Perspective on Clinical Stem Cell Therapy
December 11, 2018 | Terry Sharrer
In the 20 years since the University of Wisconsin’s James Thomson isolated the first embryonic stem cells, expectations about stem cell clinical applications have far exceeded actualities. But several clinical trials—for Parkinson’s, diabetes, spinal cord injury, and heart disease (using induced pluripotent stem cells)—are near at hand, and in at least one situation—treating retinitis pigmentosa—success with ESCs has been achieved. In 2012, 18 patients in the University of Wisconsin ophthalmology program were given ESCs that became retinal pigment epithelium. None resulted in adverse effects and six years later, 13 of the patients still have those living cells in place. MORE
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