Associating Paracrine Communication to Regenerative Medicine: Search Strategies & Major Trends in Scientific and Patent Production

The information on relationships between paracrine communication and stem cells is spread over a large amount of patent and scientific publications. This article provides an overview of some major issues to be considered when searching for such information by using freely available databases. Major trends that drive innovation in scientific and patent production, as well as association between specific topics, can be established by including specific database indexing, such as MeSH and European (ECLA) and International (IPC) patent classification codes, in the search strategy. The interest in applying similar approaches for retrieving relevant information and documents is shown by some examples of quantitative and qualitative analysis of scientific and patent production related to stem cells in general, and on the effect of paracrine factors on the isolation, differentiation, or use of stem cells in particular.