StemCell Therapy

Highlights

Stem cells have great therapeutic potential.

Vulnerable patients are exploited by clinics offering unproven therapies.

South Africa is vulnerable due to the lack of and inability to enforce legislation.

Ethical/moral and cultural issues need to be considered with new scientific concepts.

Strategies need to be implemented to overcome the stem cell tourism threat.

Stem cells have received much attention globally due in part to the immense therapeutic potential they harbor. Unfortunately, malpractice and exploitation (financial and emotional) of vulnerable patients have also drawn attention to this field as a result of the detrimental consequences experienced by some individuals that have undergone unproven stem cell therapies. South Africa has had limited exposure to stem cells and their applications and, while any exploitation is detrimental to the field of stem cells, South Africa is particularly vulnerable in this regard. The current absence of adequate legislation and the inability to enforce existing legislation, coupled to the sea of misinformation available on the Internet could lead to an increase in illegitimate stem cell practices in South Africa. Circumstances are already precarious because of a lack of understanding of concepts involved in stem cell applications. What is more, credible and easily accessible information is not available to the public. This in turn cultivates fears born out of existing superstitions, cultural beliefs, rituals and practices. Certain cultural or religious concerns could potentially hinder the effective application of stem cell therapies in South Africa and novel ways of addressing these concerns are necessary. Understanding how scientific progress and its implementation will affect each individual and, consequently, the community, will be of cardinal importance to the success of the fields of stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine in South Africa. A failure to understand the ethical, cultural or moral ramifications when new scientific concepts are introduced could hinder the efficacy and speed of bringing discoveries to the patient. Neglecting proper procedure for establishing the field would lead to long delays in gaining public support in South Africa. Understanding the dangers of stem cell tourism where vulnerable patients are subjected to unproven stem cell therapies that have not undergone peer review or been registered with the relevant local authorities becomes imperative so that strategies to overcome this threat can be implemented.

Interest in the field of translational stem cell (SC) research has increased rapidly in the past decade, with exciting and promising research providing hope that cures for previously incurable diseases may well be attainable in the not too distant future. Much of the excitement originates from the ability of SCs to self-renew, replicate and to differentiate into any one of the more than 200 cell types in the body.

Although SC therapy may appear to be a relatively new phenomenon, bone marrow (BM) hematopoietic SCs (HSCs) have in fact been used routinely for more than 50years. SCs are grouped into three categories: embryonic SCs (harvested from a developing blastocyst/embryo produced by in vitro fertilization); adult SCs (harvested from various sources including BM, adipose tissue and umbilical cord blood (UCB)) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs differentiated cells that have been reverted back to a pluripotent-like state through genetic modification). The best understood are HSCs, which have been successfully applied around the world in BM transplantation for treatments of various conditions including malignant and non-malignant hematological disorders, immune deficiencies and certain genetic disorders. However, with new discoveries of different types of SCs and many potential novel applications, interest in regenerative and translational medicine has increased.

One consequence of this interest has been a dramatic rise globally in companies and clinics that sell stem-cell-related products or services. In addition to improvement in personal health and wellbeing, the increase seen in cellular and molecular medicine creates opportunities for entrepreneurship, business development and employment. South Africa has great potential for the development of translational medicine involving SC therapies (Jackson and Pepper, in press). In light of South Africa's current burden of disease and the potential for job creation, the country certainly stands to gain substantially (individually and as an economy) from these and similar developments. A major concern for the implementation and operation of such companies and clinics would be compliance with national and international regulatory standards with the supposed precondition that appropriate national legislation and governance exist.

Read the original post:
Curbing stem cell tourism in South Africa - ScienceDirect

This entry was posted on May 19, 2015 at 6:52 pm and is filed under Stem Cell Tourism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |