[Current trends in hematopoietic stem cells therapeutic use]

The therapeutic use of the hematopoïetic stem cells (HSC) has been limiting until recently at the bone marrow transplantation whatever the type of graft: autologous or allogeneic. Since two decades, the advances in the characterization of these stem cells and the development of new harvesting possibilities for a therapeutic use lead to the replacement of the basic: bone marrow graft by the more sophisticated. In 2007, in France, 4239 HSC transplantations were performed (2860 autologous ones and 1379 allogeneic ones); in Europe, in 2006, 25,050 grafts were performed in which 61% were autologous and 39% allogeneic. The number of autografts remains stable. The increasement of the allogeneic grafts is due to the larger possibilities to find an allogeneic donor beyond the siblings (unrelated donor, cord blood unit) and the changes in the transplant modalities (reduced intensity conditioning regimen) which allow to allograft older patients. The improvements in the biological field and in clinical practice take into account the better results and the better definition of the grafts indications. The recent works about the HSC differentiation capacity into differentiated cells which are not only blood cells, open advanced perspectives in the young medicine so-called "regenerative one" especially in the field of cardio-vascular diseases, musculo-skeletal and neurologic diseases.