Innovative Plan Presented in Iran to Produce Chemical Products from Biological Waste

“The services that can be provided in this plan include identification of centers whose activities lead to creation of biological waste for any reason, identification, organization and training of centers whose biological waste disposal is not carried out through a standard method and leads to hazardous pollution for the human, animals and plants,” Ehsan Ehsani, the manager of the plan, told ANA.

“These wastes can be used for processing and producing chemical products that are used in various medical, research and industrial fields,” he added.

Ehsani elaborated on the biological waste produced in different medical centers, and said, “For instance, until recently, milk teeth, foreskin or umbilical cord were discarded as biological waste; but today, it has been clear that they contain large amounts of biological products, including stem cells and plasma products, including serum, albumin, platelet lysate, etc.”

Human Dental Pulp Stem Cells (hDPSCs) are one of the most promising stem cell sources for tissue engineering and regeneration, due to their extraordinary multi-lineage differentiation ability, ease of extraction from biological waste in dental clinics, safe non-tumorigenic phenotype, immune-tolerance upon in vivo transplantation, and great possibilities of application in autologous tissue reconstruction.

Also, umbilical cord blood contains haematopoietic (blood) stem cells. These cells are able to make the different types of cell in the blood - red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.

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