Scientific breakthroughs are occurring at a steady clip. Many of the breakthroughs are aimed at medicine. As artificial intelligence (AI) comes on the scene, we will be increasingly amazed at what is happening.
The good news is the breakthroughs will result in improved outcomes. We will see cures for things previously without cures. Hopefully, many of the breakthroughs will result in lower cost healthcare, which we desperately need.
One of the breakthrough areas showing great promise is the use of pluripotent stem cells. These stem cells can differentiate themselves, under certain conditions, to transform into different cell types such as skin, muscle, bone, etc. The potential benefits of being able to create specialized cells from stem cells in a patient is enormous.
For example, if a patient had a failing heart, at some point, it will be possible to extract stem cells from the patient and convert them into heart muscle cells to regenerate the failing heart. Since the cells come from the patient, the likelihood of rejection would be minimal.
The newest scientific breakthrough has occurred at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Researchers there have used pluripotent stem cells to generate human stomach tissues in a Petri dish. The newly created stomach cells were able to produce acid and digestive enzymes. The tissues were grown from the stomach’s corpus/fundus region. Two years ago the same researchers were able to grow stomach cells from the hormone-producing region (the antrum).
The new breakthrough means researchers can now can grow the most important parts of the human stomach and use the results to study diseases and the effect of new drugs. This year, an estimated 26,370 in the United States will be diagnosed with stomach cancer leading to an estimated 10,730 deaths. The new breakthrough may lead to new hope for many.
Read the complete story at “Scientists tissue-engineer functional part of human stomach in laboratory: Researchers can grow functional stomach and intestinal tissues to study diseases, new drugs” and read more about stem cells and regenerative medicine in Health Attitude: Unraveling and Solving the Complexities of Healthcare.
