Harnessing stem cells and dendritic cells for novel therapies.
This review presents the latest achievements in basic studies on stem-cell biology and on approaches aimed to design therapies based on stem cells and dendritic cells. Studies on stem-cell homeostasis are aimed to delineate the accessibility of these cells for therapeutic purposes. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation has become a routine application of stem cells in the treatment of patients with cancer and with hematologic disorders. Perspectives of application of the mesenchymal stem cells for regenerative medicine and for tolerance induction following allogeneic transplantation are being extensively explored. Reprogramming of adult somatic cells to an undifferentiated pluripotent state in vitro by a transduction with just four genes encoding transcription factors opened the way for the generation of patient-specific pluripotent stem cells. Such induced pluripotent stem cells hold a great promise for replacement therapies of various so far incurable disorders. However, because of the tumorigenic potential of the retroviral vector transduction-induced pluripotent stem cells, before these cells become useful for clinical application, appropriate, safe methods of stem cell generation, selection, proliferation and differentiation need to be elaborated. There is a great potential for further developments of cancer immunotherapies and for controlling of post-transplantational reactions, if current basic studies on stem cells and on immunostimulatory and tolerogenic dendritic cells would be successfully translated to the clinic.
Markowicz
Sergiusz
S
Department of Immunology, The Maria Skłodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology, 5 Roentgena St., 02-781 Warszawa, Poland. sergiusz@coi.waw.pl
D000818:Animals; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000637:transplantation*; D006402:Hematologic Diseases / Q000628:therapy; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D006706:Homeostasis; D006801:Humans; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy; D039904:Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation