Stem Cell Transplant

Stem Cell Transplant: A Brief History


Stem cell transplant is a medical process that started with a simple experiment done by scientists on mice. These scientists started culturing stem cells using embryos they extracted from lab rats.
The success of the project led to a whole myriad of research that branched on just that one achievement. This was way back in 1981. Since then researchers and scientists have come a long way. They have now successfully learned how to culture human stem cells. This movement was headed by John Gearheart and James Thomson, biologists and important proponents in this branch of medicine.

Two decades later, scientists were able to identify various and highly interesting characteristics of stem cells. One of these discoveries would change the medical scene forever. Upon closer inspection by many different investigators, it was discovered that mature stem cells from one kind of tissue was capable of creating cells of a totally different kind. Stem cell transplant was on its way to what it is today. What this means is that tissue from blood could be used to create cells of another kind of tissue type, like nerves. So this researcher, Fred Gage from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies discovered that, contrary to initial assumptions, our brain cells can actually create and re-create new cells after leaving the womb and well into adult life.

One more surprising discovery was that even before the isolation of stem cells, a lot of medical practices made use of stem cells to treat diseases! The first successful stem cell transplant was around the late 60’s. This involved the transfusion of healthy bone marrow cells to revive the cells in the patient’s diseased bone marrow that was responsible for producing blood. Today, this kind of procedure is used to treat leukemia, lymphoma and various other cancers and diseases of the bone and blood.


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