Current Molecular Medicine - Volume 13, Issue 5, 2013

The reprogramming of somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells can be achieved by the ectopic expression of defined factors. Patient-specific iPS cell lines can be derived and used for disease modeling, drug and toxicology screening, cellular replacement therapies and basic research. However, reprogramming is slow and inefficient and numerous methods have been described aiming to improve this process. Read More

The in vitro differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells represents a convenient approach to generate large numbers of neural cells for basic and translational research. We recently described the derivation of homogeneous populations of long-term self-renewing neuroepithelial-like stem cells from human pluripotent stem cells (lt-NES® cells). These cells constitute a suitable source of neural stem cells for in vitro modellin Read More

In this report, the authors review the human skeleton and the increasing burden of bone deficiencies, the limitations encountered with the current treatments and the opportunities provided by the emerging field of cell-based bone engineering. Special emphasis is placed on different sources of human progenitor cells, as well as their pros and cons in relation to their utilization for the large-scale construction of functional bone-en Read More

The phenomenon of cell fusion plays a crucial role in a plethora of physiological processes, including fertilization, wound healing, and tissue regeneration. In addition to this, cell fusion also takes place during pathophysiological processes such as virus entry into host cells and cancer. Particularly in cancer, cell fusion has been linked to a number of properties being associated with the progression of the disease includin Read More

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are de-regulated in cancer versus the normal tissue counterpart and actively participate in human carcinogenesis. Among the genes whose expression is under their control there are both oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, revealing that it is not only limiting but simply wrong to assign them a function just as oncogenes or as tumor suppressor genes. In addition to primary tumors, miRNAs can be Read More

There are currently 1527 known microRNAs (miRNAs) in human, each of which may regulate hundreds or thousands of target genes. miRNA expression levels vary between cell types; for example, miR- 302 and miR-290 families are highly enriched in embryonic stem cells, while miR-1 is a muscle specific miRNA. miRNA biosynthesis and function are highly regulated and this regulation may be cell type specific. The processi Read More

Reprogramming of somatic cells into patient-specific pluripotent analogues of human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) emerges as a prospective therapeutic angle in molecular medicine and a tool for basic stem cell biology. However, the combination of relative inefficiency and high variability of non-defined culture conditions precluded the use of this technique in a clinical setting and impeded comparability between laboratori Read More

The problems of allocation of scarce resources and priority setting in health care have so far not been much studied in the context of stem cell-based therapeutic applications. If and when competitive costeffective stem cell-based therapies are available, the problem of priority setting - to whom should stem cellbased therapies be offered and on what grounds - is discussed in this article using the examples of Parkinson's Di Read More

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have great potential as a robust source of progenitors for regenerative medicine. The novel technology also enables the derivation of patient-specific cells for applications to personalized medicine, such as for personal drug screening and toxicology. However, the biological characteristics of iPSCs are not yet fully understood and their similarity to human embryonic stem cel Read More

Resetting differentiated cells to a pluripotent state is now a widely applied technology and a key step towards personalized cell replacement therapies. Conventionally, combinations of transcription factor proteins are introduced into a differentiated cell to convert gene expression programs and to change cell fates. Yet, the molecular mechanism of nuclear reprogramming is only superficially understood. Specificall Read More

Pluripotent stem cells hold great promise for future applications in many areas of regenerative medicine. Their defining property of differentiation towards any of the three germ layers and all derivatives thereof, including somatic stem cells, explains the special interest of the biomedical community in this cell type. In this review, we focus on the current state of directed differentiation of pluripotent stem cells towards hem Read More

Cumulative evidence shows that transplantation of stem cells (SC) derivatives can reduce the functional deficits induced by cerebral ischemia or hemorrhage in animals. Most SC sources have been applied to stroke models, with varying degrees of differentiation into neural derivatives and in varying number, timing and route of administration, with similar benefits on functional outcome. Pioneering clinical trials developed in p Read More

Neurodegenerative diseases are a heterogeneous group of sporadic or familial disorders of the nervous system that mostly lead to a progressive loss of neural cells. A major challenge in studying the molecular pathomechanisms underlying these disorders is the limited experimental access to disease-affected human nervous system tissue. In addition, considering that the molecular disease initiation occurs years or decades be Read More

Based on their almost unlimited self-renewal capacity and their ability to differentiate into derivatives of all three germ layers, human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) might serve as a preferable source for hepatic transplants in metabolic liver disorders or acute liver failure. Furthermore, the generation of patientspecific hiPSCs might facilitate the development of innovative therapeutic strategies by accuratel Read More

Cell therapy with mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) is the focus of intensive investigation. Several clinical trials, including large-scale placebo-controlled phase III clinical trials, are currently underway evaluating the therapeutic potential of autologous and allogeneic MSCs for treatment of catastrophic inflammatory diseases, including steroid-refractory graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), multiple sclerosis (MS) and Crohn’s di Read More

Recent reports demonstrate that the plasticity of mammalian somatic cells is much higher than previously assumed and that ectopic expression of transcription factors may have the potential to induce the conversion of any cell type into another. Fibroblast cells can be converted into embryonic stem cell-like cells, neural cells, cardiomyocytes, macrophage-like cells as well as blood progenitors. Additionally, the conversion of astro Read More

New developments in DNA sequencing platforms and the advancements in GWAS studies (genome-wide association studies) are changing the understanding of human pathologies. Such developments will ultimately result in a deeper understanding of how genomic variations contribute to diseases. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are currently entering clinical research phases, allowing the investigation of disease pat Read More