Stem cells and Tissue Engineering the Ultimate Combo for Clinical Therapy
Stem cells and Tissue Engineering the Ultimate Combo for Clinical Therapy
There is not a day that goes by without the media presenting some amazing news flash that stem cells can be used to cure and treat diseases ranging from simple bone fractions to complicated neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease. But what are stem cells? And can they or will they be able to cure every disease in the future? And how will tissue engineering fit into the equation? For many, stem cells did not exist in their mind until Thomson et al. landmark publication in Science in 1998. Following Thomson’s paper, publications containing the word “stem cell” in the title multiplied. When the phrase “stem cell” was typed into the PubMed database in 1998, approximately 2100 publications appeared; while in 2012 the number of publications that include “stem cells” as a phrase are close to 11,900. Then what are stem cells? The simplest definition of a stem cell is a cell that can self-renew and differentiate via asymmetric cell division and regenerate an entire tissue from a single cell. The only stem cell that has been shown to meet all those requirements is the hematopoietic stem cell. Stem cells are often split into two groups. Firstly, somatic stem cells (or adult stem cells) that can be found in all organs of the human body and have the role to maintain those organs as well as meet requirements for cell regeneration when organs are damaged due to trauma or disease. Secondly, embryonic stem cells that can be isolated from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst from a circa five day old embryo and have the potential to differentiate into cells of all three germ layers that make up the human body. Recently a third type of stem cells has entered the scene. In 2006, a group in Japan under the leadership of Yamanaka et al. published a paper showing that pluripotent embryonic stem cell like-cells could be derived from a normal somatic cell (non-pluripotent), simply by inducing expression of four key genes that are only found in embryonic stem cells. These cells have all the attributions of embryonic stem cells and may have great potential for use in research and clinical therapy in the future. In 2012, Yamanaka was awarded the noble prize in medicine for his discovery (along with John B, Gurdon).
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Nancy Ella
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Drug Designing: Open Access
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