Umbilical Stem Cells

Advances In Stem Cell Parkinson's

Much effort and time had been given to research of stem cells to repair damaged human tissue. One area that has been studied is Stem Cell Parkinson's. Someone that suffers from Parkinson's disease displays symptoms such as difficulty with movement, balance and speech due to the death of brain cells that produce a substance called dopamine.

Dopamine, obviously, helps regulate movement, balance and speech. So the goal of this research was to replace the dead cells with new, healthy stem cells that can be triggered to become dopamine producing cells in the brain. Although this seems straight forward, there are hurdles to collection and replacement of these special cells.

Stem cells come in a variety of stages and are the basic building block of every tissue in the body. Stem cells are waiting for triggers to help them decide what part of the body they will become. This is why they have been studied for Stem Cell Parkinson's treatments.

The 'youngest' stem cells are called early embryonic stem cells. These cells are formed in the first six days of life, following the fertilization of an egg. They are termed totipotent, which means they have the ability to become any cell type or kind in the body.

At day seven, following fertilization, the cells are referred to as blastocyst embryonic stem cells or late embryonic stem cells. Now they have the ability to become most every cell in the body, although they do have a few limitations. They are considered pluripotent and they still have no features of a human body.

As the development continues, at week eight the cells are referred to as fetal stem cells. They are still considered pluripotent, but have began the initial development of tissue that now resembles a human body. Pluripotent stem cells are the most useful Stem Cell Parkinson's for treatment.

Because the embryonic stem cells in the brain, especially in the fetal stage, have been triggered to become dopamine producing cells, they make the best choice for Stem Cell Parkinson's. But obtaining these cells is a large hurdle for some. They can be taken from early termination of a pregnancy, either intentional or non-intentional.

Once the cells have been harvested, they then must be implanted into the brain of the recipient. And then they have to be triggered to produce dopamine by the recipients body. Some transplantation has been successful in that the patient has noticed a decrease in the difficulty with walking, balance and speech.

There have also been some side effects of this treatment to include additional muscle twitching and jerking. Great strides have been made in this area, with much room for improvement remaining.