Uses of Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells

The study of stem cells has been a greatly debated issue for years. Because of the possible level that restoration medicine may possibly take, some people are uncomfortable with this area of research.

Umbilical stem cells are not a new concept, but now researchers have developed Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells which are more specialized cells. The mesenchyme is embryonic connective tissue that is found in the mesoderm of the umbilical cord. These cells can differentiate into either cells that will become blood components or connective tissue cells. Further, these particular cells have also been noted to separate into beta- pancreatic islet cells.

With this knowledge, these cells might be found to be useful in the regeneration or repair of bones and their related connective tissues, and diabetes. Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells are also considered as multipotent, whereas fetal stem cells would rather be pluripotent. In this sense, the fetal stem cells have the ability to differentiate into a larger variety of human cells than those of the umbilicus.

In addition, the older the donor might be, the fewer uses the stems cells can promote. Age, in this case, even being just a few months difference, can make a big difference from fetal to umbilical stem cells.

Technology continues to expand our understanding of many things, especially in medicine. Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells will continue to be useful in a larger sense as time goes by. In some cases, they might be able to replace bone marrow transfusions.

For instance, by itself, muscle repair is extremely slow. Consequently, if one could contribute stem cells to the damaged tissue, the healing process should then be able to speed up. Further, intravenous transfusions of stem cells must pass both through the heart and lung, and here many of the stem cells will be seized and not even able to make it to the point of injury. The ideal method of transport would be to inject the stem cells directly into the damaged tissue.

Even with all the information we have today, there is much to be learned about stem cells in general, and probably, much more to be discovered about Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells in particular. A great amount of people have been lucky enough to be treated and carefully assisted through the use of stem cells, and there are still many more that will still require medical help in this area.

Hopefully, with continued research, new levels will be met in this intriguing new scientific area.


Sandra Williams is a contributing editor at FitnessHealthArticles.com. This article may be reproduced provided that its complete content, links and author byline are kept intact and unchanged. No additional links permitted. Hyperlinks and/or URLs must remain both human clickable and search engine spiderable.