Question

1. Discuss potential cell sources for the cell therapy of the treatment of following

diseases

1. Heart attack
2. Emphysema
3. Large bone defects
4. Cirrhosis
5. Full skin burn
6. Articular cartilage damage

Answer 1

Cell therapy : It is a type of treatment in which we can treat various diseases by replacing diseased or non working cells with living and functioning cells. It can be done by implantation, Injecting and various ways.

As mentioned above we will be discussing cell sources for cell therapy of all above given diseases:

1) Heart Attack : Heart attack is a cardiovascular disease. Heart a part of cardiovascular system consists a special type of beating cells which we called "Cardiomyocytes". Its beating function contributes to contraction and relaxation of heart which again helps in blood pumping.
so here in cardiovascular diseases we need cells which can be transformed into cardiomyocytes.
There are two major cell sources for cell therapy in case of cardiovascular diseases:

• Human Embryonic Stem Cells and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells:
  These cells by using several methods can be differentiated in-vitro into cardiac cells.
• Autologous cells:
  Autologous cell therapy is in which undifferentiated stem cells from which other cell types develop are taken out and given to same person after differentiation.
  Example: : Skeletal myoblasts, Bone marrow, peripheral blood-derived cells, stem cells isolated from adipose tissues and menstrual blood, etc.

2) Emphysema: Emphysema is a respiratory system diseases which involves damage of lungs tissues specially alveoli.
Various major cell sources in cell therapy of lungs disease are

• Mesenchymal stem cells

• Bone marrow derived stem cells

• Induced pluripotent stem cells (IPS)

• Embryonic stem cells

• Adult lung progenitor cells

3) Large bone defects :
In case of bone repairing osteogenic cells and bone matrix helps in cell repairing. We need cells which can differentiate into osteogenic cells and helps in repairing bone.
various sources of cells in cell therapy of large bone defect are

• Bone marrow cells (BMCs)
• Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)

4) Cirrhosis:
Cirrhosis is a liver non functioning because of long time damage to liver tissues.In this disease hepatocytes are replaced with scar cells or non working cells.
It is irreversible and only option left is liver transplantation and cell therapy
various cell sources for cell therapy of liver includes

• bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSC),
• bone marrow mononuclear cells (MNC) and
• peripheral CD34 positive cells

5) Full skin burn
Skin Burn cause loss of tissues which actually helps in protection from loss of water, radiations, temperature, infections etc.
In full burns or severe burns skin losses progenitor cell population which helps in skin cells regeneration and revival of functions and structure. So only in case of minor burns where full skin organ is not lost autologous progenitor cells can be used as cell source in cell therapy.
Sources of cell in cell therapy of full skin burn are

• Keratinocyte stem cells

• Dermal fibroblasts

• Mesenchymal stem cells

• Induced pluripotent stem cells

6) Articular cartilage damage

Hyaline articular cartilage is very light in weight contains no vascular tissues and nerves. It is hydrated. It contains only one type of cell known as chondrocytes.
cell sources for cell therapy are

• autologous cell

• Mesenchymal Stem Cells

• Embryonic Stem Cells

• Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

• Chondrogenic Stem/Progenitor Cells from the Superficial Zone