Abstract
Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are genetically stable with unlimited expansion ability and unrestricted plasticity, proffering a pluripotent reservoir for in vitro derivation of a large supply of disease-targeted human somatic cells that are restricted to the lineage in need of repair. There is a large healthcare need to develop hESC-based therapeutic solutions to provide optimal regeneration and reconstruction treatment options for the damaged or lost tissue or organ that have been lacking. In spite of controversy surrounding the ownership of hESCs, the number of patent applications related to hESCs is growing rapidly. This review gives an overview of different patent applications on technologies of derivation, maintenance, differentiation, and manipulation of hESCs for therapies. Many of the published patent applications have been based on previously established methods in the animal systems and multi-lineage inclination of pluripotent cells through spontaneous germ-layer differentiation. Innovative human stem cell technologies that are safe and effective for human tissue and organ regeneration in the clinical setting remain to be developed. Our overall view on the current patent situation of hESC technologies suggests a trend towards hESC patent filings on novel therapeutic strategies of direct control and modulation of hESC pluripotent fate, particularly in a 3-dimensional context, when deriving clinically-relevant lineages for regenerative therapies.
Highlights
The successful derivation of human embryonic stem cell lines from the in vitro fertilization (IVF) leftover embryos in 1998 is considered as one of the major breakthroughs of the 20th century life sciences [1]
The Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), derived from the inner cell mass (ICM) or epiblast of human blastocyst, are genetically stable with unlimited expansion ability and unrestricted plasticity, proffering a pluripotent reservoir for in vitro derivation of a large supply of disease-targeted human somatic cells that are restricted to the lineage in need of repair [1, 2]
Cell therapies based on tissue-derived human somatic stem cells (hSSCs) have encountered supply restriction and difficulty to use in the clinical setting due to their limited expansion ability in culture and failing plasticity after extensive passaging [2, 4, 5]
Summary
The successful derivation of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines from the in vitro fertilization (IVF) leftover embryos in 1998 is considered as one of the major breakthroughs of the 20th century life sciences [1]. Conditioned media by mouse or human embryonic mesenchymal and fibroblast-like cell lines to support proliferation of pluripotent hESCs while inhibiting differentiation in an environment free of feeder cells.
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