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Eye, heart and nerves
So what of the places that are actually doing some clinical work? Most of the efforts in this direction are on at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. And among the more streamlined efforts, the most successful is perhaps the LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, which has perfected the method of regenerating corneal stem cells.
“Mostly we treat cases of chemical burns in the cornea, in which limbal stem cells from the good (or the better) eye is harvested, cultured and planted in the affected eye,” says Dr Geeta K. Vemuganti, Head, Ophthalmic Pathology Service and Stem Cell Laboratory of the institute. Over the last seven years, the institute has conducted 550 such procedures.
The corneal surgery is also done at AIIMS, but the institute’s ophthalmology department is trying to break new ground with its work on retinal degeneration, says Prof R.V. Azad. While initial results are good, it falls far short of expectation. The institute is now trying to develop a cell line and inject those cells instead of using stem cells directly.
But the most interesting results that it has received are undoubtedly in cardiology, which has already attracted a lot of attention.
“The other fields of work include neurology and orthopaedics, where scientists are trying to heal the breach fully in case of fractures where metal rods and metal screws have to be inserted,” says Sujata Mohanty, in charge of the Stem Cell facility at AIIMS. Another area where doctors have met with some success is paediatrics. Stem cells have proved particularly useful in cases of spina bifida.
If that was not enough, stem cell research even might breach the final barrier: cancer.
Being the basic building blocks of the body, stem cells even have a role to play in tumours, which are just unnatural proliferation of cells, explains Dr Sharmila Bapat, Scientist, who is currently working on ovarian cancer and stem cells in the Cancer Research Centre of NICS, Pune. “In case of cancerous tumours, research had found that stem cells cause growth even after the cancerous tissues are destroyed through chemotherapy and radiation, causing a relapse.” Scientists are now trying to isolate and study these cancerous stem cells and develop a new generation of drugs to target them, says Bapat, whose book Cancer Stem Cells is due to be published in June.
So how does the future look? Will stem cell therapy bear out its initial prognosis?
“Treatment with haemopoietic stem cells has met with considerable success and we have partially fulfilled our small dreams, patching up corneas and bones,” says Dr Ghosh. “But the real challenge lies in actually harnessing the potential of embryonic stem cells to regenerate organs like liver and kidney. While this has been done in a laboratory or two abroad, one must remember that a lab is a very controlled environment, which is nowhere near the real thing. Lab success is no guarantee that the same will be automatically replicated in the body.”
Dr Bhonde agrees. “As of now, the matter is swinging between hope and hype, with the hype predominating. But we may have a clearer picture in 10 years’ time. All being well, chances are someday, organ transplants may just be redundant.”

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