Current Stem Cell Research & Therapy - Volume 4, Issue 1, 2009

New Frontiers in Stem Cell Reseach and Therapy This issue of Current Stem Cell Research & Therapy, the first in 2009, marks the beginning of the fourth year for the journal. The journal originated with a mission of providing comprehensive reviews and original work related to the emerging field of stem cells. Looking back at the articles published over the last three years, one can see the trends of the field, and more import Read More

A current explanation for development of chronic renal injury is the imbalance between injurious mechanism and regenerative repair. The possibility that stem cells contribute to the repair of glomerular and tubular damage is of great interest for basic and translational research. Endogenous bone marrow-derived stem cells have been implicated in the repair of renal tissue, although the lineage of stem cells recrui Read More

Since the discovery of stem cells, scientists have invested tremendous effort in establishing in vitro culture conditions in order to maintain the self-renewal and efficient proliferative capabilities of stem cells by manipulating a variety of growth factors. Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) is one of the most common growth factors used to expand stem cells, including human embryonic stem (hES) cells and several tissue type-specific st Read More

Stem cell therapy has a place for future application in the treatment of degenerative diseases. Regardless of the origin of the stem cell, when placed within a milieu of inflammatory mediator, they will show varied functions. This review focuses on human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and discusses neuronal replacement using multi- and interdisciplinary approaches. We caution the enthusiasm of scientists since there is Read More

The regenerative capacity of the mammalian heart is insufficient to recover from myocardial infarction. Stem cells are currently considered as a promising and valuable tool to replace the, often large, loss of contractile tissue. One of the bottlenecks hampering fast clinical application is the large amount of cells required to replace a single damaged region combined with an appropriate strategy to succeed in homogeneous r Read More

Background: Although strong efforts have been made over the last decade to introduce stem cell and tissue engineering treatment strategies to the field of orthopaedics, only few clinical applications are currently available. Materials and Methods: The clinical outcomes of ten patients with volumetric bone deficiencies treated with mesenchymal stem cells and bone marrow aspirate are presented in this case series. Results Read More

The prognosis of patients diagnosed with malignant gliomas including glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is poor and there is an urgent need to develop and translate novel therapies into the clinic. Neural stem cells display remarkable tropism toward GBMs and thus may provide a platform to deliver oncolytic agents to improve survival. First we provide a brief review of clinical trials that have used intra-tumoral herpes simpl Read More

Heterogeneity is a well-documented phenomenon in breast cancer; one of the explanations for this phenomenon is the presence of cancer stem cells (CSCs) with the capacity to differentiate along divergent pathways. These CSCs undergo asymmetric and symmetric division resulting in both expansion of the stem cell pool and the production of morphologically and functionally distinct differentiated daughter cells. Breast canc Read More

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) isolated from a variety of adult tissues including the bone marrow (BM), have the capacity to differentiate into different cell types such as bone and cartilage and have therefore attracted scientific interest as potential therapeutic tools for tissue repair. MSC display also immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory properties and their putative therapeutic role in a variety of inflammatory autoi Read More

The appeal of using embryonic stem (ES) cells for regenerative medicine lies in their pluripotency and resulting ability to differentiate into all somatic cell types. While graft rejection remains the greatest hurdle to their use in the clinic, several approaches have been proposed to protect the allogeneic ES cell-derived grafts from host immunity: the creation of nuclear transfer human ES (hES) cell lines; the development of Read More

The therapeutic potential for human embryonic stem cells (hESC) drives intense public and scientific interest. However, the classical approach for derivation of hESC entails the destruction of human embryos. Controversial ethical issues and correspondingly restrictive federal policies in many countries have prompted the development of alternative approaches for the isolation of hESC. Here, several different strategies are disc Read More