Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Disadvantages and
limitations
Type of stem cells
Source
Characteristics
Clinical trial
Advantages
Ethical concerns
Embryonic stem
cells
Blastocyte (early
stage embryo;
0-2 weeks)
Generation of an
entire organism
consisting of
hundreds of cell types
Large source of
excess blastocysts
from IVF
Macular degeneration
Produce all kinds of
cells in the body.
Immortality and
capacity of eternal
self-renewal
Expensive and difficult to
use
Need for multiple growth
factor
Need for feeder layer
Possible tumor formation
Difficult to control their
differentiation
Destruction of the
human blastocyst
Donation requires
informed consent
Adult stem cells
(tissue-specific
stem cells)
Adult tissue (blood,
skin, bone, skeletal
muscle, pancreas,
liver)
Tissue-specific
Only produce the
type of cells that
belong to their own
tissue
Skin and blood stem
cells have been used
for skin graft and
bone marrow
transplantation
Tissue-specific
cell line
Safety
Immune privilege
Lack of tumor growth
No need for feeder
layer
Limited number of cells
produced
(1 in 10
4−5
)
Specific adult tissue with
cell selection
Difficult to identify and
grow in the laboratory
No major ethical
concerns
Umbilical cord
blood stem cells
(hematopoietic stem
cells)
(tissue stem cells)
Umbilical cord
Generation of
blood-specific cells
Treatment of leukemia
and blood disorder
Can be frozen and
stored
Limited number of cells
Blood from the cord must
be matched to the patient
No major ethical
concerns
Mesenchymal stem
cells
Bone marrow
Generation of skeletal
tissues: bone,
cartilage, fat
Cartilage and bone
repair,
Repair of blood
vessels after heart
attack
Can be easily
extracted from the
bone marrow of the
patient
Can be used for an
efficient generation of
the skeletal tissue in
the human body
Various sources of MSCs
and it cannot be
established whether cells
from different sources are
identical or not.
No major ethical
concerns
Induced pluripotent
stem cells
Laboratory
Behave like
embryonic stem cells
Produce all types of
cells
Useful tool for drug
development and
modeling of diseases
Not yet
Could provide
patient-specific
treatment
Ability to produce
almost all kinds of
cells in the body
Expensive and difficult to
culture
Need of feeder layer
Possibility of tumor growth
No major ethical
concerns
