Stem Cells: Promise And Reality

by Lygia V Pereira

Overview

Stem Cells: Promises and Reality will tell you everything you have always wanted to know about stem cells, but could not understand the field from elsewhere.Stem cells are the great therapeutic promise of the century, and this evolving field of research and medicine brings with it many legal, ethical and psychological issues that must be discussed by society as a whole.Written so as to be accessible to general readers as well as specialists, this book explains what stem cells are, and the different aspects of stem cell research and applications. The book will enable the reader to understand the field sufficiently to critically participate in the public debates regarding stem cell research and society and ethics. By the end of the book, the reader will also be able to judge news on the stem cells field, and to discern what are real advances and what are phony treatments.The main advantage of this book in comparison with other 'stem cells for the general public' books is that it assumes the reader knows NOTHING about biology, except what is already common knowledge (for example, that we are made of cells). The book constructs step by step the required basic biology knowledge in order for the reader to understand all the different aspects of stem cells. At the same time that it is thorough in its stem cells-based content, and will keep the reader engaged with its narrative.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789813100183
Publisher:	World Scientific Publishing Company, Incorporated
Publication date:	10/18/2016
Pages:	108
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.50(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction - In Search of Eternal Life vii

Chapter 1 Development of the Embryo 1

Chapter 2 A Brief Introduction to Growing Cells Outside the Body, or Cell Culture 7

Chapter 3 Regeneration and Stem Cells 11

Chapter 4 Adult Stem Cells 15

4.1 Bone Marrow 15

4.2 Self-Renewal 20

4.3 Clinical Trials with Adult Stem Cells 23

4.4 Other Sources of Adult Stem Cells 26

4.5 Cancer Stem Cells 35

4.6 Mechanisms of Action of Adult Stem Cells 36

4.7 Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Control of the Immune System 39

4.8 Adult Stem Cells: Conclusions 41

Chapter 5 Embryonic Stem Cells 43

5.1 The Embryonic Stem Cell Controversy 49

5.2 The Long Road to Human Embryonic Stem Cells in Brazil 54

5.3 Clinical Trials with Human Embryonic Stem Cells 58

5.4 Personalized Cell Therapy 61

5.5 Studying Human Biology with Pluripotent Stem Cells 69

5.6 Pluripotcnt Stem Cells for Drug Development 73

Chapter 6 Cell Therapy - Promise or Reality? 79

Chapter 7 Outlook 83

Final Note 89

References 91

Index 95