Cèl·lules mare embrionàries: què en sabem després de trenta anys d'investigació?

Authors

  • Núria Montserrat i Pulido
  • Begoña Aran Corbella
  • Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte

Abstract

Human embryonic stem cells: What do we known after thirty years of research? The isolation and derivation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) in 1998 attracted significant attention in the regenerative medicine field. Among other properties, these cells possessed the dual ability to self-renew and differentiate into all the cell types of the body. These characteristics suggest that hESCs hold great potential for application in regenerative medicine. However, after more than twenty years of intense research, their clinical application still shows many concerns regarding the use of human embryos, tissue rejection after transplantation, and tumour formation. Thus, one of the ultimate goals in regenerative medicine is the generation of pluripotent hESCs directly from somatic cells obtained from patients. A breakthrough appeared when fully differentiated cells were reprogrammed for the first time in 2006 into ES-like cells. The resulting ES-like cells exerts all the characteristics intrinsic to ESC biology and finally could overcome the issue related with immune rejection after transplantation and the use of human embryos for research. Nevertheless, most of the techniques used to reprogram human somatic cells are still not adaptable for immediate clinical applications. Improvements in their safe derivation and validation will bring them one step closer for becoming the ideal alternative in cell-replacement therapies and disease modelling in vitro.

Downloads

Published

2012-03-01

Issue

63, 2012 : La biologia d'ahir i d'avui. Reflexions amb motiu del centenari de la Societat Catalana de Biologia / Francesc Piferrer editor

Section

Segona part: Alguns aspectes de la biologia i la biomedicina avui

License

The intellectual property of the articles belongs to the respective authors.

At the time of submitting the articles to Treballs de la Societat Catalana de Biologia, authors accept the following terms:

— Authors assign to the SCB (a subsidiary of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans) the rights of reproduction, public communication (including communication through social networks) and distribution of the articles submitted for publication to Treballs de la Societat Catalana de Biologia, in any form and medium, including digital platforms. The Publications Committee reserves the right to accept or refuse submitted articles and the right to make any editorial changes it deems appropriate. If the suggested changes are accepted by authors, they should re-submit the article with such changes.

—  Authors answer to the SCB for the authorship and originality of submitted articles. In other words, authors assure that submitted articles do not contain fragments of works by other authors or fragments of their own previously published works; that the content of articles is original, and that the copyright of third parties is not infringed upon. Authors accept this responsibility and undertake to hold harmless the SCB for any loss or damage resulting from non-compliance with this obligation. Furthermore, they should include a statement in articles submitted to the journal regarding their responsibility for the content of the articles.

— Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for the reproduction of all graphic material included in articles, and they should moreover ensure that images, videos, etc., have been created with the consent of the individuals appearing in them, and that material belonging to third parties is clearly identified and acknowledged as such within the text. Likewise, authors should provide the respective consents and authorisations to the SCB when submitting articles.

— The SCB is exempt from any liability arising from the possible infringement of intellectual property rights by authors. In all cases, it undertakes to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies, if necessary.

— Unless otherwise stated in the text or in the graphic material, the contents published in the journal are subject to an Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivs 3.0 Spain (by-nc-nd) license from Creative Commons, the full text of which may be consulted at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/deed.en. Therefore, the general public is authorised to reproduce, distribute and communicate articles as long as their authorship and publishing entity are acknowledged, and no commercial use is made of them nor derivative work produced from them.

— The journal is not responsible for the ideas and opinions expressed by the authors of published articles.