Stem Cell Therapy

Doctors have been using adult haematopoietic (blood forming) stem cells in bone marrow transplants for decades. The science of bone marrow transplantation has now been more refined to retrieving stem cells from the donor via peripheral blood stem cell collection.

Cord blood stem cell transplants are gaining popularity internationally and in South Africa. There are 3 major stem cell transplant centres in South Africa – Netcare Pretoria East Hospital, Constantiaberg Medi-Clinic and Groote Schuur Hospital both in Cape Town. Many transplants are done monthly with bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cells but in the past year, 15 transplants using umbilical cord blood stem cells have been done. 13 transplants were done in children and 2 were done in adult patients. The transplants were used as part of treatment for certain bone marrow cancers and immune deficiency disease arising for a defective bone marrow. All the transplants engrafted successfully. It is encouraging that South African physicians are becoming increasingly more involved in stem cell transplantation and in the future will be able to offer more treatment options to their patients.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have been touted as the future of stem cell therapy and personalised medicine. They are a type of multipotent adult stem cell. They are immature, have a good capacity to renew themselves and differentiate continuously into specialized cells of the various human tissues.

Source and availability of MSCs has however taken some time to work out. While some MSC’s can be found in many organs, those organs are not realistic targets for harvesting them without resulting organ damage. MSCs have recently been found in considerable numbers in the Wharton’s Jelly of cord tissue as well as adult adipose tissue.

MSCs have shown great utility in a wide spectrum of applications in regenerative medicine showing high multi-potency, easy isolation and expansion, and low risk of neoplasia (cancer formation), making them ideal for cell therapy. Recent research has shown mesenchymal stem cells to be capable of differentiating into osteoblasts, chondrocytes, adipocytes, cardiomyocytes and interestingly neurones.