STEM CELL THERAPY
- February 25, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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STEM CELL THERAPY
TOPIC: Science & Tech
Context- A US patient has become the third person in the world, and the first woman, to be cured of HIV, the deadly virus that causes AIDS using umbilical cord blood.
Concept-
Umbilical Cord Blood:
- The umbilical cord is a flexible, tube-like structure that, during pregnancy, connects the fetus to the mother.
- Umbilical cord blood is a rich source of stem cells, and preserving it for future use.
- It contains special cells called hematopoietic stem cells that can be used to treat some types of diseases.
- Hematopoietic stem cells can mature into different types of blood cells in the body.
- Hematopoietic stem cells are derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical cord blood.
Stem Cell Therapy:
- Stem-cell therapy is the use of stem cells to treat or prevent a disease or condition.
- Stem cell therapy, also known as regenerative medicine, promotes the repair response of diseased, dysfunctional or injured tissue using stem cells or their derivatives.
- Stem cells can then be implanted into a person.
Stem Cells:
- Stem cells are the cells from which all other cells with specialized functions are generated.
- Under certain conditions in the body or a laboratory, stem cells divide to form more cells called daughter cells.
- These daughter cells either become new stem cells (self-renewal) or become specialized cells (differentiation) with a more specific function, such as blood cells, brain cells, heart muscle cells or bone cells.
- No other cell in the body has the natural ability to generate new cell types.
About HIV:
- HIV is a ribonucleic acid virus.
- HIV attacks CD4, a type of White Blood Cell (T cells) in the body’s immune system. T cells are those cells that move around the body detecting anomalies and infections in cells.
- HIV is transmitted from person to person through bodily fluids including blood, semen, vaginal secretions, anal fluids and breast milk.