cells can become any type of cell that they have to be. The best defined and most used treatment is Blood Cell transplant, this treatment is used to restore the blood after a treatment. Some injuries can be treated with a skin graph  that depends upon these stem cells reproducing.

https://health.howstuffworks.com/medicine/modern-treatments/stem-cells-used-in-medicine1.htm

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Stem Cells and its challenges- Jayde Morales  

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Stem Cells and its challenges- Jayde Morales  

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Scientist struggle sometimes when growing these stem cells because if they grow excessively then that could create cancer so right now doctors and scientist are finding a way to make sure that the cells grow more but to a point that is good for the patient. Also scientist are trying to make sure that the cells grow fully mature https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-06-stem-cells-future-medicine.html

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Kylee VanHoy - How are Stem Cells Used in Medicine? 

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Kylee VanHoy - How are Stem Cells Used in Medicine? 

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Embryonic stem cells can be differentiated into any type of cell in the body. This means that stem cells could be used to cure a number of diseases, and could even be used in patients in need of an organ transplant. In order for scientists/doctors to achieve this they have to know the exact series of signals. If they give the wrong signals, or even the right signals in the wrong order, the cell could either stay immature or differentiate into the wrong cell. So before scientist can use these cells they first have to discover that sequence of signals. Once they have that information they can get the stem cells to specialize into whatever cell they need. Then they can use those newly matured adult cells to combat different diseases. Scientist also have to make sure that the stem cells are fully matured before they put them into a human/animal because if they aren't they could cause teratomas, a form of tumors that are a mass of different cell types, like hair or teeth.

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Stem cells have the potential to treat a wide range of diseases. Here, discover why these cells are such a powerful tool for treating disease-and what hurdles experts face before new therapies reach patients.

How can stem cells treat disease?
What diseases could be treated by stem cell research?
How can I learn more about CIRM-funded research in a particular disease?
What cell therapies are available right now?
What about the therapies that are available overseas?
Why does it take so long to create new therapies?
How do scientists get stem cells to specialize into different cell types?
How do scientists test stem cell therapies?
Can't stem cell therapies increase the chances of a tumor?
Is there a risk of immune rejection with stem cells?
How do scientists grow stem cells in the right conditions?

How can stem cells treat disease?

When most people think about about stem cells treating disease they think of a stem cell transplant.

In a stem cell transplant, stem cells are first specialized into the necessary adult cell type. Then, those mature cells replace tissue that is damaged by disease or injury. This type of treatment could be used to:

Replace neurons damaged by spinal cord injury, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease or other neurological problems;

Produce insulin that could treat people with diabetes or cartilage to repair damage caused by arthritis; or

Replace virtually any tissue or organ that is injured or diseased.

But stem cell-based therapies can do much more.

Studying how stem cells develop into heart muscle cells could provide clues about how we could induce heart muscle to repair itself after a heart attack.

The cells could be used to study disease, identify new drugs, or screen drugs for toxic side effects.

Any of these would have a significant impact on human health without transplanting a single cell.

What diseases could be treated by stem cell research?

In theory, there's no limit to the types of diseases that could be treated with stem cell research. Given that researchers may be able to study all cell types they have the potential to make breakthroughs in any disease.

How can I learn more about CIRM-funded stem cell research in a particular disease?

CIRM has created disease pages for many of the major diseases being targeted by stem cell scientists. You can find those disease pages here.

You can also sort our complete list of CIRM awards to see what we've funded in different disease areas.

What cell therapies are available right now?

While there are a growing number of potential therapies being tested in clinical trials there are only a few stem cell therapies that have so far been approved by the FDA. Two therapies that CIRM provided early funding for have been approved. Those are:

Fedratinib, approved by the FDA in August 2019 as a first line therapy for myelofibrosis (scarring of the bone marrow)

Glasdegib, approved in November 2016 as a combination therapy with low dose are-C for patients 75 years of age and older with acute myelogenous leukemia

Right now the most commonly used stem cell-based therapy is bone marrow transplantation. Blood-forming stem cells in the bone marrow were the first stem cells to be identified and were the first to be used in the clinic. This life-saving technique has helped thousands people worldwide who had been suffering from blood cancers, such as leukemia.

In addition to their current use in cancer treatments, research suggests that bone marrow transplants will be useful in treating autoimmune diseases and in helping people tolerate transplanted organs.

Other therapies based on adult stem cells are currently in clinical trials. Until those trials are complete we won't know which type of stem cell is most effective in treating different diseases.
Find Out More:
Read the top ten things to know about stem cell treatments (from ISSCR)
Alan Lewis talks about getting an embryonic stem cell-based therapy to patients (3:46)

What about stem cell therapies that are available overseas?

Many overseas clinics - and a growing number here in the U.S. too - advertise "miraculous" stem cell therapies for a wide range of incurable diseases. This phenomenon is called stem cell tourism and is currently a source of concern for reputable stem cell scientists. These predatory clinics are offering therapies that have not been tested to prove they are effective or even safe. In recent few years, some patients who visited those clinics have died, others have been left blind or had serious infections as a result of receiving unproven and untested stem cells.

Find Out More:
Learn more about the issue on our Stem Cell Tourism page.
Jeanne Loring discusses concerns about stem cell tourism (3:38)
CIRM/ISSCR panel on stem cell tourism

Why does it take so long to create new stem cell therapies?

Stem cells hold the potential to treat a wide range of diseases. However, the path from the lab to the clinic is a long one. Before testing those cells in a human disease, researchers must grow the right cell type, find a way to test those cells, and make sure the cells are safe in animals before moving to human trials.

Find Out More:
Hans Keirstead talks about hurdles in developing a new therapy (5:07)

How do scientists get stem cells to specialize into different cell types?

One of the biggest hurdles in any stem cell-based therapy is coaxing stem cells to become a single cell type. The vital process of maturing stem cells from one state to another type is called differentiation.

Guiding stem cells to become a particular cell type has been fraught with difficulty. For example, stem cells growing in a developing embryo receive a carefully choreographed series of signals from the surrounding tissue. To create the same effect in the lab, researchers have to try and mimic those signals. Add the signals in the wrong order or the wrong dose and the developing cells may choose to remain immature-or become the wrong cell type

Many decades of research has uncovered many of the signals needed to properly differentiate cells. Other signals are still unknown. Many CIRM-funded researchers are attempting to differentiate very pure populations of mature cell types that can accelerate therapies.

Find Out More:
Mark Mercola talks about differentiating cells into adult tissues (3:37)

How do scientists test stem cell therapies?

Once a researcher has a mature cell type in a lab dish, the next step is to find out whether those cells can function in the body. For example, embryonic stem cells that have matured into insulin-producing cells in the lab are only useful if they continue producing insulin once transplanted inside a body. Likewise, researchers need to know that the cells can integrate into the surrounding tissue and not be rejected by the body.

Scientists test cells by first developing an animal model that mimics the human disease, and then implanting the cells to see if they help treat the disease. These types of experiments can be painstaking-because even if the cells don't completely cure the disease, they may restore some functions that would still be of enormous benefit to people. Researchers have to examine each of these possible outcomes.

In many cases testing the cells in a single animal model doesn't provide enough information. Most animal models of disease don't perfectly mimic the human disease. For example, a mouse carrying the same mutation that causes cystic fibrosis in humans doesn't show the same signs as a person with the disease. So, a stem cell therapy that treats this mouse model of cystic fibrosis may not work in humans. That's why researchers often need to test the cells in more than one animal model.

Can't stem cell therapies increase the chances of a tumor?

The promise of embryonic stem cells is that they can form any type of cell in the body. The trouble is that when implanted into an animal they do just that, in the form of tumors called teratomas. These tumors consist of a mass of many cells types and can include hair cells and many other tissues.

These teratomas are one reason why it is necessary to mature the embryonic stem cells into highly purified adult cell types before implanting into humans. Virtually all evidence has shown that the mature cells are restricted to their one identity and don't appear to revert to a teratoma-forming cell.

Find Out More:
UC Davis researcher focuses on stem cell safety (from UC Davis)
Paul Knoepfler talks about the tendency of embryonic stem cells to form tumors (4:10)

Is there a risk of immune rejection from stem cells?

Transplanted stem cells, like any transplanted organ, can be recognized by the immune system as foreign and then rejected. In organ transplants such as liver, kidney, or heart, people must be on immune suppressive drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent the immune system from recognizing that organ as foreign and destroying it.

The likelihood of the immune system rejecting a transplant of embryonic stem cell-based tissue depends on the origin of that tissue. Stem cells isolated from IVF embryos will have a genetic makeup that will not match that of the person who receives the transplant. That person's immune system will recognize those cells as foreign and reject the tissue unless a person is on powerful immune suppressive drugs.The same is true for adult stem cells from a donor.

Stem cells generated through SCNT or iPS cell technology, on the other hand, are a perfect genetic match. The immune system would likely overlook that transplanted cells, seeing it as a normal part of the body. Still, some suggest that even if the cells are perfectly matched, they may not entirely escape the notice of the immune system. Cancer cells, for example, have the same genetic make up as surrounding tissue and yet the immune system will often identify and destroy early tumors. Until more information is available from animal studies it will be hard to know whether transplanted patient-specific cells are likely to call the attention of the immune system.

Find Out More:
Jeffrey Bluestone talks about immune rejection of stem cell-based therapies (4:05)

How do scientists grow stem cells in the right conditions?

In order to be approved by the FDA for use in human trials, stem cells must be grown in good manufacturing practice (GMP) conditions. Under GMP standards, a cell line has to be manufactured so that each group of cells is grown in an identical, repeatable, sterile environment. This ensures that each batch of cells has the same properties, and each person getting a stem cell therapy gets an equivalent treatment.

Updated 2/16

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Stem cells have the potential to treat a wide range of diseases. Here, discover why these cells are such a powerful tool for treating disease-and what hurdles experts face before new therapies reach patients. How can stem cells treat disease? What diseases could be treated by stem cell research?

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In this article, they tell you about how embryonic stem cells could help medicine. Either through cell therapies, drug discovery, and basic knowledge. These types of cells have the ability to repair tissue, that normally don't reproduce on its own.

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The latest news, comment and analysis on stem cell research and its implications.

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How could Stem Cells be used in Medicine? -Parker Gamble

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How could Stem Cells be used in Medicine? -Parker Gamble

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https://www.nature.com/stemcells/2007/0706/070614/full/stemcells.2007.23.html
Stem cells could help medicine out in a variety of ways. Cell- based therapies are used to help directly repair and replace damaged cell tissue. Stem Cells could also be used to help find drugs to battle disease . This is helpful because scientists wouldn't have to do harmful tests on animals because their bodies may react differently to it.

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The Power of Stem Cells- Josh Richardson

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The Power of Stem Cells- Josh Richardson

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This article gives a good overview of the advantages of stem cells, and the possibilities in the medical field.  It also provides links to other places to learn more about specific topics.  This article gives a good summary of how scientists use Stem Cells, and study them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Stem cells have the potential to treat a wide range of diseases. Here, discover why these cells are such a powerful tool for treating disease-and what hurdles experts face before new therapies reach patients.

How can stem cells treat disease?
What diseases could be treated by stem cell research?
How can I learn more about CIRM-funded research in a particular disease?
What cell therapies are available right now?
What about the therapies that are available overseas?
Why does it take so long to create new therapies?
How do scientists get stem cells to specialize into different cell types?
How do scientists test stem cell therapies?
Can't stem cell therapies increase the chances of a tumor?
Is there a risk of immune rejection with stem cells?
How do scientists grow stem cells in the right conditions?

How can stem cells treat disease?

When most people think about about stem cells treating disease they think of a stem cell transplant.

In a stem cell transplant, stem cells are first specialized into the necessary adult cell type. Then, those mature cells replace tissue that is damaged by disease or injury. This type of treatment could be used to:

Replace neurons damaged by spinal cord injury, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease or other neurological problems;

Produce insulin that could treat people with diabetes or cartilage to repair damage caused by arthritis; or

Replace virtually any tissue or organ that is injured or diseased.

But stem cell-based therapies can do much more.

Studying how stem cells develop into heart muscle cells could provide clues about how we could induce heart muscle to repair itself after a heart attack.

The cells could be used to study disease, identify new drugs, or screen drugs for toxic side effects.

Any of these would have a significant impact on human health without transplanting a single cell.

What diseases could be treated by stem cell research?

In theory, there's no limit to the types of diseases that could be treated with stem cell research. Given that researchers may be able to study all cell types they have the potential to make breakthroughs in any disease.

How can I learn more about CIRM-funded stem cell research in a particular disease?

CIRM has created disease pages for many of the major diseases being targeted by stem cell scientists. You can find those disease pages here.

You can also sort our complete list of CIRM awards to see what we've funded in different disease areas.

What cell therapies are available right now?

While there are a growing number of potential therapies being tested in clinical trials there are only a few stem cell therapies that have so far been approved by the FDA. Two therapies that CIRM provided early funding for have been approved. Those are:

Fedratinib, approved by the FDA in August 2019 as a first line therapy for myelofibrosis (scarring of the bone marrow)

Glasdegib, approved in November 2016 as a combination therapy with low dose are-C for patients 75 years of age and older with acute myelogenous leukemia

Right now the most commonly used stem cell-based therapy is bone marrow transplantation. Blood-forming stem cells in the bone marrow were the first stem cells to be identified and were the first to be used in the clinic. This life-saving technique has helped thousands people worldwide who had been suffering from blood cancers, such as leukemia.

In addition to their current use in cancer treatments, research suggests that bone marrow transplants will be useful in treating autoimmune diseases and in helping people tolerate transplanted organs.

Other therapies based on adult stem cells are currently in clinical trials. Until those trials are complete we won't know which type of stem cell is most effective in treating different diseases.
Find Out More:
Read the top ten things to know about stem cell treatments (from ISSCR)
Alan Lewis talks about getting an embryonic stem cell-based therapy to patients (3:46)

What about stem cell therapies that are available overseas?

Many overseas clinics - and a growing number here in the U.S. too - advertise "miraculous" stem cell therapies for a wide range of incurable diseases. This phenomenon is called stem cell tourism and is currently a source of concern for reputable stem cell scientists. These predatory clinics are offering therapies that have not been tested to prove they are effective or even safe. In recent few years, some patients who visited those clinics have died, others have been left blind or had serious infections as a result of receiving unproven and untested stem cells.

Find Out More:
Learn more about the issue on our Stem Cell Tourism page.
Jeanne Loring discusses concerns about stem cell tourism (3:38)
CIRM/ISSCR panel on stem cell tourism

Why does it take so long to create new stem cell therapies?

Stem cells hold the potential to treat a wide range of diseases. However, the path from the lab to the clinic is a long one. Before testing those cells in a human disease, researchers must grow the right cell type, find a way to test those cells, and make sure the cells are safe in animals before moving to human trials.

Find Out More:
Hans Keirstead talks about hurdles in developing a new therapy (5:07)

How do scientists get stem cells to specialize into different cell types?

One of the biggest hurdles in any stem cell-based therapy is coaxing stem cells to become a single cell type. The vital process of maturing stem cells from one state to another type is called differentiation.

Guiding stem cells to become a particular cell type has been fraught with difficulty. For example, stem cells growing in a developing embryo receive a carefully choreographed series of signals from the surrounding tissue. To create the same effect in the lab, researchers have to try and mimic those signals. Add the signals in the wrong order or the wrong dose and the developing cells may choose to remain immature-or become the wrong cell type

Many decades of research has uncovered many of the signals needed to properly differentiate cells. Other signals are still unknown. Many CIRM-funded researchers are attempting to differentiate very pure populations of mature cell types that can accelerate therapies.

Find Out More:
Mark Mercola talks about differentiating cells into adult tissues (3:37)

How do scientists test stem cell therapies?

Once a researcher has a mature cell type in a lab dish, the next step is to find out whether those cells can function in the body. For example, embryonic stem cells that have matured into insulin-producing cells in the lab are only useful if they continue producing insulin once transplanted inside a body. Likewise, researchers need to know that the cells can integrate into the surrounding tissue and not be rejected by the body.

Scientists test cells by first developing an animal model that mimics the human disease, and then implanting the cells to see if they help treat the disease. These types of experiments can be painstaking-because even if the cells don't completely cure the disease, they may restore some functions that would still be of enormous benefit to people. Researchers have to examine each of these possible outcomes.

In many cases testing the cells in a single animal model doesn't provide enough information. Most animal models of disease don't perfectly mimic the human disease. For example, a mouse carrying the same mutation that causes cystic fibrosis in humans doesn't show the same signs as a person with the disease. So, a stem cell therapy that treats this mouse model of cystic fibrosis may not work in humans. That's why researchers often need to test the cells in more than one animal model.

Can't stem cell therapies increase the chances of a tumor?

The promise of embryonic stem cells is that they can form any type of cell in the body. The trouble is that when implanted into an animal they do just that, in the form of tumors called teratomas. These tumors consist of a mass of many cells types and can include hair cells and many other tissues.

These teratomas are one reason why it is necessary to mature the embryonic stem cells into highly purified adult cell types before implanting into humans. Virtually all evidence has shown that the mature cells are restricted to their one identity and don't appear to revert to a teratoma-forming cell.

Find Out More:
UC Davis researcher focuses on stem cell safety (from UC Davis)
Paul Knoepfler talks about the tendency of embryonic stem cells to form tumors (4:10)

Is there a risk of immune rejection from stem cells?

Transplanted stem cells, like any transplanted organ, can be recognized by the immune system as foreign and then rejected. In organ transplants such as liver, kidney, or heart, people must be on immune suppressive drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent the immune system from recognizing that organ as foreign and destroying it.

The likelihood of the immune system rejecting a transplant of embryonic stem cell-based tissue depends on the origin of that tissue. Stem cells isolated from IVF embryos will have a genetic makeup that will not match that of the person who receives the transplant. That person's immune system will recognize those cells as foreign and reject the tissue unless a person is on powerful immune suppressive drugs.The same is true for adult stem cells from a donor.

Stem cells generated through SCNT or iPS cell technology, on the other hand, are a perfect genetic match. The immune system would likely overlook that transplanted cells, seeing it as a normal part of the body. Still, some suggest that even if the cells are perfectly matched, they may not entirely escape the notice of the immune system. Cancer cells, for example, have the same genetic make up as surrounding tissue and yet the immune system will often identify and destroy early tumors. Until more information is available from animal studies it will be hard to know whether transplanted patient-specific cells are likely to call the attention of the immune system.

Find Out More:
Jeffrey Bluestone talks about immune rejection of stem cell-based therapies (4:05)

How do scientists grow stem cells in the right conditions?

In order to be approved by the FDA for use in human trials, stem cells must be grown in good manufacturing practice (GMP) conditions. Under GMP standards, a cell line has to be manufactured so that each group of cells is grown in an identical, repeatable, sterile environment. This ensures that each batch of cells has the same properties, and each person getting a stem cell therapy gets an equivalent treatment.

Updated 2/16

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Stem cells have the potential to treat a wide range of diseases. Here, discover why these cells are such a powerful tool for treating disease-and what hurdles experts face before new therapies reach patients. How can stem cells treat disease? What diseases could be treated by stem cell research?

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How are stem cells used in medicine today?- Kaemon Nelson

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How are stem cells used in medicine today?- Kaemon Nelson

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https://health.howstuffworks.com/medicine/modern-treatments/stem-cells-used-in-medicine1.htm
Stem cells are used to treat diseases and conditions of the blood and immune system, or to restore the blood system after treatments for specific cancers. Some bone, skin and corneal diseases or injuries can be treated by grafting  tissue that depends upon stem cells from these organs.

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Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetes - Lauren Lewis

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Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetes - Lauren Lewis

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This article highlights a woman who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at age 43. At the end of the article, it is discussed how a company is working to create beta cells. These beta cells would sense high blood sugar levels and produce insulin to reduce them.

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You are here
Home › Stories of Hope: A Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetes
Español
Peace of Mind and Body

The last thing Maria Torres expected was to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. She exercised, ate well and kept her weight under control. There had to be some mistake. Maria asked her doctor to repeat the tests, but the results were the same. At 43, for reasons no one could fully explain, she had diabetes, and her life was going to change dramatically.

"It really scared me," says Maria. "I thought I was going to die soon."

That Maria doubted her diagnosis is no surprise. Type 2 diabetes is often associated with obesity, and she didn't fit the profile. Most likely, some undiscovered genetic component had made her susceptible to the disease.

Regardless, she now had to rework her life to manage the diabetes. Her cells had developed a condition called insulin resistance. Though her pancreas was producing insulin, which tells cells to take in blood sugar, the cells were not cooperating. As a result, glucose was accumulating in her blood, putting her at risk for heart disease, nerve damage, eye issues and a host of other problems.

To help her cells absorb glucose, she needs regular insulin injections. Maria injects the hormone five times a day and must often measure her blood sugar levels even more frequently.

Faithfully following this regimen has kept her alive for 20 years, but insulin is not a cure. Even with the regular injections, she faces dramatic mood swings and more serious complications as glucose levels rise and fall.

Working for a Cure

One of the most promising strategies to cure diabetes is to transplant beta cells, which sense blood sugar levels and produce insulin to reduce them. Patients with type 1 diabetes would benefit because new beta cells would replace the ones they'd lost to disease. Type 2 patients, like Maria, could increase their body's ability to produce insulin, lowering blood sugar levels and alleviating the need for injections.

With almost $40 million in funding from CIRM, a San Diego-based company named ViaCyte is working on this solution. They have spent years developing new methods to turn human embryonic stem cells into insulin-producing beta cells. It hasn't been easy. Stem cells are promising because they can form any tissue. However, to make a specific type of cell, researchers must replicate the exact signals that transform a stem cell into a beta cell, rather than a neuron or muscle cell.

In 2008, the company succeeded, but with a clever twist. They created progenitor cells, one step shy of mature beta cells, and allowed them to finish developing in the body. In animal studies, the hardier progenitor cells survived the transplant process and, once mature, began producing insulin. The project has another innovation up its sleeve: these progenitor cells are first placed in a porous capsule, about the size of a credit card, before transplantation under the skin. This device allows transfer of blood sugar, insulin, oxygen, and other molecules but keeps cells out, thus avoiding the possible attack and rejection by the patient's own immune system.

ViaCyte is now running anFDA-approved clinical trial for type 1 diabetes out of the UC San Diego CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinic location. But the company eventually hopes to also help those with type 2. Maria Torres is eager for them to succeed, both for herself and her family.

"I have three kids, and I know they could have the same thing I have," says Maria. "If they find a cure, for me, that's peace of mind."

For more information about CIRM-funded diabetes research, visit our fact sheet.

Disease Programs

Learn about how CIRM-funded stem cell research could generate treatments for many chronic diseases and injuries.
See disease fact sheets

CIRM Stem Cell Blog

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Stories of Hope: A Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetes

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Home › Stories of Hope: A Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetes Español The last thing Maria Torres expected was to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. She exercised, ate well and kept her weight under control. There had to be some mistake. Maria asked her doctor to repeat the tests, but the results were the same.

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How can stem cells advance medicine? - Kelsey Cornett

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How can stem cells advance medicine? - Kelsey Cornett

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Stem cell treatments can be used to replace certain nerves in certain parts of our body that have been damaged, it can cure many diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, possibly produce insulin for diabetics, heart muscle cells for people who have had bad heart attacks, and it can replace tissues/ organs that have been badly damaged.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Stem cells have the potential to treat a wide range of diseases. Here, discover why these cells are such a powerful tool for treating disease-and what hurdles experts face before new therapies reach patients.

How can stem cells treat disease?
What diseases could be treated by stem cell research?
How can I learn more about CIRM-funded research in a particular disease?
What cell therapies are available right now?
What about the therapies that are available overseas?
Why does it take so long to create new therapies?
How do scientists get stem cells to specialize into different cell types?
How do scientists test stem cell therapies?
Can't stem cell therapies increase the chances of a tumor?
Is there a risk of immune rejection with stem cells?
How do scientists grow stem cells in the right conditions?

How can stem cells treat disease?

When most people think about about stem cells treating disease they think of a stem cell transplant.

In a stem cell transplant, stem cells are first specialized into the necessary adult cell type. Then, those mature cells replace tissue that is damaged by disease or injury. This type of treatment could be used to:

Replace neurons damaged by spinal cord injury, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease or other neurological problems;

Produce insulin that could treat people with diabetes or cartilage to repair damage caused by arthritis; or

Replace virtually any tissue or organ that is injured or diseased.

But stem cell-based therapies can do much more.

Studying how stem cells develop into heart muscle cells could provide clues about how we could induce heart muscle to repair itself after a heart attack.

The cells could be used to study disease, identify new drugs, or screen drugs for toxic side effects.

Any of these would have a significant impact on human health without transplanting a single cell.

What diseases could be treated by stem cell research?

In theory, there's no limit to the types of diseases that could be treated with stem cell research. Given that researchers may be able to study all cell types they have the potential to make breakthroughs in any disease.

How can I learn more about CIRM-funded stem cell research in a particular disease?

CIRM has created disease pages for many of the major diseases being targeted by stem cell scientists. You can find those disease pages here.

You can also sort our complete list of CIRM awards to see what we've funded in different disease areas.

What cell therapies are available right now?

While there are a growing number of potential therapies being tested in clinical trials there are only a few stem cell therapies that have so far been approved by the FDA. Two therapies that CIRM provided early funding for have been approved. Those are:

Fedratinib, approved by the FDA in August 2019 as a first line therapy for myelofibrosis (scarring of the bone marrow)

Glasdegib, approved in November 2016 as a combination therapy with low dose are-C for patients 75 years of age and older with acute myelogenous leukemia

Right now the most commonly used stem cell-based therapy is bone marrow transplantation. Blood-forming stem cells in the bone marrow were the first stem cells to be identified and were the first to be used in the clinic. This life-saving technique has helped thousands people worldwide who had been suffering from blood cancers, such as leukemia.

In addition to their current use in cancer treatments, research suggests that bone marrow transplants will be useful in treating autoimmune diseases and in helping people tolerate transplanted organs.

Other therapies based on adult stem cells are currently in clinical trials. Until those trials are complete we won't know which type of stem cell is most effective in treating different diseases.
Find Out More:
Read the top ten things to know about stem cell treatments (from ISSCR)
Alan Lewis talks about getting an embryonic stem cell-based therapy to patients (3:46)

What about stem cell therapies that are available overseas?

Many overseas clinics - and a growing number here in the U.S. too - advertise "miraculous" stem cell therapies for a wide range of incurable diseases. This phenomenon is called stem cell tourism and is currently a source of concern for reputable stem cell scientists. These predatory clinics are offering therapies that have not been tested to prove they are effective or even safe. In recent few years, some patients who visited those clinics have died, others have been left blind or had serious infections as a result of receiving unproven and untested stem cells.

Find Out More:
Learn more about the issue on our Stem Cell Tourism page.
Jeanne Loring discusses concerns about stem cell tourism (3:38)
CIRM/ISSCR panel on stem cell tourism

Why does it take so long to create new stem cell therapies?

Stem cells hold the potential to treat a wide range of diseases. However, the path from the lab to the clinic is a long one. Before testing those cells in a human disease, researchers must grow the right cell type, find a way to test those cells, and make sure the cells are safe in animals before moving to human trials.

Find Out More:
Hans Keirstead talks about hurdles in developing a new therapy (5:07)

How do scientists get stem cells to specialize into different cell types?

One of the biggest hurdles in any stem cell-based therapy is coaxing stem cells to become a single cell type. The vital process of maturing stem cells from one state to another type is called differentiation.

Guiding stem cells to become a particular cell type has been fraught with difficulty. For example, stem cells growing in a developing embryo receive a carefully choreographed series of signals from the surrounding tissue. To create the same effect in the lab, researchers have to try and mimic those signals. Add the signals in the wrong order or the wrong dose and the developing cells may choose to remain immature-or become the wrong cell type

Many decades of research has uncovered many of the signals needed to properly differentiate cells. Other signals are still unknown. Many CIRM-funded researchers are attempting to differentiate very pure populations of mature cell types that can accelerate therapies.

Find Out More:
Mark Mercola talks about differentiating cells into adult tissues (3:37)

How do scientists test stem cell therapies?

Once a researcher has a mature cell type in a lab dish, the next step is to find out whether those cells can function in the body. For example, embryonic stem cells that have matured into insulin-producing cells in the lab are only useful if they continue producing insulin once transplanted inside a body. Likewise, researchers need to know that the cells can integrate into the surrounding tissue and not be rejected by the body.

Scientists test cells by first developing an animal model that mimics the human disease, and then implanting the cells to see if they help treat the disease. These types of experiments can be painstaking-because even if the cells don't completely cure the disease, they may restore some functions that would still be of enormous benefit to people. Researchers have to examine each of these possible outcomes.

In many cases testing the cells in a single animal model doesn't provide enough information. Most animal models of disease don't perfectly mimic the human disease. For example, a mouse carrying the same mutation that causes cystic fibrosis in humans doesn't show the same signs as a person with the disease. So, a stem cell therapy that treats this mouse model of cystic fibrosis may not work in humans. That's why researchers often need to test the cells in more than one animal model.

Can't stem cell therapies increase the chances of a tumor?

The promise of embryonic stem cells is that they can form any type of cell in the body. The trouble is that when implanted into an animal they do just that, in the form of tumors called teratomas. These tumors consist of a mass of many cells types and can include hair cells and many other tissues.

These teratomas are one reason why it is necessary to mature the embryonic stem cells into highly purified adult cell types before implanting into humans. Virtually all evidence has shown that the mature cells are restricted to their one identity and don't appear to revert to a teratoma-forming cell.

Find Out More:
UC Davis researcher focuses on stem cell safety (from UC Davis)
Paul Knoepfler talks about the tendency of embryonic stem cells to form tumors (4:10)

Is there a risk of immune rejection from stem cells?

Transplanted stem cells, like any transplanted organ, can be recognized by the immune system as foreign and then rejected. In organ transplants such as liver, kidney, or heart, people must be on immune suppressive drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent the immune system from recognizing that organ as foreign and destroying it.

The likelihood of the immune system rejecting a transplant of embryonic stem cell-based tissue depends on the origin of that tissue. Stem cells isolated from IVF embryos will have a genetic makeup that will not match that of the person who receives the transplant. That person's immune system will recognize those cells as foreign and reject the tissue unless a person is on powerful immune suppressive drugs.The same is true for adult stem cells from a donor.

Stem cells generated through SCNT or iPS cell technology, on the other hand, are a perfect genetic match. The immune system would likely overlook that transplanted cells, seeing it as a normal part of the body. Still, some suggest that even if the cells are perfectly matched, they may not entirely escape the notice of the immune system. Cancer cells, for example, have the same genetic make up as surrounding tissue and yet the immune system will often identify and destroy early tumors. Until more information is available from animal studies it will be hard to know whether transplanted patient-specific cells are likely to call the attention of the immune system.

Find Out More:
Jeffrey Bluestone talks about immune rejection of stem cell-based therapies (4:05)

How do scientists grow stem cells in the right conditions?

In order to be approved by the FDA for use in human trials, stem cells must be grown in good manufacturing practice (GMP) conditions. Under GMP standards, a cell line has to be manufactured so that each group of cells is grown in an identical, repeatable, sterile environment. This ensures that each batch of cells has the same properties, and each person getting a stem cell therapy gets an equivalent treatment.

Updated 2/16

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Stem cells have the potential to treat a wide range of diseases. Here, discover why these cells are such a powerful tool for treating disease-and what hurdles experts face before new therapies reach patients. How can stem cells treat disease? What diseases could be treated by stem cell research?

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Stem cells can treat virtually any organ or tissue.

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Stem cells can treat virtually any organ or tissue.

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Stem cells transplants can treat many diseases by specializing them to do certain tasks for the body. Stem cells transplants can replace neurons in the body damaged by spinal cord injury, a stroke, Alzheimer's, ect. It can basically replace any tissue or organ damaged by injury or disease

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Stem cells have the potential to treat a wide range of diseases. Here, discover why these cells are such a powerful tool for treating disease-and what hurdles experts face before new therapies reach patients.

How can stem cells treat disease?
What diseases could be treated by stem cell research?
How can I learn more about CIRM-funded research in a particular disease?
What cell therapies are available right now?
What about the therapies that are available overseas?
Why does it take so long to create new therapies?
How do scientists get stem cells to specialize into different cell types?
How do scientists test stem cell therapies?
Can't stem cell therapies increase the chances of a tumor?
Is there a risk of immune rejection with stem cells?
How do scientists grow stem cells in the right conditions?

How can stem cells treat disease?

When most people think about about stem cells treating disease they think of a stem cell transplant.

In a stem cell transplant, stem cells are first specialized into the necessary adult cell type. Then, those mature cells replace tissue that is damaged by disease or injury. This type of treatment could be used to:

Replace neurons damaged by spinal cord injury, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease or other neurological problems;

Produce insulin that could treat people with diabetes or cartilage to repair damage caused by arthritis; or

Replace virtually any tissue or organ that is injured or diseased.

But stem cell-based therapies can do much more.

Studying how stem cells develop into heart muscle cells could provide clues about how we could induce heart muscle to repair itself after a heart attack.

The cells could be used to study disease, identify new drugs, or screen drugs for toxic side effects.

Any of these would have a significant impact on human health without transplanting a single cell.

What diseases could be treated by stem cell research?

In theory, there's no limit to the types of diseases that could be treated with stem cell research. Given that researchers may be able to study all cell types they have the potential to make breakthroughs in any disease.

How can I learn more about CIRM-funded stem cell research in a particular disease?

CIRM has created disease pages for many of the major diseases being targeted by stem cell scientists. You can find those disease pages here.

You can also sort our complete list of CIRM awards to see what we've funded in different disease areas.

What cell therapies are available right now?

While there are a growing number of potential therapies being tested in clinical trials there are only a few stem cell therapies that have so far been approved by the FDA. Two therapies that CIRM provided early funding for have been approved. Those are:

Fedratinib, approved by the FDA in August 2019 as a first line therapy for myelofibrosis (scarring of the bone marrow)

Glasdegib, approved in November 2016 as a combination therapy with low dose are-C for patients 75 years of age and older with acute myelogenous leukemia

Right now the most commonly used stem cell-based therapy is bone marrow transplantation. Blood-forming stem cells in the bone marrow were the first stem cells to be identified and were the first to be used in the clinic. This life-saving technique has helped thousands people worldwide who had been suffering from blood cancers, such as leukemia.

In addition to their current use in cancer treatments, research suggests that bone marrow transplants will be useful in treating autoimmune diseases and in helping people tolerate transplanted organs.

Other therapies based on adult stem cells are currently in clinical trials. Until those trials are complete we won't know which type of stem cell is most effective in treating different diseases.
Find Out More:
Read the top ten things to know about stem cell treatments (from ISSCR)
Alan Lewis talks about getting an embryonic stem cell-based therapy to patients (3:46)

What about stem cell therapies that are available overseas?

Many overseas clinics - and a growing number here in the U.S. too - advertise "miraculous" stem cell therapies for a wide range of incurable diseases. This phenomenon is called stem cell tourism and is currently a source of concern for reputable stem cell scientists. These predatory clinics are offering therapies that have not been tested to prove they are effective or even safe. In recent few years, some patients who visited those clinics have died, others have been left blind or had serious infections as a result of receiving unproven and untested stem cells.

Find Out More:
Learn more about the issue on our Stem Cell Tourism page.
Jeanne Loring discusses concerns about stem cell tourism (3:38)
CIRM/ISSCR panel on stem cell tourism

Why does it take so long to create new stem cell therapies?

Stem cells hold the potential to treat a wide range of diseases. However, the path from the lab to the clinic is a long one. Before testing those cells in a human disease, researchers must grow the right cell type, find a way to test those cells, and make sure the cells are safe in animals before moving to human trials.

Find Out More:
Hans Keirstead talks about hurdles in developing a new therapy (5:07)

How do scientists get stem cells to specialize into different cell types?

One of the biggest hurdles in any stem cell-based therapy is coaxing stem cells to become a single cell type. The vital process of maturing stem cells from one state to another type is called differentiation.

Guiding stem cells to become a particular cell type has been fraught with difficulty. For example, stem cells growing in a developing embryo receive a carefully choreographed series of signals from the surrounding tissue. To create the same effect in the lab, researchers have to try and mimic those signals. Add the signals in the wrong order or the wrong dose and the developing cells may choose to remain immature-or become the wrong cell type

Many decades of research has uncovered many of the signals needed to properly differentiate cells. Other signals are still unknown. Many CIRM-funded researchers are attempting to differentiate very pure populations of mature cell types that can accelerate therapies.

Find Out More:
Mark Mercola talks about differentiating cells into adult tissues (3:37)

How do scientists test stem cell therapies?

Once a researcher has a mature cell type in a lab dish, the next step is to find out whether those cells can function in the body. For example, embryonic stem cells that have matured into insulin-producing cells in the lab are only useful if they continue producing insulin once transplanted inside a body. Likewise, researchers need to know that the cells can integrate into the surrounding tissue and not be rejected by the body.

Scientists test cells by first developing an animal model that mimics the human disease, and then implanting the cells to see if they help treat the disease. These types of experiments can be painstaking-because even if the cells don't completely cure the disease, they may restore some functions that would still be of enormous benefit to people. Researchers have to examine each of these possible outcomes.

In many cases testing the cells in a single animal model doesn't provide enough information. Most animal models of disease don't perfectly mimic the human disease. For example, a mouse carrying the same mutation that causes cystic fibrosis in humans doesn't show the same signs as a person with the disease. So, a stem cell therapy that treats this mouse model of cystic fibrosis may not work in humans. That's why researchers often need to test the cells in more than one animal model.

Can't stem cell therapies increase the chances of a tumor?

The promise of embryonic stem cells is that they can form any type of cell in the body. The trouble is that when implanted into an animal they do just that, in the form of tumors called teratomas. These tumors consist of a mass of many cells types and can include hair cells and many other tissues.

These teratomas are one reason why it is necessary to mature the embryonic stem cells into highly purified adult cell types before implanting into humans. Virtually all evidence has shown that the mature cells are restricted to their one identity and don't appear to revert to a teratoma-forming cell.

Find Out More:
UC Davis researcher focuses on stem cell safety (from UC Davis)
Paul Knoepfler talks about the tendency of embryonic stem cells to form tumors (4:10)

Is there a risk of immune rejection from stem cells?

Transplanted stem cells, like any transplanted organ, can be recognized by the immune system as foreign and then rejected. In organ transplants such as liver, kidney, or heart, people must be on immune suppressive drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent the immune system from recognizing that organ as foreign and destroying it.

The likelihood of the immune system rejecting a transplant of embryonic stem cell-based tissue depends on the origin of that tissue. Stem cells isolated from IVF embryos will have a genetic makeup that will not match that of the person who receives the transplant. That person's immune system will recognize those cells as foreign and reject the tissue unless a person is on powerful immune suppressive drugs.The same is true for adult stem cells from a donor.

Stem cells generated through SCNT or iPS cell technology, on the other hand, are a perfect genetic match. The immune system would likely overlook that transplanted cells, seeing it as a normal part of the body. Still, some suggest that even if the cells are perfectly matched, they may not entirely escape the notice of the immune system. Cancer cells, for example, have the same genetic make up as surrounding tissue and yet the immune system will often identify and destroy early tumors. Until more information is available from animal studies it will be hard to know whether transplanted patient-specific cells are likely to call the attention of the immune system.

Find Out More:
Jeffrey Bluestone talks about immune rejection of stem cell-based therapies (4:05)

How do scientists grow stem cells in the right conditions?

In order to be approved by the FDA for use in human trials, stem cells must be grown in good manufacturing practice (GMP) conditions. Under GMP standards, a cell line has to be manufactured so that each group of cells is grown in an identical, repeatable, sterile environment. This ensures that each batch of cells has the same properties, and each person getting a stem cell therapy gets an equivalent treatment.

Updated 2/16

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Stem cells have the potential to treat a wide range of diseases. Here, discover why these cells are such a powerful tool for treating disease-and what hurdles experts face before new therapies reach patients. How can stem cells treat disease? What diseases could be treated by stem cell research?

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This article talks about how there is no limit to the types of diseases that can be treated with stem cell research and that this research can lead the potential breakthrough in many different types of diseases. https://www.cirm.ca.gov/patients/power-stem-cells

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Stem Cells in Advancing Medicine - Alex Jenkins

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Stem Cells in Advancing Medicine - Alex Jenkins

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The following article talks about the ways stem cells can be used in research and in medical treatments. The focus of stem cell research is to generate a tissue and transplant it to heal an injury or cure a disease such as cancer. Transplanting human bone marrow cells into mice that have had heart injuries has shown promise in regenerating blood vessels and the heart tissue itself.

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1. Introduction: What are stem cells, and why are they important?

2. What are the unique properties of all stem cells?

3. What are embryonic stem cells?

4. What are adult stem cells?

5. What are the similarities and differences between embryonic and adult stem cells?

6. What are induced pluripotent stem cells?

7. What are the potential uses of human stem cells and the obstacles that must be overcome before these potential uses will be realized?

8. Where can I get more information?

VII. What are the potential uses of human stem cells and the obstacles that must be overcome before these potential uses will be realized?

There are many ways in which human stem cells can be used in research and the clinic. Studies of human embryonic stem cells will yield information about the complex events that occur during human development. A primary goal of this work is to identify how undifferentiated stem cells become the differentiated cells that form the tissues and organs. Scientists know that turning genes on and off is central to this process. Some of the most serious medical conditions, such as cancer and birth defects, are due to abnormal cell division and differentiation. A more complete understanding of the genetic and molecular controls of these processes may yield information about how such diseases arise and suggest new strategies for therapy. Predictably controlling cell proliferation and differentiation requires additional basic research on the molecular and genetic signals that regulate cell division and specialization. While recent developments with iPS cells suggest some of the specific factors that may be involved, techniques must be devised to introduce these factors safely into the cells and control the processes that are induced by these factors.

Human stem cells are currently being used to test new drugs. New medications are tested for safety on differentiated cells generated from human pluripotent cell lines. Other kinds of cell lines have a long history of being used in this way. Cancer cell lines, for example, are used to screen potential anti-tumor drugs. The availability of pluripotent stem cells would allow drug testing in a wider range of cell types. However, to screen drugs effectively, the conditions must be identical when comparing different drugs. Therefore, scientists must be able to precisely control the differentiation of stem cells into the specific cell type on which drugs will be tested. For some cell types and tissues, current knowledge of the signals controlling differentiation falls short of being able to mimic these conditions precisely to generate pure populations of differentiated cells for each drug being tested.

Perhaps the most important potential application of human stem cells is the generation of cells and tissues that could be used for cell-based therapies. Today, donated organs and tissues are often used to replace ailing or destroyed tissue, but the need for transplantable tissues and organs far outweighs the available supply. Stem cells, directed to differentiate into specific cell types, offer the possibility of a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat diseases including macular degeneration, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Figure 3. Strategies to repair heart muscle with adult stem cells. Click here for larger image.

© 2008 Terese Winslow

For example, it may become possible to generate healthy heart muscle cells in the laboratory and then transplant those cells into patients with chronic heart disease. Preliminary research in mice and other animals indicates that bone marrow stromal cells, transplanted into a damaged heart, can have beneficial effects. Whether these cells can generate heart muscle cells or stimulate the growth of new blood vessels that repopulate the heart tissue, or help via some other mechanism is actively under investigation. For example, injected cells may accomplish repair by secreting growth factors, rather than actually incorporating into the heart. Promising results from animal studies have served as the basis for a small number of exploratory studies in humans (for discussion, see call-out box, "Can Stem Cells Mend a Broken Heart?"). Other recent studies in cell culture systems indicate that it may be possible to direct the differentiation of embryonic stem cells or adult bone marrow cells into heart muscle cells ( Figure 3).

Can Stem Cells Mend a Broken Heart?: Stem Cells for the Future Treatment of Heart Disease

Cardiovascular disease (CVD), which includes hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, and congestive heart failure, has ranked as the number one cause of death in the United States every year since 1900 except 1918, when the nation struggled with an influenza epidemic. Nearly 2,600 Americans die of CVD each day, roughly one person every 34 seconds. Given the aging of the population and the relatively dramatic recent increases in the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors such as obesity and type 2 diabetes, CVD will be a significant health concern well into the 21st century.

Cardiovascular disease can deprive heart tissue of oxygen, thereby killing cardiac muscle cells (cardiomyocytes). This loss triggers a cascade of detrimental events, including formation of scar tissue, an overload of blood flow and pressure capacity, the overstretching of viable cardiac cells attempting to sustain cardiac output, leading to heart failure, and eventual death. Restoring damaged heart muscle tissue, through repair or regeneration, is therefore a potentially new strategy to treat heart failure.

The use of embryonic and adult-derived stem cells for cardiac repair is an active area of research. A number of stem cell types, including embryonic stem (ES) cells, cardiac stem cells that naturally reside within the heart, myoblasts (muscle stem cells), adult bone marrow-derived cells including mesenchymal cells (bone marrow-derived cells that give rise to tissues such as muscle, bone, tendons, ligaments, and adipose tissue), endothelial progenitor cells (cells that give rise to the endothelium, the interior lining of blood vessels), and umbilical cord blood cells, have been investigated as possible sources for regenerating damaged heart tissue. All have been explored in mouse or rat models, and some have been tested in larger animal models, such as pigs.

A few small studies have also been carried out in humans, usually in patients who are undergoing open-heart surgery. Several of these have demonstrated that stem cells that are injected into the circulation or directly into the injured heart tissue appear to improve cardiac function and/or induce the formation of new capillaries. The mechanism for this repair remains controversial, and the stem cells likely regenerate heart tissue through several pathways. However, the stem cell populations that have been tested in these experiments vary widely, as do the conditions of their purification and application. Although much more research is needed to assess the safety and improve the efficacy of this approach, these preliminary clinical experiments show how stem cells may one day be used to repair damaged heart tissue, thereby reducing the burden of cardiovascular disease.

In people who suffer from type 1 diabetes, the cells of the pancreas that normally produce insulin are destroyed by the patient's own immune system. New studies indicate that it may be possible to direct the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells in cell culture to form insulin-producing cells that eventually could be used in transplantation therapy for persons with diabetes.

To realize the promise of novel cell-based therapies for such pervasive and debilitating diseases, scientists must be able to manipulate stem cells so that they possess the necessary characteristics for successful differentiation, transplantation, and engraftment. The following is a list of steps in successful cell-based treatments that scientists will have to learn to control to bring such treatments to the clinic. To be useful for transplant purposes, stem cells must be reproducibly made to:

Proliferate extensively and generate sufficient quantities of cells for making tissue.

Differentiate into the desired cell type(s).

Survive in the recipient after transplant.

Integrate into the surrounding tissue after transplant.

Function appropriately for the duration of the recipient's life.

Avoid harming the recipient in any way.

Also, to avoid the problem of immune rejection, scientists are experimenting with different research strategies to generate tissues that will not be rejected.

To summarize, stem cells offer exciting promise for future therapies, but significant technical hurdles remain that will only be overcome through years of intensive research.

Previous | VII. What are the potential uses of human stem cells and the obstacles that must be overcome before these potential uses will be realized? | Next

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Introduction: What are stem cells, and why are they important? What are the unique properties of all stem cells? What are embryonic stem cells? What are adult stem cells? What are the similarities and differences between embryonic and adult stem cells? What are induced pluripotent stem cells?

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Stem Cells and the advancement of Medicine- Peyton Mumpower

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Stem Cells and the advancement of Medicine- Peyton Mumpower

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Stem cells have the ability to repair damaged tissue in humans. They can be used in cell therapies and drug discovery to take the place of the damaged tissues.  For tissues that are constantly being replaced, stem cells can be implanted to directly replace these tissues.

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The latest news, comment and analysis on stem cell research and its implications.

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In the article it talks about how researchers are exploring the possibilities of ways that Doctors could use stem cells from adult body tissue to grow new body parts as well as repair old ones. It goes into a further explanation of how researchers are learning how to be able to trick these adult stem cells into thinking that they are stem cells that are from embryos. It also explains how these tricked stem cells can act like a stem cell from embryo in that they are not yet determined what they will be so the cells can repair and regrow organs and tissues that are damaged but not meant for originally.
https://www.usnews.com/news/healthcare-of-tomorrow/articles/2017-10-04/stem-cells-may-hold-the-fix

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This article provides information on the possibilities made within research on stem cells. it also includes answers to questions like;
How can stem cells treat disease? What diseases could be treated?

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Stem cells have the potential to treat a wide range of diseases. Here, discover why these cells are such a powerful tool for treating disease-and what hurdles experts face before new therapies reach patients.

How can stem cells treat disease?
What diseases could be treated by stem cell research?
How can I learn more about CIRM-funded research in a particular disease?
What cell therapies are available right now?
What about the therapies that are available overseas?
Why does it take so long to create new therapies?
How do scientists get stem cells to specialize into different cell types?
How do scientists test stem cell therapies?
Can't stem cell therapies increase the chances of a tumor?
Is there a risk of immune rejection with stem cells?
How do scientists grow stem cells in the right conditions?

How can stem cells treat disease?

When most people think about about stem cells treating disease they think of a stem cell transplant.

In a stem cell transplant, stem cells are first specialized into the necessary adult cell type. Then, those mature cells replace tissue that is damaged by disease or injury. This type of treatment could be used to:

Replace neurons damaged by spinal cord injury, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease or other neurological problems;

Produce insulin that could treat people with diabetes or cartilage to repair damage caused by arthritis; or

Replace virtually any tissue or organ that is injured or diseased.

But stem cell-based therapies can do much more.

Studying how stem cells develop into heart muscle cells could provide clues about how we could induce heart muscle to repair itself after a heart attack.

The cells could be used to study disease, identify new drugs, or screen drugs for toxic side effects.

Any of these would have a significant impact on human health without transplanting a single cell.

What diseases could be treated by stem cell research?

In theory, there's no limit to the types of diseases that could be treated with stem cell research. Given that researchers may be able to study all cell types they have the potential to make breakthroughs in any disease.

How can I learn more about CIRM-funded stem cell research in a particular disease?

CIRM has created disease pages for many of the major diseases being targeted by stem cell scientists. You can find those disease pages here.

You can also sort our complete list of CIRM awards to see what we've funded in different disease areas.

What cell therapies are available right now?

While there are a growing number of potential therapies being tested in clinical trials there are only a few stem cell therapies that have so far been approved by the FDA. Two therapies that CIRM provided early funding for have been approved. Those are:

Fedratinib, approved by the FDA in August 2019 as a first line therapy for myelofibrosis (scarring of the bone marrow)

Glasdegib, approved in November 2016 as a combination therapy with low dose are-C for patients 75 years of age and older with acute myelogenous leukemia

Right now the most commonly used stem cell-based therapy is bone marrow transplantation. Blood-forming stem cells in the bone marrow were the first stem cells to be identified and were the first to be used in the clinic. This life-saving technique has helped thousands people worldwide who had been suffering from blood cancers, such as leukemia.

In addition to their current use in cancer treatments, research suggests that bone marrow transplants will be useful in treating autoimmune diseases and in helping people tolerate transplanted organs.

Other therapies based on adult stem cells are currently in clinical trials. Until those trials are complete we won't know which type of stem cell is most effective in treating different diseases.
Find Out More:
Read the top ten things to know about stem cell treatments (from ISSCR)
Alan Lewis talks about getting an embryonic stem cell-based therapy to patients (3:46)

What about stem cell therapies that are available overseas?

Many overseas clinics - and a growing number here in the U.S. too - advertise "miraculous" stem cell therapies for a wide range of incurable diseases. This phenomenon is called stem cell tourism and is currently a source of concern for reputable stem cell scientists. These predatory clinics are offering therapies that have not been tested to prove they are effective or even safe. In recent few years, some patients who visited those clinics have died, others have been left blind or had serious infections as a result of receiving unproven and untested stem cells.

Find Out More:
Learn more about the issue on our Stem Cell Tourism page.
Jeanne Loring discusses concerns about stem cell tourism (3:38)
CIRM/ISSCR panel on stem cell tourism

Why does it take so long to create new stem cell therapies?

Stem cells hold the potential to treat a wide range of diseases. However, the path from the lab to the clinic is a long one. Before testing those cells in a human disease, researchers must grow the right cell type, find a way to test those cells, and make sure the cells are safe in animals before moving to human trials.

Find Out More:
Hans Keirstead talks about hurdles in developing a new therapy (5:07)

How do scientists get stem cells to specialize into different cell types?

One of the biggest hurdles in any stem cell-based therapy is coaxing stem cells to become a single cell type. The vital process of maturing stem cells from one state to another type is called differentiation.

Guiding stem cells to become a particular cell type has been fraught with difficulty. For example, stem cells growing in a developing embryo receive a carefully choreographed series of signals from the surrounding tissue. To create the same effect in the lab, researchers have to try and mimic those signals. Add the signals in the wrong order or the wrong dose and the developing cells may choose to remain immature-or become the wrong cell type

Many decades of research has uncovered many of the signals needed to properly differentiate cells. Other signals are still unknown. Many CIRM-funded researchers are attempting to differentiate very pure populations of mature cell types that can accelerate therapies.

Find Out More:
Mark Mercola talks about differentiating cells into adult tissues (3:37)

How do scientists test stem cell therapies?

Once a researcher has a mature cell type in a lab dish, the next step is to find out whether those cells can function in the body. For example, embryonic stem cells that have matured into insulin-producing cells in the lab are only useful if they continue producing insulin once transplanted inside a body. Likewise, researchers need to know that the cells can integrate into the surrounding tissue and not be rejected by the body.

Scientists test cells by first developing an animal model that mimics the human disease, and then implanting the cells to see if they help treat the disease. These types of experiments can be painstaking-because even if the cells don't completely cure the disease, they may restore some functions that would still be of enormous benefit to people. Researchers have to examine each of these possible outcomes.

In many cases testing the cells in a single animal model doesn't provide enough information. Most animal models of disease don't perfectly mimic the human disease. For example, a mouse carrying the same mutation that causes cystic fibrosis in humans doesn't show the same signs as a person with the disease. So, a stem cell therapy that treats this mouse model of cystic fibrosis may not work in humans. That's why researchers often need to test the cells in more than one animal model.

Can't stem cell therapies increase the chances of a tumor?

The promise of embryonic stem cells is that they can form any type of cell in the body. The trouble is that when implanted into an animal they do just that, in the form of tumors called teratomas. These tumors consist of a mass of many cells types and can include hair cells and many other tissues.

These teratomas are one reason why it is necessary to mature the embryonic stem cells into highly purified adult cell types before implanting into humans. Virtually all evidence has shown that the mature cells are restricted to their one identity and don't appear to revert to a teratoma-forming cell.

Find Out More:
UC Davis researcher focuses on stem cell safety (from UC Davis)
Paul Knoepfler talks about the tendency of embryonic stem cells to form tumors (4:10)

Is there a risk of immune rejection from stem cells?

Transplanted stem cells, like any transplanted organ, can be recognized by the immune system as foreign and then rejected. In organ transplants such as liver, kidney, or heart, people must be on immune suppressive drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent the immune system from recognizing that organ as foreign and destroying it.

The likelihood of the immune system rejecting a transplant of embryonic stem cell-based tissue depends on the origin of that tissue. Stem cells isolated from IVF embryos will have a genetic makeup that will not match that of the person who receives the transplant. That person's immune system will recognize those cells as foreign and reject the tissue unless a person is on powerful immune suppressive drugs.The same is true for adult stem cells from a donor.

Stem cells generated through SCNT or iPS cell technology, on the other hand, are a perfect genetic match. The immune system would likely overlook that transplanted cells, seeing it as a normal part of the body. Still, some suggest that even if the cells are perfectly matched, they may not entirely escape the notice of the immune system. Cancer cells, for example, have the same genetic make up as surrounding tissue and yet the immune system will often identify and destroy early tumors. Until more information is available from animal studies it will be hard to know whether transplanted patient-specific cells are likely to call the attention of the immune system.

Find Out More:
Jeffrey Bluestone talks about immune rejection of stem cell-based therapies (4:05)

How do scientists grow stem cells in the right conditions?

In order to be approved by the FDA for use in human trials, stem cells must be grown in good manufacturing practice (GMP) conditions. Under GMP standards, a cell line has to be manufactured so that each group of cells is grown in an identical, repeatable, sterile environment. This ensures that each batch of cells has the same properties, and each person getting a stem cell therapy gets an equivalent treatment.

Updated 2/16

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Stem cells have the potential to treat a wide range of diseases. Here, discover why these cells are such a powerful tool for treating disease-and what hurdles experts face before new therapies reach patients. How can stem cells treat disease? What diseases could be treated by stem cell research?

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How can Stem Cells be Used in Medicine?                                - Caroline Hensley

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How can Stem Cells be Used in Medicine?                                - Caroline Hensley

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Stem cells can be used in medicine to make more specialized tissues, provide a resource for new medical treatments, and to study diseases. By researching stem cells, scientists could pin point what goes wrong and causes certain diseases. Transplantable stem cells can be used to turn into other specific cells that your body needs. Stem cells can be used to test out new medications, instead of putting a person or animal at risk, the medication can be tested on a large group of specialized stem cells.

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What are Stem Cells? Types of Stem Cell and their Uses

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What are stem cells, what makes them unique and what are stem cells used for? Stem cells are the body's natural reservoir and are essential to the maintenance of tissues.

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How Can Stem Cells Advance Medicine? - Sydney Laughlin

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How Can Stem Cells Advance Medicine? - Sydney Laughlin

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Stem cells improve medicine through cell-based therapies and drug discovery which both enhance basic knowledge of stem cells. Cell therapies use stem cells to understand illnesses and find things that could potentially help it. Embryonic stem cells are used for specialized tissues that could have possibly been damaged by disease such as the heart. Stem cells are the future of medicine because they allow for the treatment of things that used to be not treatable to man.

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The latest news, comment and analysis on stem cell research and its implications.

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How can stem cells advance medicine? - Alexis Clatterbuck

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How can stem cells advance medicine? - Alexis Clatterbuck

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Stem cell treatments could possibly be used to cure disease and repair injury. Research involving stem cells has proven to help rats with injuries similar to that of a stroke recover by stimulating stem cells found in the brain, though very few stem cell treatments found have been used on humans.

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The latest news, comment and analysis on stem cell research and its implications.

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How can stem cells advance medicine - Rachael Sproles

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How can stem cells advance medicine - Rachael Sproles

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Stem cell treatment could be used to treat disease. Research using rats has shown a significant improvement to rats with prior injuries like a stroke, by using stem cells to simulate brain cells.
https://www.nature.com/stemcells/2007/0706/070614/full/stemcells.2007.23.html?foxtrotcallback=true