4. Therapy using pluripotent stem cells

Abstract

‘Therapy using pluripotent stem cells’ examines some of the diseases that have been the first to be treated by cell therapy using pluripotent stem cells as the source material. Proposed cell therapies involve making the required differentiated cells in vitro and then implanting them into the appropriate site in the patient. The biggest success story so far is the treatment of the retina for a condition called age-related macular degeneration (ARMD). Diabetes is one of the top targets for cell therapy based on pluripotent stem cells, building on an existing form of cell therapy called islet transplantation.