Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: Over the last decade, stem cell biology has undergone a revolution in technological advances that will collectively have major and long-lasting impact on regenerative medicine. These include the ability to generate pluripotent stem cells from adult bodycells and to grow mini-organs from these or from adult stem cells in defined culture conditions. Both approaches provide ways to derive functional cells of human tissue that could be used for transplantation and tissue repair. Laboratories worldwide now produce cardiomyocytes, blood cells, insulin-producing B-cells, liver, and even brain cells entirely routinely. A major advantage of these approaches is that they enable the use of a patient’s own body material to grow new cells and tissues, thereby preventing life-long treatment with drugs to avoid rejection. The future of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine looks extremely bright. At the same time, however, we have witnessed a number of incidents of dubious or even fraudulent clinical interventions based on stem cells. The promise of stem cells and regenerative medicine to benefit patients is huge but has led to opportunistic and disproportionate incentives to push results from basic science into the clinic.
Source: npj Regenerative Medicine
Language: English
Subfield: Physiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,190
OpenAlex ID: W2570823350