The possible use of stem cells in regenerative medicine: dream or reality?

Abstract

Stem cells are one of the most fascinating areas in regenerative medicine today. They play a crucial role in the development and regeneration of human life and are defined as cells that continuously reproduce themselves while maintaining the ability to differentiate into various cell types. Stem cells are found at all developmental stages, from embryonic stem cells that differentiate into all cell types found in the human body to adult stem cells that are responsible for tissue regeneration. The general opinion postulates that clinical therapies based on the properties of stem cells may have the potential to change the treatment of degenerative diseases or important traumatic injuries in the "near" future. We here briefly review the literature in particularly for the liver, heart, kidney, cartilage, and bone regeneration.

Blastema cells derived from New Zealand white rabbit’s pinna carry stemness properties as shown by differentiation into insulin producing, neural, and osteogenic lineages representing three embryonic germ layers

“…ESCs are pluripotent cells, derived from the inner cell mass of blastocyst-stage embryos (Evans and Kaufman 1981;Martin 1981) that under appropriate conditions will differentiate into cells of all three germ layers including ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm (Vazin and Freed 2010). ASCs, which are found in many adult tissues, have multi-or unipotent differentiation potential and are responsible for the maintenance and regeneration of tissues in which they are located (Ehnert et al 2009;Gonzalez and Bernard 2012).…”

Application of stem cells in orthopaedic conditions: what is the current evidence?

“…Thus, a stem cell is able to maintain its own population and at the same is able to produce a particular lineage of cell 2,3 . The differentiation a stem cell would undergo depends on the type of the stem cell and the surrounding environment.…”

“…These are considered to be purely pluripotent and capable of indefinite self-renewal. Being pluripotent, an ESC can give rise to any type of cell of the body and hence can regenerate a part or even a complete organ 3 . Harvesting an ESC, which is found in an embryo is not only technically demanding and difficult, but has many ethical and legal issues associated with it too.…”

“…Here, the stem cells are combined with a three-dimensional matrix to compose a tissuelike construct to substitute lost parts of the tissue, or even whole organs 3 . But even though many successful constructs have been made, tissue engineering has been limited only to laboratories and clinical application is very limited.…”

Migration features of labeled bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in rats with modeled Parkinson-like syndrome

“…Прогресс в развитии клеточной биологии и регенеративной медицины позволяет се-годня надеяться на разработку эффективных методов лечения таких тяжелых нейродегенеративных заболе-ваний, как болезнь Паркинсона, болезнь Альцгеймера, рассеянный склероз, боковой амиотрофический скле-роз, детский церебральный паралич. Заслуживает внимания перспектива применения этого вида терапии при травме спинного и головного мозга, эпилепсии и многих других заболеваниях нервной системы [1][2][3]. Во многих исследованиях установлен положительный эффект при упомянутых заболеваниях введения МСК КМ [4,5].…”