May 5th, 2011
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Author: 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.
Much human disease that is considered incurable is of a degenerative nature. It develops through losses of specific types of cells through accelerated aging or injury, and the resultant functional degeneration. Once this is allowed to occur it has been very hard to regenerate the lost tissues.
Stem cell, or gene therapy has been in use for some time to replace degenerated or damaged cells resulting from treatment of leukemia with radiation. Stem cells are extracted from bone marrow before the treatment and reintroduced afterward. The destroyed cells are then able to regenerate. The process also has applications for urinary incontinence.
Promising future applications of this biological technology include treatments for cancer, degenerative brain disease, traumatic brain injury, stroke, Alzheimer’s, spinal injury, neuronal disease, Parkinson’s, ALS, MS, muscular dystrophy, myocardial infarction, Crohn’s disease and diabetes. Theoretically it could also treat non life threatening disorders like blindness, deafness, baldness, arthritis, and missing teeth.
Adult stem cells act to regenerate and repair the tissues or organs where they are located. Those found in embryos are progenitors and have the additional ability to reproduce themselves, as well as differentiate into those specialized cells, such as skin, blood, bone, liver, cartilage, etc.
Cha Medical Stem Cell Institute and Cha Biotech currently are working toward several applications. By cryopreserving, or freezing cord blood and embryos they make it possible for the donor to later on use the material for treatments, or for reproduction later in life or following destructive cancer treatments. They have realized a 90% survival rate following freezing and thawing, and a 65% pregnancy rate. They produced the world’s first test tube baby in 1999.
Now they are producing these cells, and conducting research in cytogenesis, or cell transplanting into damaged tissue and genetic manipulation, gene therapy for tumor suppression, and biodegradable artificial organ development. They have already advanced the science considerably at facilities in Korea and the United States.
Kwang Yul Cha graduated from the school of medicine in Yonsei University in Seoul. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship with University of Southern California and has been visiting professor at Columbia. Over 100 of his reproductive and stem cell science articles have been published in peer reviewed journals.
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