Regenerative Medicine

Our body has its own inherent capability to repair certain damages by itself within its limitations. Damage to the skin in the form of an abrasion that may otherwise become an ulcer spontaneously cure because of the stem cells which are present in the basal layer of the epithelium proliferate and repair the damaged portion, which is a good example of the natural healing process by stem cells. Such spontaneous repair occurs in many organs of our body as long as the capability of the inherent spontaneous repair mechanism by either stem cells or progenitor cells is not over come by the cause of the damaging mechanism (infection, physical, chemical or toxic injury, autoimmune disease etc) or the extent of the damage. Such repairing mechanism works by either proliferation of stem cells which are present in the same organ and become the respective cells (Eg: Spontaneous repair of the corneal damage by Corneal limbal epithelial stem cells) or the multiplication or growth of the same tissues/cells per se along with stem cells of the organ (Eg: Growth and union of bones after a fracture).

Apart from such damaged conditions or disease, under normal circumstances our body keeps on replenishing the worn out cells (in case of the skin) and cells that have obtained senescence (aging). One such example would be the bone marrow, which is the space inside the centre portion of long bones which works like a factory, every day producing components of the blood such as Red Blood cells (necessary for carrying oxygen), White Blood cells (necessary for fighting the diseases caused by foreign organisms) and platelets (necessary for arresting blood leak in case of injury). Recently it has also been found that the Bone marrow stem cells circulate in blood and keep repairing the damages to various organs. Bone marrow contains generally three types of stem cells. 1. Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), Mesenchymat tem cells (MSC) and further naive stem cells. Among these HSCs were considered to cause angiogenesis and MSCs organogenesis. The recent evidences suggest that either groups of stem cells possess both the capacities.

This evolving specialty of Regenerative medicine therefore evaluates the mechanisms of the inherent potentials of our body’s own stem cells and normal cells for curing their own diseases and damages and applies those principles in the clinical practice to cure illnesses either by stimulating the stem cells or autologous cells within the body itself or by processing them outside the body and re-implanting them in the diseased portion for a better healing.