Once upon a time, when the Earth was still young, it was really, really hot and life couldn’t form there. Then, through some series of phenomena that still remain elusive, life sprung up. The first life forms…
Okay, let’s not do the full history of stem cells. Let’s instead focus on the modern history of stem cells – that is to say, stem cells and their use in medical science:
Many of the key properties of stem cells were first experimented with in the 1960s by two scientists, Ernest McCulloch and James Till. While their pioneering work on stem cells led to much of the research we have available today, medical procedures involving stem cells preceded them by a few years.
The first ever bone marrow transplant was conducted in 1958 by Georges Mathé. Bone marrow contains a wide variety of stem cells, the most important of which are perhaps hematopoietic stem cells, which become other blood cells.
In order to understand this, it’s important to know how stem cells work. The basics are simple enough – stem cells can turn into other cells. As such, they’re categorized into five different potencies:
- Totipotent (or omnipotent) cells are responsible for the formation of a whole organism; they can effectively become any other cell the organism might have. When a sperm and egg fuse, they form totipotent cells.
- Pluripotent cells can become almost any other type of cell.
- Multipotent cells can become a variety of different cells in the same family
- Oligopotent cells can only become a few different types of cells
- Unipotent cells can only replicate themselves.
Once scientists discovered stem cells and their properties, the next step was figuring out how to get stem cells, and how to apply them to treatments. One very controversial way of obtaining potent stem cells is through the use of embryonic stem cells. Many countries have banned or restricted the use of embryonic stem cells, and many states have done the same.
Fortunately, there’s a way around this ethical quagmire – use stem cells that are naturally produced by a patient’s own body. Further research discovered a host of different places from which stem cells might be harvested. These include adipose-harvested mesenchymal stem cells – a fancy way of saying we can get stem cells from your body fat.
Dr. Newman’s Stem Cell Lift is one of the many scientific advances borne from intensive research into what stem cells do and how we can harvest them ethically. Those stem cells we can harvest from your body fat? They can do all kinds of incredible things. In the case of our stem cell face treatment, the cells are used to carefully rejuvenate and restore the look and shape of your face. What’s more, there are very few risks, because the stem cells are derived from your own body. Couple that with the fact that the procedure is non-surgical, long-lasting, and effective, and you truly start to appreciate the power of stem cells.
