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Stem cells have the potential to treat a wide range of diseases, including diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, spinal cord injury, and heart disease. Learn why these cells are such a powerful tool for treating disease as well as what the current hurdles are before new therapies can become available.

The most common way of thinking about stem cells treating disease is through a stem cell transplant. Embryonic stem cells are differentiated into the necessary cell type, then those mature cells replace tissue that is damaged by disease or injury. This type of treatment could be used to replace neurons damaged by spinal cord injury, stroke, Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease, or other neurological problems. Cells grown to produce insulin could treat people with diabetes and heart muscle cells could repair damage after a heart attack. This list could conceivably include any tissue that is injured or diseased.

These are all exciting areas of research, but embryonic stem cell-based therapies go well beyond cell transplants. What researchers learn from studying how embryonic stem cells develop into heart muscle cells, for example, could provide clues about what factors may be able to directly induce the heart muscle to repair itself. The cells could be used to study disease, identify new drugs, or screen drugs for toxic side effects. Any of these would have a significant impact on human health without transplanting a single cell.

In theory, theres no disease that is exempt from a possible treatment that comes out of stem cell research. Given that researchers may be able to study all cell types via embryonic stem cells, they have the potential to make breakthroughs in any disease.

CIRM has created disease pages for many of the major diseases being targeted by stem cell scientists. You can find those disease pages here.

You can also sort our complete list of CIRM awards to see what we've funded in different disease areas.

The first trials for embryonic stem cells have only just begun. Results from those won't be available for many years, once the necessary clinical trials are completed showing that the therapies are safe and that the work in treating disease. The only stem cell-based therapy currently in use is in bone marrow transplantation. Blood-forming stem cells in the bone marrow were the first stem cells to be identified and they are now the first to be used in the clinic.

The blood-forming stem cell is the component of bone marrow that is therapeutic in a bone marrow transplant. With the isolation of pure blood-forming stem cells it is now possible to transfer just the cells that are needed to replace the bone marrow. The cells migrate to appropriate bone marrow where they self-renew and rebuild the entire blood system.

Transplants of blood-forming stem cells have been used successfully in cancer treatments, and research suggests that they will be useful in treating autoimmune diseases and in helping people tolerate transplanted organs.

Read more:

Stem Cells as Therapies | California's Stem Cell Agency