Regenerative Medicine: from here to infinity
What do the successes of regenerative medicine promise us?
Atlantico (France),
Medecine regenerative: le corps bientot reconstituable a l'infiniTranslation: InoSMI
Atlantico: The nose and vagina have added to the list of body parts that can be restored with the help of the patient's cells.
What organs can be "grown" now?
Jerome Guicheux, Director of the French Institute of Health and Medical Research:
Many of them are grown in the laboratory on the basis of cellular tissues. Cartilage for the treatment of osteoarthritis, bones in case of fractures, bladder, skin for patients with serious burns – all these organs have been the subject of detailed scientific research, but so far the work has only in some cases reached clinical trials. In addition, it is worth noting the research on gene therapy of blindness and the study of the effects of bone marrow stem cells on the heart (it is assumed that their introduction will avoid the harmful consequences of myocardial infarction). Active laboratory studies today cover most of the organs that are susceptible to degenerative diseases. In some cases, the work reaches the stage of clinical trials among patients.
– What options of regenerative medicine exist at the moment, and which of them should be preferred? What are the risks of each of them?
– Either only the patient's own cells are used, or only biomaterials, or both, or all this simultaneously with proteins with regenerative properties. If, for example, we are talking about the restoration of intervertebral discs, it will not be possible to achieve this with the help of cells and biomaterials alone: you need to use both options at once. I think we haven't discovered all the possibilities yet. There will be new ideas in the future. The goal is to get as close as possible to real regeneration.
– What, in your opinion, are the most successful achievements in this field?
– In the end, we are not engaged in the restoration of degenerative tissue: we remove the tissue because there is cancer in it. It is much easier to restore the tissue taken from the patient than to cope with a real degenerative pathology. For example, we have perfectly learned how to correct bone defects with the help of biomaterials and patient cells. The easiest way to recover are those organs that somehow already have the ability to regenerate themselves. This fully applies to bones, unlike the same cartilage, where nature requires significant help.
– What prospects do the first achievements open up?
– We are definitely talking about expanding the range of possible applications. In particular, this applies to elderly patients with degenerative changes in the joints, cardiovascular diseases, etc. It will be necessary to closely engage in the restoration of all these tissues: blood vessels, heart, intervertebral discs, cartilage. This implies a confrontation with nature and, therefore, will take a lot of time. But we have no other way because of the aging of the population. I hope that these groundbreaking studies will pave the way for other work on degenerative diseases.
– What problems hinder the full-scale development of therapeutic use of regenerative medicine today? Can such medicine become an inevitability in the future?
– Firstly, money is required to conduct long-term research and verify the assumptions of scientists. The second limiting factor is the existing norms. Science is moving forward faster than legislation today. In addition, it is necessary to clearly define the target group of patients. Regenerative medicine cannot be used as you please, it is not able to cure and fix everything. If we choose the right patients, we will be able to conduct clinical trials under controlled conditions, and the results will advance science. Last point: we don't have enough knowledge about what the same stem cells are capable of biologically. We definitely need to expand our understanding of these critical issues if we want to be sure of what will happen if they are transplanted to a patient.
Today, we are gradually beginning to form answers for pathologies with serious danger to the patient's life, for example, myocardial infarction. And in such cases, you can really afford certain risks. But if everything is limited to arthrosis, are we ready to accept the possibility of cancer in the future, if now the patient has "only" a knee pain? In the first case, we are talking about a danger to life, and in the second – about improving its quality.
Today we are at a crossroads: the population is aging, which generates demand, and scientific laboratories are moving forward very quickly in research. Nevertheless, in the coming years we need to be careful not to let the development of events out of control. This is a matter of ethics.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru21.04.2014