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Review Article
10.
Therapeutic potential of stem cells in veterinary
practice -
Nitin E Gade, M D Pratheesh, Amar Nath, Pawan K
Dubey, Amarpal, G Taru Sharma
Vet World. 2012; 5(8): 499-507
doi:
10.5455/vetworld.2012.
499-507
Abstract
Stem cell
research acquired great attention during last decade
inspite of incredible therapeutic potential of these
cells the ethical controversies exists. Stem cells
have enormous uses in animal cloning, drug
discovery, gene targeting, transgenic production and
regenerative therapy. Stem cells are the naïve cells
of body which can self-renew and differentiate into
other cell types to carry out multiple functions,
these properties have been utilized in therapeutic
application of stem cells in human and veterinary
medicine. The application of stem cells in human
medicine is well established and it is commonly used
for chronic and accidental injuries. In Veterinary
sciences previous studies mostly focused on
establishing protocols for isolation and their
characterization but with advancement in array of
techniques for in vitro studies, stem cells rapidly
became a viable tool for regenerative therapy of
chronic, debilitating and various unresponsive
clinical diseases and disorders. Multipotent adult
stem cells have certain advantages over embryonic
stem cells like easy isolation and expansion from
numerous sources, less immunogenicity and no risk of
teratoma formation hence their use is preferred in
therapeutics. Adult stem cells have been utilized
for treatment of spinal injuries, tendonitis,
cartilage defects, osteoarthritis and ligament
defects, liver diseases, wounds, cardiac and bone
defects in animals. The multi-potential capability
of these cells can be better utilized in near future
to overcome the challenges faced by the clinicians.
This review will emphasize on the therapeutic
utilization and success of stem cell therapies in
animals.
Keywords: Stem cells,
Differentiation, Characterization, Regenerative
therapy
