Stem cell technology and drug development

Abstract

Stem cell technology holds the potential to offer new therapeutic options for poorly treated and debilitating diseases either by cell replacement therapies or by identification of drugs using high-throughput stem cell cultures differentiated into specific mature cell types. This promising technology is based on isolation of pluripotent cells that can be expanded in culture and differentiated into a mature phenotype. In addition to the social and political considerations, many methodological issues, such as choice of cell type, culture and differentiation methods, stability of cells in culture, and transplantation techniques, remain. This chapter reviews these issues and presents some novel potential applications. © 2008 Humana Press, a part of Springer Sciencc+Business Media, LLC. All rights reserved.