Abstract
Stem cells in general are characterized by their ability to self-renew and to differentiate towards various progeny. Great efforts started to give hope since the first discovery of mammalian pluripotency by Stevens and Little, 1954; the field of stem cell research using pluripotent stem cells (PSC) has reached a state of general interest in both science and medicine. Following an overall fast development of in vivo and in vitro research, stem cells are nowadays regularly implied in developmental and pathomechanistical studies. Their unique ability to generate all cell types of the respective organism allows for the directed differentiation of in vitro cultured PSCs into the desired direction. Subsequently, development and function of this differentiated progeny may be investigated in detail. This specifically accounts for the human system where primary materials as well as in vivo studies are strongly limited. In addition, the groundbreaking study describing the generation of PSCs from somatic cells by Takahashi and Yamanaka, served as a lift for unlimited use of individual and patient specific stem cell based investigations. Today, these induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are amongst others utilized to explicitly study human pathomechanisms in a patient specific setting. Moreover, tissue specific stem cell, for example, serving as a cellular reserve and substitute for decayed cells and degenerated tissue, is discussed as a useful source of human tissue and tissue specific cells. Clearly, these adult stem cells have already been successfully used in therapeutic approaches for decades, such as hematopoietic stem cells in bone marrow transplantations.
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