What is Regenerative Medicine?
Regenerative medicine is a very broad, new, and exciting approach to medicine which uses the advances in stem cell technology, primarily, to advance clinical care.
In 2006, the US National Insitutes of Health defined regenerative medicine as 'the process of creating living, functional tissues to repair or replace tissue or organ function lost due to age, disease, damage, or congenital defects'. Many of these processes involve the use of stem cells.
Why Regenerative Medicine?
Imagine a treatment that frees a child from the daily insulin injections of diabetes, or helps a grandmother weakened by heart failure regain her independence. Imagine a treatment that helps a soldier disfigured by injuries regain his self-confidence. Imagine damaged organs re-growing and wounds healing without scars.
These therapies may sound like science fiction, but many are available now thanks to regenerative medicine.
Regenerative medicine is a new way of treating injuries and diseases that uses specially-grown tissues and cells (including stem cells), laboratory-made compounds, and artificial organs. Combinations of these approaches can amplify our natural healing process in the places it's needed most, or take over the function of a permanently damaged organ.
Regenerative medicine brings together experts in biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, genetics, medicine, robotics, and other fields to find solutions to some of the most challenging medical problems faced by humankind.
And what that really boils down to is that instead of treating chronic diseases with drugs that have a short-term effect, and that need to be continued long term, we can think in terms of regenerative solutions to chronic problems.
How many of our diseases and illnesses are a consequence of degeneration or aging? As you go through life, it seems things just stop working properly: your eyesight gets weaker, your hearing gets poorer, your joints get achier, your muscles become weaker, your heart gets weaker, your endurance fades…. Everything, it seems is more likely to stop functioning optimally as you get older.
And regeneration is the exact opposite of this degenerative process. I mean, the whole idea is to try and restore the body’s functions and prevent the deterioration.
Even though it does not necessarily involve a surgical procedure, many experts see regenerative medicine as the new surgery – including some of the top surgeons in the world.
What's the role of stem cells?
Stem cells have the ability to develop — through a process called differentiation — into many different types of cells, such as skin cells, brain cells, lung cells, and so on. Stem cells are a key component of regenerative medicine, as they open the door to new clinical applications that can heal the body from within.
The best part is, your body already contains millions of stem cells! They’re available in just about every tissue, lying dormant and waiting for activation to be active where needed. The future of regenerative medicine today is taking those stem cells from one part of your body that’s not using them -- for example, your fat (adipose cell) tissue – and place them in an area where they are needed for regeneration (a deteriorating knee joint, for example).
Harnessing the body’s own ability to heal itself – imagine that!