The amniotic fluid has been identified as an untapped source of cells with broad potential, which possess immunomodulatory properties and do not have the ethical and legal limitations of embryonic stem cells. CD117(c-Kit)+ cells selected from amniotic fluid have been shown to differentiate into cell lineages representing all three embryonic germ layers without generating tumors, making them ide...

Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) from permanent teeth and stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHED) have attracted tremendous interest recently by playing a major role in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. However, since stem cell technology is still in its infancy, interdisciplinary cooperation between medicine, basic biological research, nanotechnology and materials sci...

The progress of stem cell research, along with technological innovation, has brought researchers to focus on the potential role of stem cells in regenerative medicine. Ethical and technological issues have limited the applications of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) in this field. As a promising candidate, very small embryonic-like stem cells (VSELs) express a multitude of pluripotent stem ce...

Complications resulting from impaired fracture healing have major clinical implications on fracture management strategies. Novel concepts taken from developmental biology have driven research strategies towards the elaboration of regenerative approaches that can truly harness the complex cellular events involved in tissue formation and repair. Advances in polymer technology and a better underst...

Planarians are bilaterally symmetrical fresh water organisms capable of regenerating body parts from small fragments following bodily injury. Planarians possess a specialized population of pluripotent cells called neoblasts, which are responsible for their unique regenerative ability. The study of planarian stem cell biology and regeneration has traditionally focused on the transcription factor...

Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS) technology has enriched the armamentarium of regenerative medicine by introducing autologous pluripotent progenitor pools bioengineered from ordinary somatic tissue. Through nuclear reprogramming, patient-specific iPS cells have been derived and validated. Optimizing iPS-based methodology will ensure robust applications across discovery science, offering oppo...

mesenchymal stem cells (mscs) have the ability to differentiate into neuronal like cells under appropriate culture condition. in this study, we investigated whether mscs derived from human peripheral blood (pb-mscs) can differentiate into neuronal like cells by synergic effect of the growth factors egf, bfgf and noggin. for this purpose, the expression of five neuronal markers (nestin, β iii tu...

BACKGROUND The ultimate goal of regenerative therapy is to develop fully functioning bioengineered organs that can replace organs lost or damaged due to disease, injury or aging. Dental regenerative medicine has made the most progress and is the most useful model for the consideration of strategies in future organ replacement therapies. OBJECTIVE This review describes strategies that have bee...

The prevalence of blinding diseases such as agerelated macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy have significantly increased in the United States over the last decade.1 In response to the higher incidence of retinal degenerative diseases, the National Eye Institute (NEI) of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has recently proposed the audacious goal of regenerating n...

Heart disease is one of the lead causes of death worldwide. Many forms of heart disease, including myocardial infarction and pressure-loading cardiomyopathies, result in irreversible cardiomyocyte death. Activated fibroblasts respond to cardiac injury by forming scar tissue, but ultimately this response fails to restore cardiac function. Unfortunately, the human heart has little regenerative ab...