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| Costs & Chances |
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In the future, Tissue Engineering,
the reconstruction of organs and parts of organs, will deliver new
and better approaches for treating many different kinds of illness.
Damaged cells or cell clusters will be replaced, so that the defective
organs can once again resume their original functions. Soon medical
science will turn to the cultivation of whole organs or organ parts.
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In all areas of medicine, research applications for stem cells
are being pursued; in some cases, stem cells are actually being employed
in clinical trials in order to cure tissue defects or cultivate replacement
tissue:
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In cardiology treatment, doctors
have begun to use stem cell therapies after heart attacks as
part of the regular treatment plan.
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Laboratory experiments have already
produced functioning kidney cells by means of Tissue Engineering.
Further replacement organs or organ parts have also been cultivated
in laboratories and experimentally implanted in animals.
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The replication of
skin and cartilage cells has become a commonplace medical procedure
that is often used for larger skin grafts or to correct cartilage
defects in the joints.
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Future applications: |
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Stroke: replacement of damaged nerve tissue |
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Cardiac failure: replacement of weakened heart muscles |
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Myocardial infarction: replacement of damaged heart muscle cells |
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Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease: reproduction of nerve cells |
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Pancreatic disease (Diabetes): cultivation of islet-cells to produce insulin |
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Paraplegia: replacement of nerve pathways |
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Multiple sclerosis: replacement of damaged nerve cells |
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Duchenne muscular dystrophy: replacement of damaged muscle cells |
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The therapies sketched above are just a small sample
of the very many potential applications that Tissue
Engineering can offer by means of stem cells.
It is important to be clear on one essential point: to use these therapies,
you must have access to your own, healthy, adult
stem cells. The availability of adult stem cells not only determines
whether these new, innovative therapeutic procedures can be employed
to counteract currently incurable diseases, but also lessens the chances
of acute rejection and other complications that accompany the implantation
of foreign cells, which often lead to damage to the transplanted organ
and surrounding host tissue.
Only those individuals who harvest and store their stem cells while
in good health - when the genetic information has not yet been modified
by external influences - will be able to make the most of the advances
in medicine and Tissue Engineering.
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