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      The therapeutic potential of stem cells

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          Abstract

          In recent years, there has been an explosion of interest in stem cells, not just within the scientific and medical communities but also among politicians, religious groups and ethicists. Here, we summarize the different types of stem cells that have been described: their origins in embryonic and adult tissues and their differentiation potential in vivo and in culture. We review some current clinical applications of stem cells, highlighting the problems encountered when going from proof-of-principle in the laboratory to widespread clinical practice. While some of the key genetic and epigenetic factors that determine stem cell properties have been identified, there is still much to be learned about how these factors interact. There is a growing realization of the importance of environmental factors in regulating stem cell behaviour and this is being explored by imaging stem cells in vivo and recreating artificial niches in vitro. New therapies, based on stem cell transplantation or endogenous stem cells, are emerging areas, as is drug discovery based on patient-specific pluripotent cells and cancer stem cells. What makes stem cell research so exciting is its tremendous potential to benefit human health and the opportunities for interdisciplinary research that it presents.

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          Most cited references62

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          Mechanisms and functional implications of adult neurogenesis.

          The generation of new neurons is sustained throughout adulthood in the mammalian brain due to the proliferation and differentiation of adult neural stem cells. In this review, we discuss the factors that regulate proliferation and fate determination of adult neural stem cells and describe recent studies concerning the integration of newborn neurons into the existing neural circuitry. We further address the potential significance of adult neurogenesis in memory, depression, and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
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            Isolation of a pluripotent cell line from early mouse embryos cultured in medium conditioned by teratocarcinoma stem cells.

            G Martin (1981)
            This report describes the establishment directly from normal preimplantation mouse embryos of a cell line that forms teratocarcinomas when injected into mice. The pluripotency of these embryonic stem cells was demonstrated conclusively by the observation that subclonal cultures, derived from isolated single cells, can differentiate into a wide variety of cell types. Such embryonic stem cells were isolated from inner cell masses of late blastocysts cultured in medium conditioned by an established teratocarcinoma stem cell line. This suggests that such conditioned medium might contain a growth factor that stimulates the proliferation or inhibits the differentiation of normal pluripotent embryonic cells, or both. This method of obtaining embryonic stem cells makes feasible the isolation of pluripotent cells lines from various types of noninbred embryo, including those carrying mutant genes. The availability of such cell lines should made possible new approaches to the study of early mammalian development.
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              Establishment in culture of pluripotential cells from mouse embryos.

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
                RSTB
                royptb
                Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
                The Royal Society
                0962-8436
                1471-2970
                12 January 2010
                12 January 2010
                : 365
                : 1537 , Theme Issue 'Personal perspectives in the life sciences for the Royal Society's 350th anniversary' compiled and edited by Georgina Mace
                : 155-163
                Affiliations
                Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research, simpleUniversity of Cambridge , Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QR, UK
                Author notes
                [* ]Author for correspondence ( fiona.watt@ 123456cancer.org.uk ).
                Article
                rstb20090149
                10.1098/rstb.2009.0149
                2842697
                20008393
                8fda0c98-eec6-4875-9241-f6cb51aeee28
                © 2010 The Royal Society

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                Categories
                1001
                33
                Articles

                Philosophy of science
                drug discovery,ips cells,es cells,adult stem cells,cell-based therapies
                Philosophy of science
                drug discovery, ips cells, es cells, adult stem cells, cell-based therapies

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