How Will Stem Cells Impact the Future of Medicine?
They can be used for Autologous Bone Marrow Transplant. Currently, you would have to have a donor, or if you parents saved your stem cells when you were born, from the umbilical cord, you could have your own transplanted instead of someone else. Or you could have your own given to a family member that needed a bone marrow transplant. The other way to extract stem cells is through fat removal. Yes, fat has stem cells and there are banks that store them for you just like the cord blood banks. That is the current use. However, using stem cells for research can lead to many other uses including growth of nerve cells and pancreatic cells and other damaged cells in the body. The possibilities are limitless. It is a very exciting field. Contrary to some, they don’t have to be gotten from dead fetuses.
