Spotlight on stem cells--makes old hearts fresh.

Abstract

Time for primary review 1 day. …makes old hearts fresh… A winter's tale; William Shakespeare Is there a better way to restore function of a damaged organ than simply by replacing it? The idea of transplantation has caught the imagination throughout history, leading to the creation of mythological figures like the sphinx, mermaids and centaurs; all examples of xenotransplantation. Centuries later, transplantation fantasy and technology came into the hands of the medical profession, with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) being an extreme example from classical literature, which, fortunately, does not reflect clinical results of those times. Modern stem cell based transplantation in humans originates in blood and bone marrow research. In the late 19th century, the concept of blood forming stem cells was formed [1–3]. This important concept was further studied and elaborated in the next decades by, among others, Pappenheim and Ferrata. The first therapeutic use of bone marrow was described in 1896. Here, bone marrow extract was given orally as treatment for leukemia [4]. Bone marrow cell transplantation was first performed by Schretzenmayr in 1937 when he injected freshly aspirated bone marrow intramuscularly to treat parasitic infection [5]. Soon afterwards, in 1939, Osgood infused bone marrow intravenously to correct primary bone marrow disorders [6]. Since then, interest in bone marrow transplantation research and therapy continued to increase, especially during the Cold War as a potential therapy for otherwise lethal irradiation damage. During the late 1960s successful bone marrow transplantations were reported in man [7,8]. Today, bone marrow transplantation is a routine treatment for various haematopoietic diseases. While research on adult stem cells originates in blood and bone marrow research, that on embryonic stem cells derives from studies on fertility and a particular tumor known as teratocarcinoma. These tumors consist of many differentiated tissues but … *Corresponding author. Tel.: +31-30-253-8418; fax: +31-30-253-9036.