There is much potential for future treatment of currently untreatable disease through stem cell therapy. Cord blood and embryo stem cells possess different properties than the adult stem cells which are located in various organs. South Korean medical doctor Kwang Yul Cha is a specialist in fertility and reproduction. He is now also a pioneer in this promising new area of research and treatment.
Incurable disease is commonly of a degenerative nature. Through injury or accelerated aging, specific types of cells are destroyed or damaged, causing functional degeneration. After this has already occurred it has been very difficult to regenerate the tissue that has been lost.
Gene, or stem cell therapy has already been in use for some time in regeneration of bone marrow after radiation treatment for leukemia. The cells are extracted from the bone marrow pretreatment, and then inserted again after treatment for regeneration. Currently there is also application for urinary incontinence.
Applications of this biotechnology promises cures for many of humanity’s worst scourges. This science may one day address degenerative brain disease, traumatic brain injuries, spinal injuries, stroke, neuronal disease, Alzheimer’s ALS, MS, Parkinson’s muscular dystrophy, Crohn’s disease, myocardial infarction, diabetes, and cancer. Non life threatening ailments like arthritis, blindness, deafness, and missing teeth may also become relics of the past.
Specialized adult stem cells are located in the various tissues of the body where they act to repair and regenerate those tissues. Embryonic and cord blood stem cells are progenitors. They have the additional capacity to reproduce themselves, and to differentiate into the various specialized types, such as cartilage, bone, liver, and blood, as well.
Cha Biotech and Cha Medical Stem Cell Institute are currently at work on several applications of this biotechnology. Through freezing, or cryopreserving embryos and cord blood they preserve them for the donor’s subsequent use to make reproduction possible later in life, or after damaging cancer treatment. Survival rates after freezing and thawing has now reached 90%. Pregnancy rates are 65%. In 1999 they produced the original test tube baby.
They are producing cells and researching cytogenesis, or the transplanting of cells into damaged tissue, gene manipulation, tumor suppression through gene therapy, and development of biodegradable artificial organs. Many advancements have already been made in treatment.
Kwang Yul Cha is a graduate of the Yonsei University School of Medicine in Seoul. He had his postdoctoral fellowship at University of Southern California and was a Columbia University visiting professor. He is the author of more than 100 infertility and stem cell articles which have been published in peer reviewed journals.
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