Peripheral Blood Stem Cells: PBSCs
PBSCs are blood-forming stem cells found in the bloodstream. Normally, there are not many PBSCs in the circulatory system. However, their number can be enhanced by the use of cytokine or other appropriate stimuli such as G-CSF (glycoprotein that stimulates the bone marrow to produce stem cells). Or sometimes, their numbers are increased after the recovery of the bone marrow (a natural process found in the patients who receive chemotherapy).
It is also found that the amount of circulating stem cells is crucial to our health. People with the appropriate numbers of circulating stem cells are found to be healthier than the patients with coronary heart disease, who have an unusually low number of circulating stem cells.
Moreover, it is found that the low numbers of stem cells can be associated with several other illnesses and unhealthy living styles:
– Stroke
– Alzheimer’s Disease
– Migraine
– Myocardial infarction
– Erectile dysfunction
– Vascular health
– Injured tissue
– Smoking etc.
At present, we can safely harvest and banking our own stem cells through a simple and painless procedure, by injecting Granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) which is stem cells stimulating substance into the body. The increased stem cells will then be naturally transferred from the bone marrow to the bloodstream. This procedure is simple, painless, and there is no need for anesthetic. They are the same as blood donation process.
Beside their successful and safe use in the widely-accepted treatments of blood disease and cancers, PBSCs are also the potential aids for the treatments of traumatic brain injury, certain kinds of brain disease, osteoarthritis, sports injuries, accidents, and chronic wounds in burn victims or diabetic patients.