Medical science is doing wonders by means of its inventions and its proper application. It has enabled mankind to show his mastery over the god. The medical professionals are curing a number of people of their diseases and giving them a new lease of life everyday. A man can change his god-gifted features wishfully with the help of science. Even gender change is no longer a matter of surprise and awe. So man is seen defying their god in a way. But still he is unable to conquer the place occupied by the almighty God; he cannot impart life to all persons who are destined die. There are many such avenues left that are to be ventured by man. So, day–by-day man is trying to reach the ultimate knowledge.Of late, a striking invention of medical science has made man to see a ray of hope. Patients of incurable diseases have to undergo very painful process to continue their life. The patients of Thalassemia have to live on blood transfusion throughout their life. But the invention of the procedure to cure blood disorder has shown its patients a gleaming horizon.
The doctors claims that the cord blood or can be better explained as the blood collected from the umbilical cord of a woman, soon after her second delivery , can save her first thalassemic born child. This blood is collected after the umbilical cord has been severed from the new-born. The cord blood is a rich source of stem cell. These cells are found at different stages of foetal development. Stem cells are also present in several adult tissues. It has the potentials to cure almost 75 serious ailments, from blood disorder to heart and eye ailment to Type 1 diabetes. Diseases such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, to name a few, can be cured using cord blood. Stem cells form part of our blood and immune system and they help to grow other cells in our body’s system. Thus it is expected to be a cure for cancer also.
The most striking feature that has made the invention more useful is the capacity of storing the cord blood. There are banking facilities where the parents can store the blood. If the first child of a couple is suffering from a blood disorder or any other disease that stem cell can cure, and the mother is expecting her second child, she could store her cord blood. This blood has the quality to cure her first thalassemic child. Number of couples is storing their cord blood for any future need. The parents who decide to store the cord blood have to undergo a proper HLA (human leukocyte antigen) match. It is a procedure through which the immune system recognizes ‘self’ and rejects ‘non-self’ cell, then the stem cell is transplanted into the patient’s body.
There are mainly three kinds of stem cell transplantation namely adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells and cord blood cells. Here one caveat is that the stem cells taken from adult bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells are prone to rejection while cord blood stem cells are more adaptable and acceptable. However in India, the adult stem cells are mainly collected from bone marrow. For bone marrow, a perfect 6 out of 6 HLA match is required to prevent tissue rejection. But in case of cord blood stem cells for some diseases even 2 out of 6 match will suffice, but the chance is rare as the cord blood is collected immediately after birth.
In India the banking facility is available in the cities like Mumbai, Gurgaon, Chennai, and soon Kolkata will have one. Before delivery the parents can deposit Rs. 35000/- to Rs. 40000/- ($800 to $1000) initially and have to pay 10% of the deposit annually. So people can any corner of the world can store the cord blood stem cells of their children into these banks quite easily. With rapid advancement in stem cell research, the day is not too far when we will bid adieu to all generic diseases.
Kanquona Bhattacharjee is a freelance writer and bloger. She has completed her post graduation in English from the University of Calcutta. She has some deep insight into social problems and often present these in front of the most strongest medium. Her personal website url is http://www.wertex.org/ . She can be contacted at kanquona@wertex.org
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