Degenerative Diseases can be treated with stem cells.

Aging is an inevitable process in all living organisms. As time passes, degenerative changes increasingly affect every system of the body, such as joint degeneration, kidney deterioration, and vision loss, ultimately leading to a decline in quality of life. Aging contradicts the fundamental principle of life itself, since living organisms continuously evolve to ensure the survival of their species for as long as possible. This raises the question: why does nature allow aging to occur at all?

How Do We Age?

Before identifying ways to slow aging, it is essential to understand its underlying mechanisms to develop effective interventions.^[1,2,3]

Several theories have been proposed to explain the aging process, including the following:

• Genetic Material Deterioration Cells in the human body gradually deteriorate over time. Although they possess mechanisms for self-repair, errors inevitably occur during DNA repair or cell division. These errors accumulate progressively, eventually leading to organ dysfunction. Genetic deterioration can be accelerated by environmental factors such as radiation, chemical exposure, and infections.

• Accumulation of Cellular Waste During normal cellular function, waste products are continuously generated. While cells attempt to eliminate these byproducts, some waste accumulates over time, impairing cellular function and contributing to degeneration.
• Cellular Senescence The body’s surveillance systems may detect cells that undergo abnormal division and carry the potential to become cancerous and subsequently enter a state of senescence or programmed cell death to prevent malignancy. However, as senescent cells accumulate over time, the number of functional healthy cells decreases, leading to tissue and organ decline.

The causes of aging do not appear to be nature’s deliberate intent. While evolution aims to ensure the survival of a species, its primary focus is not on the longevity of individual organisms but rather on sustaining the population long enough for reproduction. Consequently, evolutionary processes have not strongly favored mechanisms that significantly extend individual lifespan.^[3]

Slowing Down the Aging Process

From the theories discussed above, it is clear that aging cannot be completely avoided. However, various risk factors that accelerate cellular degeneration can be reduced. These include avoiding substances that damage genetic material,^[2] such as radiation, harmful chemicals, processed meats, smoking, and alcohol. In addition, maintaining a healthy diet, engaging in regular physical activity, ensuring adequate rest, and taking care of mental health can help reduce internal stress. These factors contribute to creating an optimal cellular environment that supports proper cellular function and effective regeneration.

Nevertheless, with the rapid advancement of stem cell–related medical technologies, there have been increasing efforts to apply stem cells to address cellular degeneration directly. Stem cells, or progenitor cells, possess the unique ability to self-renew and differentiate into various specialized cell types. Owing to these properties, stem cells have been increasingly used to treat degenerative conditions such as osteoarthritis, diabetes mellitus, liver cirrhosis, and chronic kidney disease. Furthermore, stem cell therapy has been explored for conditions involving cellular damage not primarily due to degeneration, such as neuronal or cardiac cell death following ischemic events. At present, numerous studies have reported outcomes supporting the use of stem cells in treating such conditions.^[4,5,6]

Sources of stem cells for therapeutic use can be obtained from adult tissues, such as bone marrow or adipose tissue, or collected at birth from umbilical cord tissue or umbilical cord blood. However, cellular degeneration accumulates progressively over time. As a result, the age at which stem cells are collected significantly affects their quality at the time of clinical application. This observation is consistent with studies demonstrating a decline in stem cell proliferative capacity with increasing age.^[7]

These findings suggest that advances in stem cell technology are bringing us closer to the possibility of effectively slowing down the aging process.