Adult articular cartilage has a low regeneration capacity due to lack of viable progenitor cells caused by limited blood supply to cartilage. However, recent studies have demonstrated the existence of chondroprogenitor cells in articular cartilage. A critical question is whether these mesenchymal progenitor cells are functionally viable for tissue renewal and cartilage repair to postpone cartil...

The interaction between airway epithelial progenitor cells and their microenvironment is critical for maintaining lung homeostasis. This microenvironment includes fibroblast cells, which support the growth of airway progenitor cells. However, the mechanism of this support is not fully understood. In the present study, the authors observed that inhibition of transforming growth factor (TGF)‑β si...

High levels of committed erythroid and granulocytic/monocytic progenitor cells have been demonstrated in fresh blood obtained at fetoscopy. The fetal progenitor cells were more sensitive to appropriate stimuli (erythropoietin and colony-stimulating factor) than adult progenitor cells grown under the same conditions, and this was shown to be due to intrinsic differences in the progenitor cells a...

Increasing evidence supports the role of stem and progenitor cells in vascular regeneration or injury. Following tissue ischemia, progenitor cells are mobilized from their bone marrow or peripheral niches into circulation, adhere at sites of vascular lesion and differentiate into a variety of mature cell types according to their origin and the local environment. Impairment in this pathophysiolo...

The aim of this review was to provide an update on the potential cell therapies restore or replace damaged and/or lost cells in retinal degenerative and optic nerve diseases, describing available sources challenges involved such treatments when these techniques are applied real clinical practice. Sources include human fetal stem cells, allogenic cadaveric adult hippocampal neural CNS ciliary pi...

introduction  insulin-like growth factor i (igf-i) which is produced in abundance in the normal adult liver, is deeply involved in hepatocyte survival, growth, and differentiation during liver development. igf-i plays the roles via the receptor (igf-ir) signaling pathway. igf-ir unlike igf-i is expressed strongly in the developing liver, but much more weakly in adults. objective:  we hypothesiz...

many investigators have used xenogeneic, especially murine stromal cells and fetal calf serum to maintain and expand human stem cells. the proliferation and expansion of human hematopoietic stem cells in ex vivo culture were examined with the goal of generating a suitable protocol for expanding hematopoietic stem cells for patient transplantation. using primary fetal liver cells, we established...