Stem cell therapy is gaining popularity in India to treat a wide variety of medical conditions including Leukaemia, Thalassemia, damaged cornea and severe burns. Describe briefly what stem cell therapy is and what advantages it has over other treatments ?
Approach · directive: “describe / what advantages”
What it asks · Say briefly what stem cell therapy is and list its advantages over conventional treatments.
The question has 2 parts — answer each
- Describe briefly what stem cell therapy is
- What advantages it has over other treatments
Open with · Stem cells are unspecialised cells that renew themselves and can develop into specialised cells such as blood, skin or corneal cells, which makes them a repair kit for the body.
Cover
- What it is: stem cells, from bone marrow, cord blood, tissue or lab-reprogrammed cells, are given to replace or repair damaged cells and tissues.
- Uses: blood stem cell transplant treats leukaemia and thalassaemia; limbal stem cells restore the cornea; cultured skin cells help in severe burns.
- Advantage: it repairs or replaces damaged tissue, so it can cure conditions that drugs only manage.
- Advantage: using the patient's own cells lowers rejection risk, and it eases dependence on scarce donor organs and repeated transfusions.
- Advantage: it opens a route for diseases with few options, such as certain blood, eye and spinal disorders, with fewer long-term drug effects.
- Cautions: apart from blood stem cell transplants and a few established uses, most therapies are experimental; unproven clinics, cost and tumour risk need regulation.
- Regulation: ICMR-DBT national guidelines allow clinical use only within approved trials and set ethical, consent and clinic standards.
Close with · Stem cell therapy promises repair rather than symptom control, but it should move from the laboratory to patients through proven, regulated trials.
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2017, GS Paper III — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 233 words (UPSC limit 150) · Minimalist IAS
Stem cells are unspecialised cells that renew themselves and can develop into specialised cells such as blood, skin or corneal cells, which makes them the body's repair kit.
What stem cell therapy is
- Stem cells taken from bone marrow, umbilical cord blood or tissue, or made by reprogramming adult cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (Shinya Yamanaka, Nobel Prize 2012), are given to replace or repair damaged cells and tissues.
- Established uses: blood stem cell transplant for leukaemia and thalassaemia; limbal stem cells to rebuild a damaged cornea; cultured skin cells for severe burns.
Advantages over other treatments
- Cure, not control: it replaces defective or lost tissue, so it can cure conditions that drugs and transfusions only manage.
- Lower rejection: the patient's own cells avoid immune rejection and lifelong immunosuppressants.
- Less dependence on scarce donor organs and on repeated transfusions, which carry infection and iron-overload risks.
- New options for diseases with few treatments, such as some blood, eye and spinal disorders, with fewer long-term side effects than drugs.
Cautions
- Beyond blood stem cell transplants and a few proven uses, most therapies remain experimental; unproven clinics, high cost and tumour risk need regulation, so the ICMR-DBT National Guidelines for Stem Cell Research (2013, revised 2017) allow clinical use only within approved trials.
Stem cell therapy promises repair rather than symptom control, but it should reach patients through proven, regulated trials rather than commercial shortcuts.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify) — a little fuller than exam length, so every part of the question is covered; in the hall, keep the structure and trim the detail. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.