Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Introduction
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a chronic progressive illness. This disease affects nerves and neurons of human body. Degeneration takes place in brain and spinal cord. As a result nerves cannot send signal to muscles and that leads to wasting of muscles. This disease does not impair intellectual reasoning of a person: vision, touch, taste, hearing etc. Bladder and bowel habit are also retained. Exact cause of the disease remains unclear. It is a rare and spontaneous disorder. There is no cure for the disease.
Iranian scientists have moved to the forefront in embryonic stem cell research, according to a recent joint study by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Treatment
Discovery of the fact that stems cells can be isolated and multiplied in culture is a major medical breakthrough in the field of medical science. With the advent of stem cell therapy, treatment and cure of various chronic diseases seem plausible, even though convincing evidence is still lacking. Stem cells when introduced inside the human body able to regenerate new cells and replace the damaged cells. Stem cell therapy can dramatically improve the course of a disease. This was the driving the force to evaluate the role of stem cell therapy in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Subsequently stem cell therapy has been tried in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and initial results are encouraging.
In ALS it has been found that stem cell therapy is able to regenerate the nerve cells.
Initial animal studies suggested that bone marrow stem cells when transplanted into mice can migrate into the brain and regenerate nerves. These findings suggested the possible role of stem cell therapy in neurological disorders. In ALS it has been found that stem cell therapy is able to regenerate the nerve cells. But in spite of initial encouraging results there are some doubts. Exact mechanism of ALS remains unclear. There is death of nerves due to unknown reasons. Whether regenerated nerves, are resistant to those causes of death, still remain to be seen. Further studies are critical for developing stem cell therapy as a potential in treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.