2024-03-29T08:49:24Zhttp://digital.csic.es/dspace-oai/requestoai:digital.csic.es:10261/1310892016-10-20T09:46:09Zcom_10261_134com_10261_1col_10261_1269
Martín, Miguel
Menéndez, Pablo
2016-04-14T10:05:33Z
2016-04-14T10:05:33Z
2012
Stem Cell Transplantation: 217-230 (2012)
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/131089
10.1007/978-1-4614-2098-9_15
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004587
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100005677
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004837
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100011011
Research on human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent (iPS) stem cells is currently a field of great potential in biomedicine. These cells represent a highly valuable tool for developmental biology studies, disease models, and drug screening and toxicity. The ultimate goal of hESCs and iPS cell research is the treatment of diseases or disorders for which there is currently no treatment or existing therapies are only partially effective. Despite the disproportionate short-term hopes generated, which are putting too much pressure on scientists, the international scientific community is making rapid progress in understanding hESCs and iPS cells. Nonetheless, great efforts have to be made to provide an answer to still quite basic questions concerning their biology. Moreover, translation to clinical applications in cell replacement therapy requires prior solution to ethical barriers. The recent development of iPS cells has provided a strong alternative to overcome ethical issues concerning hESCs. However, an in-depth characterization of their genetic and epigenetic features, as well as their differentiation potential still remains to be undertaken. This chapter will describe, precisely, what the critical issues are, where scientific and ethical barriers stand, and how we are to overcome them. Only then, we shall finally discover whether hESCs and iPS cells will allow building reproducible disease models, and whether they really are a safe tool, with great potential for regenerative medicine.
eng
closedAccess
Biological impact of human embryonic stem cells
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