Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 6
Hematopoietic Stem Cells
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same
God who has endowed us with sense, reason,
and intellect has intended us to forgot their use.
- Galileo Galilei
Hematopoietic stem cells are adult stem cells found mainly in the bone marrow and
they provide the blood cells required for daily blood turnover and for fighting
infections. Compared to adult stem cells from other tissues, hematopoietic stem
cells are easy to obtain, as they can be either aspirated directly out of the bone mar-
row or stimulated to move into the peripheral blood stream, where they can be
easily collected as shown by Balint et al. [
1
] . As previously mentioned, hematopoi-
etic stem cells have been studied by scientists for many years, and they were the
first stem cells to be used successfully in therapies, e.g., treatment of blood cancers
(leukemia) and other blood disorders [
2
]. More recently, their use in treatment of
breast cancer and coronary artery diseases has also been explored [
3
] . The poten-
tial for hematopoietic stem cells to produce cell types other than blood cells has
become the subject of intense scientific controversy, and it is still not clear whether
they could be used on a clinical scale to restore tissues and organs other than blood
and the immune system. Their features will be described within few chapters of
this topic.
