Recently, there was a good news. A research team of Osaka University in Japan announced that they had completed the world's first induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) myocardial transplantation, and successfully transplanted the myocardial membrane cultured by iPS cells into patients with severe cardiac insufficiency.
Simply put, patients with severe myocardial infarction or even heart failure in the future can save their hearts with stem cells without relying on artificial hearts or accidental organ donation.
What are iPS stem cells?
Induced pluripotent stem cells are stem cells that can differentiate into various cells (muscle, bone, heart, liver, blood vessels, nerves, etc.). ) make up the body. They can be made of very small amounts of skin fragments or blood. Shinya yamanaka, a Japanese stem cell scientist, won the 20 12 Nobel Prize in Biomedicine for successfully transforming adult cells into iPS cells.
According to Japanese media reports, a research team of Osaka University performed this operation in June+10 this year. The researchers used other people's iPS cells to culture cardiomyocytes, made them into thin films and transplanted them into the heart of a patient with severe cardiac insufficiency. The patient is in good condition after the operation.
According to the research team, myocardial transplantation from iPS cells is the first in the world. The research team will follow up the safety and effectiveness of this therapy and plan to transplant 10 patients in the future.
Serina Liu's "aortic stenosis" may be treated with stem cells in the future, except for common heart diseases, such as myocardial infarction and heart valve prolapse. For example, Serina Liu recently underwent surgery for aortic stenosis, which is expected to be treated by stem cells in the future. Dr. Zhang Yiwen, who specializes in cell research, said that if the cell differentiation ability of the heart is abnormal, it may lead to "calcification" of cells, leading to stenosis.
If we can inhibit this group of calcified cells, we can avoid the risk that patients have to have surgery, and the exosomes of stem cells have such potential. However, Zhang Yiwen added that most studies are still in the clinical stage.
Caption: /Photo ID: 695305248 IPS cells are more ethical than embryonic stem cells. There are many kinds of stem cells, but those with the strongest differentiation ability and can differentiate into various tissues and organs belong to "embryonic stem cells". In May last year, cardiovascular researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital in the United States reported that they had discovered a class of embryonic stem cells, which could regenerate healthy cardiomyocytes in adult mice with myocardial infarction, and proposed potential methods to promote heart repair and other organ regeneration.
However, embryonic stem cells are controversial in bioethics and banned by many countries. Zhang Yiwen said, "The method of obtaining iPS cells is relatively simple and avoids some ethical problems, so it has great medical value. 」
Stem cells subvert modern medical care! IPS has the potential to treat many diseases. Stem cell technology subverts medical concepts. In the future, the "drugs" for treating diseases will no longer be various chemical compounds, but will adhere to "cell problem solving" and deliver small molecular protein, antibodies, stem cells and other active substances into the body to treat diseases.
Zhang Yiwen said that iPS therapy is a very popular type of stem cells, including corneal transplantation, Parkinson's disease, macular degeneration, heart disease, spinal cord disease, blood transfusion disease, arthritis, 1 type diabetes and leukemia. In the next few years, there will be opportunities to use iPS stem cells for clinical treatment.