AN OVERVIEW ON STEM CELL AS A GENETIC MEDICINE

Stem cell treatments are a type of genetic medicine that introduces new cells into damaged tissue in order to treat a disease or injury. A number of stem cell treatments exist, although most are still experimental and/or costly, with the notable exception of bone marrow transplantation. Stem cells are a unique and important set of cells that are not specialized. Stem cells retain the ability to become many or all of the different cell types in the body and thereby play a critical role in repairing organs and body tissues throughout life. Stem cells provide the opportunity to study the growth and differentiation of individual cells into tissues. For over 30 years, bone marrow, and more recently, umbilical cord blood stem cells have been used to treat cancer patients with conditions such as leukemia and lymphoma. Understanding these processes could provide insights into the causes of birth defects, genetic abnormalities, and other disease states.