Recent patents on regenerative medicine最新文献

Umbilical cord mesenchymal stromal cells (UCMSCs) are isolated from Wharton's jelly in the umbilical cord at birth, and offer advantages over adult mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) such as highly efficient isolation, faster proliferation in vitro, a broader differentiation potential, and non-invasive harvesting procedure. Their expansion and differentiation potential renders them a promising cell source for tissue engineering and clinical applications. This review discusses recent updates on the differentiation strategies for musculoskeletal tissue engineering including cartilage, bone, and muscle. In addition to tissue engineering applications, UCMSCs can be utilized to support hematopoiesis and modulate immune response. We review the patents relevant to the application of MSCs including UCMSCs in hematopoiesis and immune modulation. Finally, the current hurdles in the clinical translation of UCMSCs are discussed. During clinical translation, it is critical to develop large-scale manufacturing of UCMSCs as well as the composition of expansion and differentiation media. Four clinical trials to date have examined the safety and efficacy of UCMSCs. Once public banking of UCMSCs is available to supply matched allogeneic units and once UCMSC manufacturing is standardized, we anticipate that UCMSCs will be more widely used in clinical trials.

Pluripotent stem cells, such as embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, hold great promise as a cell source for regenerative therapies to treat many major diseases characterized by an irreversible loss of functional tissues. However, the future clinical application of pluripotent stem cells faces a number of obstacles regarding the safety, efficiency and long-term benefits. Some of these challenges are being addressed by the chemical biology approach using small molecules. In this paper, we review the recent progress and patents on small molecules which promote pluripotent stem cell maintenance, reprogramming, and direct differentiation with a focus on cardiomyogenesis.

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are genetically stable with unlimited expansion ability and unrestricted plasticity, proffering a pluripotent reservoir for in vitro derivation of a large supply of disease-targeted human somatic cells that are restricted to the lineage in need of repair. There is a large healthcare need to develop hESC-based therapeutic solutions to provide optimal regeneration and reconstruction treatment options for the damaged or lost tissue or organ that have been lacking. In spite of controversy surrounding the ownership of hESCs, the number of patent applications related to hESCs is growing rapidly. This review gives an overview of different patent applications on technologies of derivation, maintenance, differentiation, and manipulation of hESCs for therapies. Many of the published patent applications have been based on previously established methods in the animal systems and multi-lineage inclination of pluripotent cells through spontaneous germ-layer differentiation. Innovative human stem cell technologies that are safe and effective for human tissue and organ regeneration in the clinical setting remain to be developed. Our overall view on the current patent situation of hESC technologies suggests a trend towards hESC patent filings on novel therapeutic strategies of direct control and modulation of hESC pluripotent fate, particularly in a 3-dimensional context, when deriving clinically-relevant lineages for regenerative therapies.