[Therapeutic use of stem cells. II. Adult stem cells]

Many degenerative diseases are not curable by means of classical medicine. The long term objective of cell therapy is to treat the patients with their own stem cells that could be either purified from the diseased organ or from "reservoirs" of stem cells such as that constituted by the bone marrow. The existence of stem cells in the organs or reservoirs is now established in vitro and in some cases, in animal models. Numbers of technical problems linked to the scarcity of these cells still delay the clinical use of purified stem cells. However, clinical protocols using heterogeneous cell populations have already started to treat a growing number of diseases. In some case, autologous cells can be used, as it is the case for bone marrow transplantation in blood diseases. Mesenchymal cells, also purified from the bone marrow are currently used in orthopaedic diseases. Because these cells reveal a broad differentiation potential, active research programs explore their possible use for treatment of other diseases. Bone marrow also contains vascular stem cells that could be active in reappearing defective vessels responsible for ischaemic diseases. Indeed, clinical trials in which bone marrow cells are injected in the cardiac muscle of patients with myocardial infarction or in the leg muscle (gastrocnemius) of patients with hind limb ischaemia have already started. Artificial skin prepared from skin biopsies is used for the reconstitution of the derma of severely burned patients. Clinical trials have also started, using allogenic cells. The patients must be treated by immunosuppressive drugs. Neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson have been successfully treated by intra-cerebral injection of foetal neurones. Pancreatic islets implanted in the liver have shown to re-establish a normal glycaemia in diabetic patients. However, all these clinical trials use differentiated cells or at least progenitors which display differentiation potential and lifetime much more restricted than those of stem cell. Numbers of laboratories are currently working to improve stem cell purification and expansion. This is a prerequisite to use these stem cells as a more efficient second generation cell therapy product.