Adult stem cell therapy beyond haemopoietic stem cell transplantation? An update

The lifesaving potential of haemopoietic stem cell transplantation for the treatment of haematological malignancies and other life threatening disorders of the haemopoietic stem cell is universally accepted. In contrast, the use of adult marrow derived stem cells for tissue repair strategies in degenerative disease or after tissue damage are only in the early stages of evolution. A range of opinion exists within the general public and the scientific community about whether research with human embryonic stem cells is ethically acceptable. Further, the current paucity of human embryonic stem cell data has lead investigators to consider adult marrow as a potential source of stem cells to treat a wide range of degenerative disease and damaged tissues. Target disorders include osteoarthritis, diabetes mellitus, Parkinson's disease, ischaemic heart disease and retinal degeneration. Obvious advantages of this approach, if successful, would be fewer ethical hurdles compared with embryonic stem cells. Treatment with the patients own marrow stem cells would eliminate the possibility of allogeneic rejection.