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PEOPLE AND THEIR PROBLEMS
New Delhi, 24 February 2006
Cure For Chronic
Disorders
BOOSTING STEM CELL
RESEARCH
By Radhakrishna Rao
India has made spectacular strides in
space research and nuclear power generation. It is now preparing the ground to
find a niche in stem cell research to find a cure to many of the hitherto incurable diseases. Along
with countries like Australia,
China, Japan and South
Korea, India
is now looking at stem cell research as a way to get ahead in biotech. With the
Christian fundamentalists in the US succeeding in influencing the Bush Administration into
putting many restrictions of stem cell
research on “ethical grounds” countries in the Asia Pacific region are all set to emerge in the forefront
of the stem cell research.
As pointed out by
D.Balasubramanian, Chairman of the Stem cell Task Force of the
Department of Biotechnology (DBT),”India is especially interested in clinical
applications of stem cells in ophthalmology, cardiology and spinal cord repair” .In particular, he stated
that a key objective is to promote stem cell city clusters across
Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune. These clusters, observes
Balasubramanian, would link all publicly and privately-funded research groups within a city, enabling them
to share facilities, ideas and research
and business opportunities. Right at
the moment, around 200 scientists are actively involved in various aspects of
stem cell research in India.
The Mumbai-based
Reliance Life Sciences is planning to focus on research programme aimed at
developing the use of bone marrow stem cells for treating cardiac disorders.
Similarly, the Bangalore-based National Centre for Biological Sciences and the Pune-
based National Centre of Cell Sciences are actively engaged in stem cell
research with a particular stress on
finding a cure for other wise incurable ailments.
The Hyderabad-based L.V.Prasad Eye Institute is among a few
medical centres in the world that have been putting the fruits of stem cell
research to good use. Here doctors take
about one millimeter limbal tissue from the healthy eye of the patient .culture them on an appropriate medium and graft it on into
the diseased eye. Such limbal stem cell
treatment is available only in a handful of countries. On the other hand,
Christian Medical College (CMC),Vellore,
plans to use the stem cells derived from the bone marrow to treat chronic liver
failure and to regenerate tissue to treat heart diseases and traumatic brain
injuries.
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS)in New
Delhi, which is working to treat cardiac disorders using stem cells has
subjected more than 30 patients suffering from heart related ailments to stem
cell treatment and found in majority of
the cases the dead heart tissues
stood revived. The AIIMS is now planning to use stem cell therapy for
treating diabetes, which in recent years
has assumed epidemic proportion.
Meanwhile, the DBT has mooted a proposal to set up a
national registry of mysenchymal stem cells derived from the bone marrow of an adult
that can be used for a variety of clinical trials. The mesenchymal stem
cells are endowed with the potential
to develop into mature cells that
produce fat, cartilege, bone tendons and muscles. As pointed out by Satish
Totey, Research Director of the Bangalore-based
Manipal Stem Cell Research Centre, the mesenchymal stem cells have a tendency to
differentiate into skeletal and fibrous tissues,
more easily. Totey says that they are also more easily accepted by the body and
have a far fewer chances of getting rejected. As it is, clinical trials have
shown that mesenchymal stem cells injected into the heart could replace scarce
tissues that development after heart
attacks with healthy new tissue.
As things stand now, the researchers are quite optimistic
about treating lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, liver disorders and heart
ailments. Right at the moment, research is proceeding apace to cure juvenile
diabetes with stem cells. Essentially,
stem cells are akin to “nature’s blank slates” capable of developing into any
of more than 200 cells types that make up the human body. As such, the stem
cell research offer the possibility
of replacing the “faulty” and “malfunctioning” tissues
and pave the way for curing hitherto incurable ailments.
Stem cells grow into virtually any kind of tissue in the human body when nurtured properly. The
new stem cell lines, researchers hope, can replace the old and worn out
cells within the human body, increasing
longevity and serving as a miracle cure
for degenerative diseases .But then researchers need to cover much ground and go long way before
they succeeded in perfecting the stem cell therapy for treating human ailments.
Clearly and apparently, the cord blood collected from the umbilical cord is an
excellent repository of stem cells and is considered a better alternative than
anything else for us in transplants for people suffering from leukemia and
other immune related disease.
Normally, cord blood is collected before the placenta is
delivered. A bay’s umbilical cord blood, which is otherwise discarded, is a
rich sources of stem cells endowed with the ability to regenerate and replace a
variety of tissues, in recent years,
the concept of cord banking is catching
on in India. Interestingly, the cord
blood bank which store baby’s cord blood in liquid nitrogen for a period 21
years for a fee of around Rs.60,000 is considered a “biological insurance”
since the child from whose umbilical cord the blood was collected can stand to
benefit from it at any stage of his life. The Chennai-based Cryocell has set up
facilities to preserve cord blood .Similarly, Life cell, yet another private stem cell bank in Chennai says that about 1,000 expectant parents have enrolled
to bank the cord blood stem cells.
The recently-set up Bangalore-based Cryostem Karnataka Pvt
Ltd is a cord blood stem cell bank as well as research centre. As pointed out
by its Director Dr.S.G.A.Rao, “Cryostem
Karnataka is both a service oriented and
research based company involved in stem cell banking’ He also drove home the
point that the company is involved in embryonic stem cell research for developing novel therapeutic clinical applications.
Going further, Dr.Rao observed, “We are looking forward to establishing a
specialized stem cell based transplant therapy and related clinical research.”
In a related development, Dr. P.Srinivasna, Director of the
Jeevan Blood Bank in Chennai has
unveiled a plan to launch a
public cord blood bank to be run on a “no loss,
no profit basis”. The concept of a public cord blood bank, to be run on a no-loss- no- profit basis, centres round the idea that
parents donate the cord blood of heir
baby to a central banking facility for
use by anybody who needs it. By all means, the therapeutic potentials of the
cord blood stem cells is considered as one of the path-breaking discoveries of the 21st century. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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