The difference among pluripotent stem cells, multipotent stem cells, and
unipotent stem cells is pointed out. Vast therapeutic applications of
the following specific stem cells in disease and tissue injury are
discussed: human embryonic stem cells, human mesenchymal stem cells,
germ cell-derived pluripotent stem cells, induced pluripotent stem
cells, human umbilical cord blood-derived stem cells, breast tumor stem
cells, and hematopoietic stem cells. Because of the potential of human
embryonic stem cells to produce unlimited quantities of any human cell
type, considerable focus is placed on their therapeutic potential.
Because of their pluripotency, these cells have been used in various
applications such as tissue engineering, regenerative medicine,
pharmacological and toxicological studies, and fundamental studies of
cell differentiation. The formation of embryoid bodies, which are
three-dimensional aggregates of embryonic stem cells, is explained as
this is the first step in cell differentiation. Such embryoid body
culture has been widely used as a trigger for the in vitro
differentiation of embryonic stem cells. The basic capacity of
self-renewal of human embryogenic stem cells is explained. The role of
TGF-beta in the propagation of human embryonic stem cells is discussed.
The differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into neurons,
hepatocytes, cardiomyocytes, and retinal cells is fully explained. Donor
policies for hematopoietic stem cells are also explained
