Current Stem Cell Research & Therapy - Volume 2, Issue 4, 2007

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a newly discovered, yet powerful mechanism for regulating protein expression via mRNA translational inhibition. Loss of all miRNA function within mice leads to embryonic lethality with a loss of the stem cell population in the epiblast and failure to form a primitive streak. These data suggest that miRNAs play a major role in embryonic development. As critical regulation of protein expression is also importa Read More

Regenerative medicine opens new avenues and promises towards more effective therapies for autoimmune disorders. Current therapeutic strategies for type I diabetes focus on three major directions, with distinct advantages and disadvantages: arrest of autoimmunity, islet transplantation and generation of neoislets. There is mounting evidence that candidate stem cells residing in the hematopoietic compart Read More

Although the use of stem cells in cell-replacement therapies by transplantation is obvious, another equally important and interesting application of stem cells is to use them in disease modeling. Disease models serve as a platform to dissect the biochemical mechanisms of normal phenotypes and the processes which go awry during disease conditions. Particularly in complex, multigenic diseases, molecular studies lead to a gre Read More

Although myoblast transplantation in patients with ischemic heart failure results in a significant improvement of cardiac function, subsequent studies have consistently shown the myotubes formation in the absence of electromechanical coupling with the neighboring host myocardium, accompanied with the short-term release of paracrine effectors from implanted cells. One major pitfall of using myoblasts is that transpl Read More

It is estimated that almost 1 in 3 individuals in the United States might benefit from regenerative medicine therapy. Unfortunately, embryonic stem (ES) cell therapies are currently limited by ethical, political, biological and regulatory hurdles. Thus, for the foreseeable future, the march of regenerative medicine to the clinic will depend upon the development of non-ES cell therapies. Current sources of non-ES cells easily av Read More

Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSC) are key candidates for cellular therapies. Although most therapeutic applications have focused on adult bone marrow derived MSC, increasing evidence suggests that MSC are present within a wide range of tissues. Umbilical cord blood (CB) has been proven to be a valuable source of hematopoietic stem cells, but its therapeutic potential extends beyond the hematopoietic component suggest Read More

Since the first successful cord blood transplant was performed in 1988 there has been a gradual increase in the use of cord blood for hemopoietic stem cell transplantation. Worldwide, over 8,000 unrelated cord blood transplants have been performed with the majority being for children with hemopoietic malignancies. Transplantation for adults has increased but is limited by the low number of nucleated cells and CD34+ cells Read More