About Stem Cells
When an ovum and a sperm cell fuse at the time of conception, a fertilised ovum is formed. This fertilised ovum will then divide, forming a two-cell embryo. These two cells in turn repeatedly divide further, so that after a few weeks a foetus already with budding organs begins developing. At birth, this foetus comes into the world as a baby, a baby that will grow into an adult. Click here for the video of EuroStemCell.
The amazing thing is that a single fertilised ovum can develop into a variety of cell types through division. Nature makes this possible by enlisting stem cells: cells that divide into one new stem cell and one specialised cell, such as a nerve cell, skin cell or liver cell.
There are three different types of stem cells:
- Embryonic stem cells: After fertilisation, these non-specialised stem cells develop into all other cell types. To be able to harvest an embryonic stem cell for the development of a treatment, embryos must be destroyed in a laboratory. Obviously, this raises major ethical issues. Cryo-Save therefore does not engage in the collection of embryonic stem cells.
- Adult stem cells: a stem cell does not disappear after birth; they remain in our body and play a role in the repair of damaged tissues. These ‘reserves’ gradually shrink, however, and become less and less vital (I). These adult stem cells can also develop into other cell types (II). An adult stem cell is generally obtained by performing bone marrow puncture.
- Umbilical cord blood stem cells can also differentiate into a number of other cell types (III). These stem cells are very young and vital, and also easy and inexpensive to obtain. This stem cell can be frozen for subsequent use for treatment of the cell donors themselves or other patients.
Stem cells from umbilical cord blood have a number of advantages: they are more vital, easy to remove, and the removal is not subject to ethical objections. Until recently, umbilical cord blood was in the vast majority of births simply thrown away.
