Abstract

The establishment of the first culture of a human embryonic stem cell (hESC) line as immortal and capable of producing virtually every cell of a human body generated high expectations regarding their potential use in regenerative medicine and research applications. The achievement of generating immortal pluripotent cells from adult tissues further raised those expectations, by ideally eliminating ethical and safety concerns regarding the use of human embryonic stem cells. Patient-specific stem cells could be generated, and no human embryo would have been used. After first six years of producing induced pluripotent stem cell lines from somatic tissues, advancements have been made but much research still needs to be conducted in order to produce clinically relevant differentiated cells from induced pluripotent stem cells. The present review outlines the most recent inventions and basic research related to the clinical applications of human pluripotent stem cells. Its main objective is to contribute a concise compilation of the advances in the derivation, culture, directed differentiation and development of application processes of human pluripotent stem cells, in the development of their clinical applications to treat human disease. Registered patents and related bibliography reported mostly from past two years have been considered for inclusion, although basic literature has been included where needed to explain recent developments.

Keywords: Derivatives, differentiation, expansion, pluripotent, therapy, stem, Human Embryonic Stem cell, Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells, regenerative therapy, stem cell cultures