Haematopoietic Stem Cells The production of blood cells, or hematopoiesis, takes place in the bone marrow. Among the billions of cells in the bone marrow, there is a very small subpopulation that has a pivotal role in the maintenance of hematopoiesis. This subpopulation is composed of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) that, with their distinctive capabilities of self-renewal and differentiation, furnish a constant supply of blood cells of all hematopoietic lineages throughout life. Thus, the stem cell can either replicate and remain a stem cell or differentiate into myeloid or lymphoid stem cells, which in turn can further proliferate and mature, ultimately giving rise to all the circulating blood cells.
Currently, allogeneic bone marrow transplants are recognized as a treatment of choice for chronic myelogenous leukemia, acute leukemias failing initial treatment, aplastic anemia, and several lethal disorders of the immune system and of hematopoiesis. Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation has become increasingly used as a cure for a variety of genetic defects of the hematopoietic and immune systems, and for lipid storage diseases. Genetic diseases that have been successfully cured by bone marrow transplantation include Cooley's anemia, sickle cell anemia, severe combined immunodeficiency, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, Fanconi anemia, Blackfan-Diamond anemia, ataxia telangiectasia, infantile agranulocytosis, Chediak-Higashi disease, chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis, mucopolysaccharidosis, cartilage-hair hypoplasia, Gaucher's and other lipid storage diseases. Some of these diseases, such as Cooley's anemia (beta-thalassemia) and sickle cell anemia, are major worldwide public health problems. Others are devastating orphan diseases that are extremely costly to treat. Collectively, these genetic diseases occur in tens-of-thousands of births per year. It is also recognized that several malignant disorders are sensitive to agents which have, as their dose-limiting toxicity, myelo-ablation. This knowledge, along with the initial success of marrow and peripheral blood-derived autografts administered after myelo-ablative therapy, have clearly defined the rationale for the use of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in the treatment of several non-hematopoietic malignancies, including breast cancer, which occurs with alarming frequency. Stem cell transplantation (SCT) has achieved significant therapeutic success over the last 10 years, providing a viable treatment option for many previously incurable diseases. However, several inherent limitations of the procedure have restricted its widespread use. These include: lack of sufficient donors for all recipients, a period of bone marrow (BM) aplasia leading to severe, prolonged neutropenia and thrombocytopenia, and the potential for tumor contamination in autologous SCT. Continued research efforts to address these limitation are needed. Recent studies suggest that cord blood transplantation may help eliminate the issue of donor availability and some post-transplant complications.
Neural Stem Cell Over the years, enormous attention has focused on understanding the developmental origins of the nervous system. Scientists have postulated the existence of a single "stem" cell—a mother or queen of all cells—that is self-renewable and multipotent (i.e., capable of generating various committed progenitor cells and ultimately differentiating into mature cells). A neural stem cell (NSC) is defined as a single cell with the ability to proliferate, exhibit self-maintenance or renewal over the lifetime of the organism, generate a large number of clonally related progeny, retain its multilineage potential over time, and produce new cells in response to injury or disease.
Epithelial Stem Cell
Almost all the epithelial tissues contain stem cell, it is fairly difficult to cover all the fields concerning such a subject, for its complexity and the insufficient material.
I wish the following review came from Science could compensate my ignorance:
Stem Cell Culture
