6. Therapy using tissue-specific stem cells

Abstract

‘Therapy using tissue-specific stem cells’ begins with haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), which is considered the most important type of stem cell therapy. HSCT covers the transplantation of bone marrow and other types of transplant where the blood-forming stem cells of the graft come from non-marrow sources. It is used mostly for the treatment of leukaemias and lymphomas. Some genetic diseases of the blood have also been successfully treated using allogeneic HSCT. There are also other examples of cell therapy using tissue-specific stem cells, such as epidermal cells for the treatment of burns and limbal (corneal) stem cells for treatment of eye injuries.