Are Any Stem Cell Therapies Effective?

Are any stem cell therapies effective?

Check out this answer from Consensus:

Stem cell therapy shows promise across various medical conditions, with notable benefits in heart function, diabetes management, liver function, and erectile dysfunction. However, the effectiveness and safety of these therapies can vary significantly based on the type of stem cells used, timing of administration, and specific disease conditions. While some therapies, like those for diabetes and liver disease, have shown clear benefits, others, such as those for heart failure and stroke, require further research to standardize methodologies and confirm long-term efficacy and safety.

Stem cell therapy has emerged as a promising treatment for various medical conditions, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, chronic liver disease, cancer, stroke, and erectile dysfunction. This synthesis aims to evaluate the effectiveness of stem cell therapies based on data from multiple research papers.

Key Insights

• Cardiovascular Diseases (Heart Failure and Myocardial Infarction)
  • Modest Benefits in Heart Function: Stem cell therapy, particularly using autologous bone marrow-derived stem cells, has shown modest improvements in heart function, such as left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and reduced infarct size, but no significant impact on mortality or morbidity1 4.
  • Variability in Results: The effectiveness of stem cell therapy in heart conditions is influenced by variations in trial methods, cell dosing, and timing of cell transplantation, leading to inconsistent results across studies1 4.
• Diabetes Mellitus
  • Effective for Type 1 Diabetes: CD34+ hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) therapy has been effective in making a significant percentage of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) patients insulin-independent for a period, whereas umbilical cord blood (UCB) showed poor results2.
  • Early Intervention is Key: Administering stem cell therapy early after diabetes diagnosis yields better outcomes compared to later stages2.
• Chronic Liver Disease
  • Improved Liver Function and Survival: Stem cell therapy has shown to improve liver function and short-term survival in patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF), with bone marrow-derived stem cells being more effective than umbilical cord-derived cells3.
  • Safety Profile: No serious adverse events were reported, indicating a relatively safe profile for stem cell therapy in liver disease3.
• Cancer
  • Potential for Targeted Therapy: Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a promising target for therapy due to their role in tumor relapse and metastasis. Stem cell-based therapies can be engineered to deliver therapeutic agents directly to tumors5 7.
  • Challenges and Risks: The development of CSC-targeted therapies is still in early stages, with significant challenges in understanding CSC biology and ensuring safety5 7.
• Stroke
  • Benefits in Animal Models: Stem cell therapy has shown benefits in improving structural and functional outcomes in animal models of stroke, although the quality of studies and potential publication bias are concerns6.
  • Autologous vs. Allogeneic Cells: Autologous stem cells are more effective for structural outcomes, while allogeneic cells show better functional outcomes6.
• Erectile Dysfunction in Diabetic Rats
  • Improved Erectile Function: Stem cell therapy has significantly improved erectile function in diabetic rats, with modified stem cells showing better results than unmodified ones9.

Are some people already being impacted by climate change?

Philippa Harding has answered Near Certain

An expert from University College London in Cell Biology, Developmental Biology, Stem Cells

Yes – Some effective, clinically approved stem cell therapies have existed for some time. Transfer of stem cells from healthy donors to treat blood disorders such as sickle cell anaemia and cancers are well established, and have proved lifesaving for many patients with these diseases where alternative treatment options are limited, or non-existent. Many more stem cell therapies are currently undergoing research and clinical trials to test whether they are safe and effective.

Are some people already being impacted by climate change?

Barney Bryson has answered Near Certain

An expert from University College London in Neuroscience

It is important to stress that the term “stem cell therapy” covers an extremely diverse range of therapies that are either under development or are already benefitting patients suffering from a wide variety of different conditions. When most people think of “stem cells” they think of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) or, more recently, adult induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which can be transformed under laboratory conditions into almost any other cell type in the body and therefore hold the potential to serve as a source of donor cells that may be able to replace any tissue/organ that has been lost or damaged by injury or disease. Such therapies are still in their infancy but are beginning to bear fruit – such as transplantation of iPSC-derived retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) cells, which has shown promise as a treatment for age-related macular degeneration, as well as intraspinal transplant of embryonic-derived neural precursor cells as a potential therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). With recent advances in regenerative medicine, it is very likely that this type of therapy will become far more widely employed and that the range of treatable diseases will greatly increase. The prospect of being able to grow 3D organs, produced from stem cells, raises further exciting hopes for treating diseases such as type I diabetes, heart failure, kidney disease and liver disease – however, this remains some way off.

More conventionally, therapies involving transplant of specialized populations of adult stem cells, derived from bone marrow, have been routinely employed in the effective treatment of blood cancers (eg. leukaemia) for many years. More recently, a similar strategy has also shown promise as a therapy for multiple sclerosis.

Finally, stimulating specific populations of endogenous adult stem cells, such as those that are now known to reside in the brain, to proliferate could also be categorized as a form of stem cell therapy, indeed, this is thought to be the mechanism of action of serotonin reuptake inhibitors in the treatment of depression.

Are some people already being impacted by climate change?

Szu-Hsien (Sam) Wu has answered Likely

An expert from Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in Stem Cells, Genetic Engineering, Microscopy

I chose likely because it is still very much at the beginning phase before stem cell-based therapies/regenerative medicine become a routine/accessible practice.

Over the past few years, researchers have understood better how to make certain types of (stem) cells. Currently there are several ongoing clinical trials for different diseases (eg. skin diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, dentistry, ocular diseases, etc). There are still many questions unanswered, and will only be revealed over time. The framework behind stem cell therapies consists piles of paperwork that make sure all safety experiments have been met before the patients receive them.

Just another note, there are still many unproven stem cell therapies (eg.many mesenchymal stem cell-based therapies). One should always ask what is the evidence for this particular treatment to be safe and effective.

Are some people already being impacted by climate change?

Vik Reebye has answered Likely

An expert from Imperial College London in Oncology

The most successful stem cell therapy has been around for over 4 decades- this is bone marrow transplant which has helped an immeasurable number of people from blood cancers, to genetic diseases.

The other side of stem cell therapy involves inducible pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)- this is the more modern and still experimental vision for stem cell therapy where it exploits the possibility of transforming stem cells into any desired tissue type (skin cells, liver cells or pancreatic cells amongst a few) to fix burns, liver failure or diabetes). These are necessarily still under intense scrutiny. The scientific tools at our disposal is bringing this vision closer to reality, but as yet it is ineffective in the sense that it has not yet reached into standard of care treatment for patients.

Are some people already being impacted by climate change?

Ricardo Gouveia has answered Near Certain

An expert from Newcastle University in Biomedical Engineering, Stem Cells, Biotechnology

Several types of stem cells have been shown to represent effective treatments for specific clinical conditions. In particular, treatments using blood-forming stem cells have been show to be effective and safe as a means to help recover and replenish the blood system after aggressive anti-cancer therapies. In addition, the transplantation of corneal epithelial stem cells has been shown to promote corneal healing and function after certain types of injuries. Moreover, stem cells are also being studied as potential sources of soluble factors with therapeutic value i.e., shown to help enhance healing and regeneration in specific tissues/organs.