title: Medical perspectives of adults and embryonic stem cells.
abstract: In the last 30 years, allogeneic bone marrow transplantation has become the treatment of choice for many hematologic malignancies or inherited disorders and a number of changes have been registered in terms of long-term survival rate of transplanted patients as well as of available sources of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC). In parallel to the publication of better results in HSC transplantation, several recent discoveries have opened a scientific and ethical debate on the therapeutical potential of stem cells isolated from adult or embryonic tissues. One of the major discoveries in this field is the capacity of bone marrow-derived stem cells to treat a genetic liver disease in a mouse model, thus justifying the concept of transdifferentiation of adult stem cell and raising hopes on its possible therapeutical applications. We have tried here to summarise the advances in this field and to discuss the limits of these biological data.
authors.affiliation: INSERM, unité 429, hôpital Necker, 149, rue de Sèvres, 75015 Paris, France. cavazzan@necker.fr
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cavazzana-Calvo
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: André-Schmutz
authors.forename: Chantal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lagresle
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fischer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian; D030342:Genetic Diseases, Inborn / Q000628:therapy; D019337:Hematologic Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000941:ethics* / Q000639:trends; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*