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called Prometheus. Prometheus stole fire of life from the god and gave it to
the humans. Zeus, which is the king of gods was displeased with
Prometheus action and chained Prometheus to the mountains. Each day,
crows will come and eat the organs of Prometheus. However, all of the
organs will regenerate in the next day. That story, even though a fiction,
illustrate the potential of one of the newest branch of medicine:
regenerative medicine.
Regenerative medicine is the solution to Indonesia future health problem.
In the 21st century Indonesia is facing a difficult period called that is
common in developing countries Double burden of disease . We can
define double burden of disease as the increasing of the prevalence of
chronic degenerative diseases in the developing country in addition to the
persistent public health problem caused by infectious diseases . If
infectious disease can be cured easily by giving antibiotics , that is not the
case with chronic diseases in which the present aim of the treatment is
usually prevention of futher deterioration of condition. However, this
paradigm will be challenged in the future with the advent of the advances
of research in regenerative medicine and stem cell theraphy. In the future,
chronic degenerative diseases can be cured utilizing stem cell technology.
Regenerative medicine is defined as a medicinal branch which studies the
replacement of human tissue and the possibility to restore its function.
(1)This branch of medicine is considered revolutionary. In which this
branch of medicine restore the morphological and physiological function
of a particular organ. However, as other science of medicine have
experienced, the advancement of this new technology especially in
Indonesia is still comparatively slow compared to public expectation. This
is caused by lack of manpower and public funding in this unorthodox way
of tackling chronic diseases. Only several institutions have the will and
resources to undertake this great challenges: Kalbe Farma, RSUD dr.
Soetomo in Surabaya and Fakultas Kedokteran Universitas Indonesia. (2)
The application of regenerative medicine to the advancement of humanity
is virtually unlimited, from the post-surgery treatment of hernia inguinalis
to regeneration of lumbar to cure low back pain.(3) However, in Fakultas
Kedokteran Universitas Indonesia, the application of this research is
limited to disease of neuronal and muscular origin. One of the reason why
regenerative medicine is not developing in Indonesia is because of the lack
of human resource that have expertise in the field of stem cell and
regenerative medicine. Many scientist are not eager in facing a disease
that is so delibitating and frustating like the chornic diseases. I believe that
this is a missed opportunity to solve one of the greatest mysteries of
medicine: the key to solving chronic diseases problem.
In the future, Indonesia is poised to become one of the powerhouses of