Approaches for Stimulating Proliferation of Stem Cells in Vitro

Abstract

Abstract.With the increasing incidence rates in the complex human diseases, e.g., Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injury, and diabetes, there exists an urgent need to search for more effective and efficient therapies. Cell-based therapy has been considered to be a novel and effective therapeutic approach for the great potential of stem cells in their self-renewal and multipotential differentiational capacity. However, a major difficulty with the success of stem cell therapy is the availability of stem cells. The most serious issue is that only a limited number of stem cells can be extracted from adult tissue due to the decreasing frequency and differentiation potential with age. In order to achieve successful cell-based therapy, extensive ex vivo proliferation of stem cells is urgently required. Therefore, approaches to stimulate proliferation of stem cells are discussed in this article.