Dr. Charles Mok explains how stem cell therapy evolved from treating blood cancers with bone marrow transplants to regenerative medicine. Researchers now target arthritis, heart failure, spinal cord injuries, and multiple sclerosis, among other conditions.
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Stem cell therapy has been around for decades, largely originally used for certain types of cancers, where people have a type of blood cancer and we would give them drug. We give them drugs to kill off the stem cells in their bone marrow types of leukemia, and then they get a stem cell transfer from somebody else to restore their ability to make certain blood cells. And in the past 20 years or so, we're thinking more about stem cells for regeneration. Regenerative therapy, particularly arthritis, is the low hanging fruit. But people are also looking at stem cells for treating other conditions, such as heart disease, congestive heart failure, idiopath fibrosis, multiple sclerosis, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, liver disease, and a myriad of other other conditions.