Application of stem cells

Question 1

What is the most well-established and widely used stem cell treatment?

Answer 1

The transplantation of blood stem cells to treat diseases.

Question 2

How many patients are treated with blood stem cells in Europe each year?

Answer 2

More than 26,000 patients

Question 3

What stem cells been used for patients with severe burns on very large areas of the body?

Answer 3

Since the 1970s, skin stem cells have been used to grow skin grafts for patients with severe burns on very large areas of the body.

Question 4

TRUE or FALSE:

Currently, these are very few stem cell therapies that have been thoroughly established as safe and effective treatments.

Answer 4

TRUE

Question 5

What was the first stem cell-based medicinal product approved in the Western world?

Answer 5

Holoclar®

Uses a particular type of eye stem cell, called a limbal stem cell, to repair the cornea after injury; restoring sight.

Question 6

Blood stem cells: the pioneers of stem cell research

Answer 6

Question 7

What are the main sources of stem cells?

Answer 7

• Bone Marrow
• Blood stream
• Umbilical cord

Question 8

Future applications of stem cells

Answer 8

Question 9

Patient derived
Induced pluripotent stem cells

Answer 9

Question 10

What are the potential uses of stem cells?

Answer 10

• Improve our understanding of how the body develops from a fertilized egg; this can also provide insights into how our adult tissues are maintained and repaired in health
• Understand how diseases occur and develop; a number of diseases, such as cancer or birth defects, are the result of problems in the process of differentiation from stem cells to more specialized cells
• Search for and test potential new drugs by studying cells in the laboratory

Question 11

Drug development

Answer 11

Question 12

Drug screening/development

Answer 12

Question 13

The embryonic stem cell test

Answer 13

•Only validated in vitro assay for potential embryotoxicants