The contribution of stem cells in modern medicine is of great importance, both for their broad use in basic research and for the opportunities they give us to develop new therapeutic strategies in clinical practice. Their characteristics make them valuable in a wide range of applications in biological and medical sciences.
A Cell Therapy is a medicinal product containing cells or cell products, and is typically injected into a patient. Examples include bone marrow transplants (also known as hematopoietic stem cell transplantation) and mesenchymal stem cell therapies.
Stem Cell Therapies are a type of cell therapy in which the cells used are either stem cells (as in the case of bone marrow or umbilical cord blood transplantation) or are derived from stem cells, as is this case with some stem cell therapies that are currently being investigated for their therapeutic potential in areas such as Regenerative Medicine.
Cell Therapy has been investigated in almost every degenerative disorder. Promising results from preclinical studies and clinical trials have already been described in several diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, chronic myeloid leukemia, cirrhosis, pulmonary fibrosis, Crohn’s disease, heart failure, and disorders of the nervous system, and the immunomodulatory effects of stem cells have found their utility in several conditions characterized by predominant inflammation.
