ABSTRACT
Strategies for the intervention and prevention of cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, HIV/AIDS and diseases of overt inflammation including neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease) require an understanding of the basic molecular mechanism(s) by prophylactic agents (dietary antioxidant factors from food plants and medicinal plants in this context) that may potentially prevent or reverse the promotion or progression of the diseases. Inflammation, cellular and redox signalling mechanisms play major roles in the pathophysiology of numerous disease states.Stem cell transplants may afford an alternative treatment for such debilitating neural diseases as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease, hormonal diseases such as diabetes mellitus, and traumas such as spinal cord injuries. This holds great promise for diabetes, given the associated complications such as heart disease, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, diabetic retinopathy, kidney disease and birth defects. With increasing constraints hindering the use of embryonic cells for neurotransplantation, stem cells, more particularly blood stem cells due to their differentiative potential and easy access, stand to be the method of choice. Advances in embryonic stem cell research however still hold much promise. Stem cells can now be indefinitely multiplied in number and cryopreserved without loss of their potential. Professor Hwang and his group at the College of Veterinary Medicine of the Seoul National University, South Korea have reported an impressive improvement in the efficiency of stem cell derivation from blastocysts from 5 per cent to 35 per cent and showed that the stem cell lines could differentiate into somatic cells of the ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm lineages.