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Trends in Stem Cell Biology and Technology pp 1–17Cite as

Human Embryonic Stem Cells: Their Nature, Properties, and Uses

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Abstract

The ability to grow human embryos in vitro to the blastocyst stage via coculture or sequential culture media led to the isolation and growth of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) from blastocysts left over from in vitro fertilization programs. These cells being pluripotent can be differentiated into almost all the tissues types of the human body and therefore offers promise in the treatment of a variety of incurable ­diseases by transplantation therapy. They also provide an ideal screening tool for potential drugs in the pharmaceutical industry and allow the study of early human development and infant cancers. Although all National Institutes of Health (NIH)–registered hESC lines are research grade, having been derived and propagated on xenosupports and with xenoproteins, clinical grade hESC lines derived and propagated in xenofree culture conditions and under current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) facilities are now available. hESCs have been differentiated in vitro into pancreatic islets, neurons, and cardiomyocytes, and transfer of such hESC-derived tissues into diseased animal models have shown successful engraftment. However, two hurdles are delaying hESC-derived cell therapy reaching human clinical trials: (1) possible immunorejection of hESC-derived tissues and (2) the concern of teratoma formation. To overcome immunorejection, attempts are being made to customize tissues for patients via nuclear transfer and other reprogramming methods. Recently, human skin fibroblasts were reprogrammed to the pluripotent embryonic state by transfection with four genes (induced pluripotent stem cells). This approach not only allows tissue customization but is also an embryo-free method that overcomes ethical sensitivities. The development of several hESC banks worldwide containing a diverse range of clinical grade hESC lines that could be HLA typed and tissue matched for treatment is also a practical approach to ­preventing immunorejection. Several approaches to eliminating teratoma formation from undifferentiated renegade hESCs residing in transferred hESC-derived tissues are in progress. It is hoped that this hurdle will be circumvented soon, then allowing the application of current successful animal validated transplantation studies in the human.

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  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Kent Ridge, Singapore, 119074

    Ariff Bongso & Chui-Yee Fong

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  1. Ariff Bongso
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  2. Chui-Yee Fong
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Correspondence to Ariff Bongso .

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    © 2009 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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    Bongso, A., Fong, CY. (2009). Human Embryonic Stem Cells: Their Nature, Properties, and Uses. In: Baharvand, H. (eds) Trends in Stem Cell Biology and Technology. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-905-5_1

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