■Stem Cell Therapy in Daily Life Does Not Use Actual Stem Cells
Recently, the term “stem cell therapy” has frequently been heard in society.
Simply put, stem cells are cells that can become any tissue in the body. Stem cell therapy aims to cultivate these cells and either replace damaged cells in the body or regenerate tissues.
There are two main methods for using stem cells in therapy: using your own stem cells or transplanting stem cells from others. Additionally, there are iPS cells (induced pluripotent stem cells). iPS cells were developed by Professor Shinya Yamanaka, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2012 for his success in creating these artificial stem cells.
At present, actual stem cells are still very rare and expensive, so they are not yet used in general medical practice. Currently, they are in the clinical trial stage.
In most cases, what is used in private medical treatments is mainly stem cell culture supernatant. This supernatant is the liquid that contains many growth factors released by stem cells during cultivation, and it undergoes sterilization and other processes before use.
The relationship between “stem cells and stem cell supernatant” is somewhat similar to that between “rice and rice washing water.”
However, since methods for fully isolating and extracting growth factors from the supernatant have not yet been established, caution is needed when considering this treatment (our clinic currently does not offer stem cell therapy).
■Do Cancer Stem Cells Exist in Cancer, Too?!
Recently, it has been discovered that cancer also contains cancer stem cells.
Under normal circumstances, cells in a specific tissue cannot multiply on their own or change into other types of cells. However, stem cells possess two abilities: “self-renewal ability” (the ability to generate new stem cells) and “differentiation ability” (the ability to change into cells such as skin or muscle cells).
Similarly, cancer stem cells present within cancer tissue also have self-renewal and differentiation abilities. Surprisingly, cancer stem cells can differentiate into regular cancer cells and then revert back into cancer stem cells.
Cancer stem cells have the ability to initiate tumors and show resistance to chemotherapy. In recent years, research has progressed on the idea that “targeting cancer stem cells may suppress cancer cell proliferation.” However, since cancer stem cells can re-emerge from the remaining cancer cells, they are elusive and difficult to tackle.
Thus, the most important strategy is to prevent cancer—ensuring that it never develops in the first place.
Treatments using stem cells or iPS cells, as mentioned previously, are methods that treat with cells. However, for most of us, the priority should be to avoid needing these treatments by starting with “treating our cells” proactively.