Abstract
Cellular-based therapies for regenerative medicine have evolved quite significantly in the past decades. The realization that such an endeavor requires the acquisition of an adequate stem or progenitor cell population, techniques to effectively maintain or induce the desired phenotype and efficient culturing and implantation conditions have led researchers to develop a wide variety of protocols to approach the issue. The goal of this E-Book is to review the recent advances and applications of stem cells in regenerative medicine. The book content can be generally divided into 3 sections: Ethics, Basic Biology and Clinical Applications ETHICS: The ability of pluripotent stem cells to generate various replacement cells and tissues presents the potential of their application in cell-based regenerative therapies. Although human embryonic stem cells are, in principle, the most versatile source of pluripotent stem cells, ethical controversies, immunogenic rejection and spontaneous tumor formation remain major concerns for their use in transplantation. Ritter et al focused largely on issues relating to the moral status of the embryo and suggest an ethically-optimized framework be established to help guide research in particular, the issues of social justice and the importance of both protecting vulnerable populations from bearing too great a burden for research while receiving too little of its benefits...