The Use of Regenerative Medicine on Muscular Dystrophy Patients

Some parts of our body degenerate or are wasted either because of disease or aging. Loss of teeth, muscular weakening due to dystrophy, slow wound healing are all examples of compromised trophic processes. In many cases, even if the trauma heals, the process is not without scarring, this is more like patching rather, like regeneration. Regeneration or regrowth of particular body parts remain a distant thing for modern medical science. However, this does not mean that nothing is happening in that direction. In fact, during the last few decades, there has been serious progress in regenerative medicine with lots of success.

Healing of skin, muscles or any other body part has at least two components: cellular and non-cellular. Both these elements are necessary for any healing to take place. If a person has damaged skin, there is a migration of various cells to the damaged region, and their activities are controlled by the different enzymes and hormones. Therefore, if we want to regenerate any part of the body, researchers must fully discover and appreciate the cellular and non-cellular components involved in it (1).

Stem cells and tissue regeneration

Regeneration is a cellular component. Just imagine one had a cell that could multiply and convert to any other functional cell under specific conditions, acting as a seed for any other tissue or organ. In fact, this kind of universal cell does exist in the body, and they are called stem cells. After fertilization of the ovum by sperm, stem cells are formed, which differentiate to build the whole organism. Giostar Chicago is one of the pioneers when it comes to regenerative medicine and stem cell treatment. These stem cells continue to exist in an adult's bone marrow, adipose tissues, lungs, liver and many other organs. In bone marrow, from a single type of stem cells, all the white and red blood cells are formed. In fact, a bone marrow transplant has even been already practiced for almost half a century.

Stem cells are either embryonic (pluripotent, with the ability to change to any tissue) or adult stem cells (with the ability to transform into other types of cells). In the early days of stem cell research, they were thought to only exist in a few organs, but now it is known that stem cells exist almost in every organ (e.g. Adipose tissues, liver, lungs). Further, with the advances in genetic engineering, methods have been found to convert or reprogram an adult stem cell into a pluripotent stem cell.

One of the earliest examples of stem cell regenerative medicine is a bone marrow transplant. In anticancer therapy due to the use of highly toxic drugs, many patients develop so-called plastic anemia (losing the ability to produce blood cells), and a bone marrow transplant would help them to regenerate the blood cells that they need.

Nowadays stem cell therapy is being used in many other diseases. Common uses can include the regeneration of cells in the joints, pancreas, cardiac muscles, and many other organs. These stem cells can be extracted from the embryo, placenta, umbilical cord, and adipose tissues. And with the help of the artificial environment, they are multiplied in so-called cell lines, to get them in enough quantity (2).