Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
stem cells are argued to have been discovered in the 1950s, along
with haematopoietic stem cells, in the early research around bone
marrow transplants (NIH, 2010). Yet the idea is thought to have
been established in 1991, with experimental work verifying the
capacity of these cells to generate bone fragments traced back to a
series of experiments that began in the 1960s (Bianco et al., 2008).
Clinical interest in what are now commonly understood as
mesenchymal stem cells was related to ongoing work around the role
of haematopoietic stem cells in bone marrow transplants (Bianco
et al., 2008). A number of experiments in the late 1970s established
that haematopoietic stem cells were supported in their development
in vivo
by other cells that were related to bone growth (Bianco et al.,
2008). Yet it was not until further experiments in the late 1990s
were able to replicate these results, combined with the worldwide
hype associated with embryonic stem cells, that mesenchymal stem
cells came to stand in for a type of adult stem cell that might be used
in clinical applications outside cancer medicine (Bianco et al., 2008).
In particular, the clinical and commercial potential of mesenchymal
stem cells was established when the capacity of a single cell to grow
into a bone fragment on scaffolding
in vivo
was demonstrated in the
1990s (Bianco et al., 2008)
.
There are ongoing debates about the true identity of mesenchymal
stem cells (Bianco et al., 2008; Charbord, 2010). Much of this
debate centres around the function of the non-haematopoietic stem
cells found in bone marrow (Bianco et al., 2008; Charbord, 2010).
Some recent studies have described a range of properties tested for
that might explicate the mesenchymal stem cell's identity more
clearly (Charbord, 2010; Bianco et al., 2008). In one of these studies,
suggestions for establishing a clearer identity of mesenchymal stem
cells included more accurately determining the relationship between
haematopoietic stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells, and defining
in more detail the mesenchymal stem cell's capacity for self-renewal,
tissue generation
in vivo
, plasticity and differentiation pathways
(Charbord, 2010).
Despite the experimental ambiguity over the true identity of
mesenchymal stem cells, clinical applications have been developing
apace. A survey article of the potential clinical applications of
