Friday, August 29, 2008

Stem Cells Set To Revolutionize Plastic Surgery?

According to the National Institute of Health’s portal for stem cell information, stem cells have two distinguishing characteristics:

a. They are unspecialized cells that renew themselves for long periods through cell division

b. They can be stimulated to become cells with special functions under predetermined conditions.

These two characteristics are enough to point out the importance this cell type plays during the healing and growth process of the body or any part of it. So when researchers begin wondering about how stem cells can function as part of plastic surgery techniques it’s only natural to assume their usefulness.

Researchers believe that stem cell generated implant tissue could surpass the benefits of synthetic implants and could do away with problems like leakage, rupturing and rumpling. Additionally, the use of stem cell implants would not pose a problem when it comes to cancer detection and screenings.

Thus, just as how hair follicular stem cells help in hair restoration and tooth stem cells help rebuild teeth, stem cells used in the breast region could be used to regenerate lost breast tissue or help reconstruct the nasal cartilage.

This is however, a very lofty area of cosmetic surgery and is not without any controversies.

Medical experts believe that stem cell technology still leaves a lot to be desired as research in this area is yet taking mincing steps. Progress, quite understandably, is a bit slow.

Get more cosmetic surgery help and news at the Plastic Surgery Institute of California.

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