Stem cell transplant and Research Facts

Stem Cell Transplant and Research Facts

Serving as a sort of repair system, they can theoretically divide without limit to replenish other cells for as long as the person or animal is still alive.When a stem cell divides, each "daughter" cell has the potential to either remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell.Stem cells are cells that have the potential to develop into some or many different cell types in the body, depending on whether they are multipotent or pluripotent.

Adult stem cells have been identified in many organs and tissues, including brain, bone marrow, peripheral blood, blood vessels, skeletal muscle, skin, teeth, heart, gut, liver, ovarian epithelium, and testis. They are thought to reside in a specific area of each tissue (called a " stem cell niche"). In many tissues, current evidence suggests that some types of stem cells are pericytes, cells that compose the outermost layer of small blood vessels. Stem cells may remain quiescent (non-dividing) for long periods of time until they are activated by a normal need for more cells to maintain tissues, or by disease or tissue injury.

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What Is Involved in Donating Bone Marrow or Stem Cells?
The donor has a needle in each arm throughout the collection.

Hematopoietic Blood Stem Cells The donor will undergo a full medical examination prior to donation to ascertain his fitness to donate.The procedure can take between two to four hours and may extend into a second day.The marrow will be extracted under general anaesthetic from the iliac crests around the pelvic area by specialist doctors using needle and syringe.

The procedure could take between one to two hours.The donor will undergo a full medical examination prior to donation to ascertain his fitness to donate.The donor donates through a procedure known as apheresis.The blood is taken from one arm and passed through a cell-separating machine, which collects the mobilised cells, and the red cells are returned to the donor via a needle in the other arm.He will attend the collection centre the day before the scheduled donation.Five days prior to donation, the donor will begin a course of injections of a growth factor to stimulate the stem cells and pass them into the peripheral blood.

The National Marrow Donor Program maintains a Web page on donating cord blood at http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Donate_Cord_Blood_Share_Life/index.html

The history of research on adult stem cells began about 50 years ago. In the 1950s, researchers discovered that the bone marrow contains at least two kinds of stem cells. One population, called hematopoietic stem cells, forms all the types of blood cells in the body. A second population, called bone marrow stromal stem cells (also called mesenchymal stem cells, or skeletal stem cells by some), were discovered a few years later. These non-hematopoietic stem cells make up a small proportion of the stromal cell population in the bone marrow, and can generate bone, cartilage, fat, cells that support the formation of blood, and fibrous connective tissue.

In the 1960s, scientists who were studying rats discovered two regions of the brain that contained dividing cells that ultimately become nerve cells. Despite these reports, most scientists believed that the adult brain could not generate new nerve cells. It was not until the 1990s that scientists agreed that the adult brain does contain stem cells that are able to generate the brain's three major cell types—astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, which are non-neuronal cells, and neurons, or nerve cells.

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