Skeletal Stem Cells for Bone and Cartilage Tissue Regeneration

Abstract

There is an increasing interest in using stem cells in treatment of degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease, liver failure, leukemia, dia-betes, osteoarthritis (OA), and osteoporosis, for which there is no curative therapy. In this context, skeletal tissue regeneration is being addressed for a number of common clinical conditions including repair of non-healing frac-tures and bone defects through transplantation of skeletal stem cells (also known as stromal or adult or mesenchymal stem cells, MSCs) either alone or with osteoinductive/osteoconductive scaffolds. In the present Chapter, we will present biological characteristics of MSCs and will give an update regarding their use in skeletal tissue regeneration in preclinical animal models and in clinical trials.